The road to Pai from Chiang Mai via bus is on “the road of 200 turns”. I did not think too much of it because sometimes these rumors don’t hold up. Let me tell you, the bus ride was freaking insane. I was literally holding on to the chair in front of me the entire three hours to ensure I did not fly off my seat!

Once in town—and on solid ground—we headed to lunch at a place nearby to figure out our plan. We needed to get motorbikes, but did not quite know the scene. After searching on our phones for a bit, we headed to a shop and none were available. We repeated this process five times before realizing that the strategy is to go to a shop and stay there until someone returns with a bike. We assumed it would be a bit easier, but perhaps it was challenging because we arrived on a Saturday afternoon. After about an hour, we had our motorbikes from Dragonfly and headed to our bungalow.

Nestled in rice paddies, protected by a friendly dog and cow, our bungalow was a true retreat, complete with an outdoor bathroom and bug net. For many people, this is not their vibe, but for Alex and I, we were happy as clams.

We wanted to make the most of our time in Pai, so we headed out to the White Buddha temple, which was just a 5 minute drive from our stay. A meditative walk up over 300 stairs, this white Buddha structure overlooks the entirety of Pai valley. It was a lovely view and we soaked it up before continuing our drive along the Pai river and happened upon Pai Canyon. Created by wind and rain, this canyon is eroded in the strangest and most intriguing way. Hiking trails follow skinny ridges with drops of several feet on either end. We decided to hike farther from the crowds, down into the valley and along some dusty and unprotected ridges. We ducked under pine trees and balanced on loose rock, ultimately finding a trail that made a nice loop. Though parts of the hike made me nervous, and I got dust everywhere, we ended up ascending right as the moody sunset was at its best.

That evening, we went to the night market, which was a welcome relief to the night markets in Chiang Mai because we could walk around without bumping into people. They had the most unique booths, like a bruschetta cart, and a corn cart. We tried traditional noodle rolls, grilled black sticky rice, mango smoothies, and ended up at a bar for passion fruit mai tais.

We fell asleep to crickets and frogs, but woke up to an attention seeking cat and rooster. Farm life! Breakfast at our bungalow was eggs and toast with tiny bananas (our favorite bananas now!). We had a few things planned for the day, including snagging coffee at Pai’s infamous Coffee in Love. Here, our banana coffee frappes were perfectly blended and enjoyed with a stunning view of the valley. We headed to The Bamboo Bridge Pai (also known as Boon Ko Ku So), an 800-meter-long bridge that stretches over a field of lush rice fields. We took our time exploring the many attractions, including feeding some koi fish and a charming forest temple. Feeling relaxed, we headed to our bikes for our next destination. But, it started to downpour (like really downpour), so we turned around a ran into the local cafe, where we lounged on a net hammock and watched the storm roll in over the valley. I enjoyed some butterfly pea tea, and Alex had a mango smoothie.

Once the rain died down, we headed back to our bikes only to discover I had a flat tire! We called the rental place, who brought a mechanic to fix it for 300 baht. Unfortunately, this killed the rest of our afternoon and daylight, so we decided to head directly home so as to avoid driving in the dark. We got ready for dinner at Sugar Cane, where the service was slow and the food was subpar. We snagged a spot at the coolest backyard-feeling bar, Spirit, before heading to find a bar that Alex found interesting (can’t remember the name…). We didn’t find it, and instead, stumbled into C Bar, which was perfectly designed in a vintage/70s retro vibe. Open for 14 years, the owner was from Bangkok and was able to, conveniently, recommend a few spots for our upcoming week there.

The following morning, we woke up early to drive to Sia Ngon hot springs. It was raining, so we took it slow, but it also meant that there were few drivers on the road. In fact, we ended up having the hot springs mostly to ourselves for almost an hour. We stopped for coffee on our way to our next stop: Santchion Village. This Chinese Yunnan village is located north west of Pai. The Chinese there were left after the Chinese Revolution. Now it is mainly a tourist attraction similar to a medieval village—you dress up, take photos and have tea.

We ended up getting breakfast at Cafe de Pai before checking out of our bungalow and returning our bikes. I said goodbye to my cow, cat and dog friends I made, and we said goodbye to peaceful Pai before our treacherous bus ride back to Chiang Mai. We were leaving for Bangkok the next day and needed to pack up.