- Pai, Thailand

Up the road (3 hours of stomach turning bends) from Chiang Mai, is a beautiful little town called Pai. Known for its alternative folk and chilled out vibe, I figured I'd give it a try.

Here's the local post office.

Taken on: 4th August, 2010. Copyright: Attribution License - See g_firkser's page of Flickr

Read more about Pai

Once a gorgeous sleepy town, Pai, while still rather gorgeous, is well and truly on the traveller map through northern Thailand. Old timers and more experienced travellers may sneer at it, as it's certainly not the "real Thailand" any more but if you're a young backpacker on a first trip to Thailand it can seem like a great scene and it is easily accessible in every sense.

Pai old city, situated on the left bank of Pai river by Wiang Nur village, dates back to the Lanna period when it was an important regional centre, though there's nothing much left of it to see these days. During the 1970s it was probably a fairly dangerous spot, being a Kuomintang-controlled area and an important opium transit centre. In the 1980s the area was cleaned up and a sealed road to Pai was built. The pesky KMT were offered decent farmland and Khun Sa and his Shan State Army were far enough away to not pose a threat, while the lingering KMT insurgency was restricted to remoter ... Read our complete Pai travel guide

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