April 15th, 2007
When summer season (March- May) starts coming in Thailand, one special thing that all Thai people are looking forward to is Songkran day (or Thai New Year). This is a grand festival of Thailand which is celebrated on 13 – 15 April every year. Songkran is the heritable tradition which represents gratitude, respect as well as relationship of family and society. On the first day morning (April 13th), people go to temple with their family. They go to pray, give food to monks, clean Buddha images by watering and decorating some Thai jasmine flower. Because we believe that this will bring good lick and prosperity to us and household for the New Year. Besides, people like to carry handfuls of sand to the temple which represents the dirt that they carry away on their feet during the rest of the year. This sand is then piled as pagoda and decorated with colourful flags on top. Later in the day people like to do community activities or stay with their big family to keep long relationship each other and cheerfulness for their rest of life. In some of Thailand, such as Chiang Mai Local Council provides Buddha images to be paraded on the main street of city, This encourage people, particularly teenagers and foreigners who don’t go to temple in the morning can water them and pray as well. On the next day (April 14th) it called “Grand Songkran dayâ€, this day people like to go out to throw the water by Thai water bowls or splashed guns to passed by persons. However, this will do with respect and heartiness each other. And it becomes a fascination of festival and can encourage foreigners enjoy the festival as well. On the last day (15th) it’s a time for cleaning and renewal, many Thais take this opportunity to give their home a thorough cleaning for New Year, and some of teenagers still enjoy watering as well. Songkran festival is not only Thai tradition or watering festival, but it’s valuable benefit which you will get from participation. Why don’t to book a trip Songkran festival in Thailand, then you will realise and definitely admire it.
thanks for the cute picture from cm108.com
January 11th, 2007
By bootsmade4wlkin
Here in this little town sitting right beside a little river,surrounded by beautiful forrest-covered mountains, is a little community of people who are stuck. They come only meaning to stay for a couple of days or a week and find themselves in the same hammock two months later. A sleepiness born from total and utter relaxation makes even getting up to order another fruit shake an ordeal. This is a place where no one asks you what you have done that day. They ask how you are, how you’re feeling in the world, because whether you’re here to smoke weed all day or to do some serious detoxing, everyone has that vibe. Everyone considers themselves people of the world, people who absorb things, people who are on some sort of personal quest. And so, in this world of floor pillows and beauty, surrounded by people with similar souls, it’s easy to just…stay.
For me, Pai was exactly what I needed. I was fresh from the craziness of Bangkok and the frustrations of getting my Russian visa taken care of, my body still pretty worn out from the travels of the last three months. Here I was able to free myself from worry and the strain of figuring out what to do next. In the mornings I did two hours of yoga with “Mama”, a crazy but fun Thai woman who fed us fruit afterwards and told us stories of her youth. For lunch I would fill myself up with rice, tofu, and veggies from the vegan restaurant down the street. Sometimes I would go back for more yoga, but sometimes I would just take a nap or read. As the days passed, both my body and my spirit became rejuvinated. I felt healthier with my vegetarian diet, my daily yoga classes, and the days of idleness. My last days, I pampered my body with a full massage and sauna treatment, then pampered my tastebuds at BB’s Wok and Roll cooking class. As the time for departure approaches, I feel the urge to just stay as so many others before me have. I feel the tug of a promised life of leisure and health in a place where inner beauty is just as important as outer beauty. And who knows, if I didn’t have a plane to catch to China in a couple of days, I might have become one of the stuck. But then again, even “pairadise” could get boring if wandering’s in one’s blood…
January 11th, 2007
By phil_and_lisa
4th July - Well we were still feeing pretty lethargic but in danger of becoming some of Pai’s drop outs so we finally managed to muster the energy to hire some mountain bikes. We also felt we should do something other than sitting about on this very auspicious occasion the 4th July. No, nothing to do with America, just that Pip and I have been together 11 years!!!!!!!!! And yes he made the customary remarks about the train robbers not getting that long etc.
The bikes cost us 50 baht each (about 75p) for 25 hour hire and were the best bikes we’ve had so far on our trip. They had 21 gears, well pumped tyres and even had brakes. Knowing that Pai is a mountainous area, we chose the flattest route possible but still had to get off and push several times. The free-wheeling back down was fun though! We passed beautiful countryside scenery and 3 elephant camps along the way. We had to stop to see Joy the baby elephant who kept putting grass on her head and then pulling it off again to impress us. The lack of tourists mean that most of the elephants are chilling out in the jungle and only come in if they have bookings and take it in turns to stay in the camps in case of passing trade. It’s off season now (many of the restaurants and guest houses are closed) but this season is worse than most because of terrorism, SARS, wars and the Burmese problems.
