Pai Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

Buses (ordinary/air-con 80/142B) leave Chiang Mai’s Arcade bu station five times a day. It’s only 134km but the trip takes three to four hours due to the steep winding road. From Mae Hong Son there are also five buses a day; this winding 111km stretch takes around three hours (ordinary/air-con/air-con minibus 70/98/150B).

Ordinary buses depart from Pai’s bus station for Chiang Mai (80B) at 8.30am, 10.30am, 2pm and 4pm. The air-con minibuses (150B) leave from the same station almost every hour from 9.30am to 6pm. Ordinary buses for Mae Hong Son (70B) leave the bus station at 7am, 8.30am, 11am, 1pm and 4pm. Air-con minibuses to Mae Hong Son (150B) depart almost every hour from 8.30am to 3.30pm. Regular buses from Pai to Soppong cost 35B ordinary and 70B for air-con minivan. The trip takes 1½ hours.

AYA Service (0 5369 9940; Th Chaisongkhram) Book your ticket in advance at AYA; it runs air-con minivan buses to Chiang Mai (150B, 3hrs), Tham Thom (400B, 5hrs), Mae Sai (500B, 6hrs) and Chiang Khong (600B, 10hrs).

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Air

At the time of writing the Pai airstrip renovations had finished and a new terminal had been added. From February 2007 a new Chiang Mai to Pai flight, through a company called Siam General Aviation (Siam GA), is scheduled to commence. It is estimated to cost one way/return 1450/2900B and will take 20 minutes. Contact Siam GA to book The airport is located around 2km north of the city along Rte 1095.

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