Pai is in Northen Thailand, which google tells you it should take 2 hours to get to from Chiang Mai, they look pretty close right?
WRONG
when you zoom in you can see why it takes 4 hours to reach, with a huge amount of people unable to keep the past weeks worth of noodles and rice down for. This journey was horrendous and you do not want to sleep because even though your insides are being chucked around in a car designed for 6 people currently holding 16, it is a beautiful drive. If I had more experience on a motor bike and had more time I would of loved to drive this!
This is Pai!!!
I herd this house was left here as part of a film set, but my wifi availability is unable to tell me which one. We had planned out what we wanted to do and see so we hired some peds and headed off. I have never driven a ped before so this was one of those times where I wanted to do something new and exciting, whilst having my sisters voice in the back of my mind telling me how selfish it would be if I was to crash and die. Either way this was the best day ever!!! The roads in Pai are very wide and not too busy so it was the perfect place to hire a ped and go see some cool stuff. Everything is so spread out there isn’t any other way of seeing everything we did. Our first stop was too Coffee In Love. It has a beautiful look out located next to the film set house. This is also where Lauren crashed her stationary bike into more stationary bikes and cut her knee, bloody hilarious!
The lady who worked in the coffee shop tried to put Lauren back together
Next we headed to the Hot Springs which were about half an hour away from town. The ride was amazing until we got to the national park in which these hot springs are located. If you are going to Pai be aware their are two hot springs, the shit ones and these ones, the good ones you have to pay to enter! The road through this national park is not for the fainthearted and I am pretty sure me and Lauren nearly cried and hugged each other when we got here. The roads are at 45 degree angels, which are not on straight roads, they are on cliff edges so you need to be extremely careful driving here. On all of my go pro footage of this trip I am either crying for Olly because my breaks weren’t working or just general crying for my life. It made the swim in the hot springs that much more enjoyable as we didn’t want to get out and drive to the next place!
Celebrating we are alive after the drive to get here!
 The Lands Split
Lands split is basically this poor blokes farm which happened to be above a plate margin and has been effected by earthquakes. He’s gone all Dragons Den and made it into a tourist attraction which to be fair to him, Bravo! He is also one of the nicest Thai men I have ever met, offered every single visitor food and drinks free of charge, only with the promise to tell other people about this place. The food was of course rank but I tried it, because if travelling has taught me anything, it is to try it so when Lauren moan’s I don’t like anything then at least I can say I tried it!
Pai Canyon
This is the best place in Pai to watch the sunset! It gets veryyyy busy and due to my new found fear of hights, get their early! The width of the walk ways varies which is terrifying but it is so much fun. I am not going to pretend that I didn’t get annoyed at the Chinese tourists with their selfie sticks screaming for selfies didn’t annoy me and this would be the best place for a small nudge and that would be the end for them. Lucky for them I was too busy squeezing Olly’s hand too tight and making sure he was 1 step in front of me. I do not know why I panicked so much, I think it was just being so close to death and not wanting to die which let my fear kick in. Anywhoooo more experience or brave people can carry on walking around for hours, or if you are a pussy like me, you can go for about 15 mins and find a spot to watch the sunset. Have to give a massive hats off to Olly and Lauren for putting up with me and my sudden fear of heights!
The moment I questioned mine and Lauren’s friendship and I screamed for her to come back to me but NOPE, she wanted a good picture.Â
Managed to find a hena lady who did my hand for about £1
Pai’s street food is incredible, it is the one place I can look back on and say the food was the best thing about a place that has so much to offer and see. We had dinner but then when you walk down this street you suddenly want another 3 meals with a desert. It was sooooo good! We also bumped into a familiar face from the farm Ben..while I was queuing for more food.
After travelling together for what feels like forever, it was time me and Lauren would officially part ways. In the last year we have only been apart for maybe two weeks at the most when I left the Farm before her and even then I was balling my eyes out. Lauren is the most incredible person to travel with, not only is she the most chilled out laid back person but she is always up for a good time, doesn’t matter where we are staying, how much money we have or what we look like, you can always count on Lauren to be next to you..covered in Jelly 😉 She always sees the good in people or situations no matter how horrendous they are and I really respect that about her, I look up to her massively from the way she thinks and views the world. She taught me a hell of a lot! She made me do and eat things I would never have touched without her being there. A Year is a long time to spend with one person; we have seen each other at our best and worst!  She has seen me go through every single mood a human can experience, from loving life and not being able to stop smiling, to being scared and home sick in hospital, she honestly was my rock through.  I am so glad I got to experience honestly the best time of my life with her, making memories I will cherish forever. Not only have I learnt things about myself but I learnt how strong Lauren was a person and I am so proud of her over the past year and I have no doubt in my mind you will go on to travel solo and not get robbed 🙂 haha. Lauren you made this time away what it was, so if you’re reading this I LOVE YOU!
i know where to go when i feel like a pick me up … praisin’ all this love and appreciation