It was 7k to the hot springs and the warmest day since we arrived back in Thailand and it was also the middle of the day. Clever eh! We were therefore very hot and sweaty and looking forward to a relaxing dip. When we got there, we found wonderful landscaped gardens and a pleasant stream with smalls pools at the top. There was a sign saying the water here was 80 degrees!! It bubbled furiously and we thought better of sticking our feet in and wandered downstream a little. Even right at the bottom it was a struggle to put your feet in and so we had a quick rest and then set off back again. While we were eating lunch and patting ourselves on the back for being energetic, the was a huge downpour and we were glad we’d made it back in time. We had a lovely day but I think we’ll struggle to get back on the bikes tomorrow to take them back!
November 28th, 2006
Author: jillyjilly
Pai. A small in town in the northern mountains of Thailand. I wish that I could have seen this town ten years ago before it became completely overrun by tourists. Difficult to find a menu without western food in this area, every other building is a guesthouse, trekking service or restaurant. Prices are quite steep. To enjoy the true beauty of Pai, you need to break out of the town limits, cross the river and explore the mountain areas. Our original intent was to take a trek here, but it’s a bit too cookie cutter and way too overpriced. So, we set out into the hills on our own.
Pai highlights:
The collection of insects and small mouse friend that enjoyed eating Laureen’s apple and soap. Good times sleeping with these little fellows for one night.
Chris, grabbing a bottle of what he thought was “strawberry water”. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never erally witnessed strawberry water before. well, as he was drinking this chalky pink mixture he had me try it bc something didn’t quite taste right. I take on sip and exclaim, “this drink tastes just like peptobismal!” Justine looks at the bottle and calmly sattes, “I think you’re drinking medicine.”Chris refused to believe that this could happen until Justine took note of the medical symbol on the label. Ahhh….
Taking a walk one night and finding that numerous dogs were obsessed with Justine’s ankle. They kept running up to her and hanging around her right ankle. Turns out Justine had a tad bit of poo pretty much all over her leg. As if that wasn’t funny enough… we turned around to walk home, so that she could clean up. It wasn’t until there was more light that I turned to speak to her only to find a nice smudge of poo all over her chin. Wow… does that really happen? If you are Justine it does. (I might add that this is probably the hardest that I have laughed in quite a long while).
Hiking through the hills and stumbling across a small village that welcomed us in, immediately. Before you knew it we were working. Pounding rice. Carrying large bundles to and fro, so that people could continue to work in the heat. It was as though our fee for passing through was to stop and work for a short bit. Surrounded by stacks of rice limbs and men standing in a circle slamming these limbs onto a wooden platform until rice kernals come flying out onto the ground below us. Incredible to see the many steps that one has to go through just to reveal a small grain of rice. The men were quite excited to have us jump right in and work with them. Here we were surrounded by persons of all ages performing hard physical labor and each one of them laughing and smiling. Some of them jumping as high as they could to show us there form, as if we were judges grading them on a scale of 1-10.
Playing in waterfalls with no concept of time. Racing back to our motos that Laureen is driving for the first time. She battled it all… dirt roads, fields, rain, driving through pricker bushes, mountains… motos are a fun way to see your surroundings. Upon driving away from the falls a few children ask me, “waterfall?! waterfall? You see?!”
I reply “yes. Very beautiful.”
They then stick out their hands and try to charge me twenty baht for looking at the land. It gave us all a great chuckle. The flip side, it just goes to show the reality of some of the lifestyles and dramatic differences in economy.
Lastly, I left Pai only to find that I, as well, had stepped in a nice pile of fresh shite. I felt it fling up onto the back of my leg. I smiled and shook my head. “Pai.”
November 17th, 2006
After back from my mother town (maehongson) to get some special scoop i had pass Pai on 6 pm then i think i need to sleep here to get some little relaxing we have get the room on PaveeGuesthouse with 300/night 1 Bed 1 TV it’s ok for us tonight we just need to get the party only for this trip 
Then after take the shower we had walking from our room to visit Mitthai Postcard shop
and then walk back to 7-11 to get some water and then walking to our party many place have been setup here Pai look like Khoasan Rd so i just back to the room with some beer to drinking with my friend and the last we know we can fund without any light and any music
New day coming wake up early with a cup of tea that they serve to us then be4 go to chiang mai we had the breakfast on All about coffee
and take some cool photo here next place after our breakfast we go to Hauy nam dung it my first time to visit here
So beutiful i’m promise my mind i will come back agian with camping after we got fresh brezz then we go to the real life at Chiangmai
next time full trip will coming to you
Enjoy Pai and Love them
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P.S More picture about this trip here
 http://ilovepai.com/gallerry/minitrip/
