Pai...what's the verdict?

LINK to Cave Lodge owner John's local area map of Tham Lod.

Tham Lot is the main attraction. Soppong is basically a hole like anything Dave tries to talk up.

NO NO NO ! .

THAM LOD (LOT) IS THE NAME OF THE VILLAGE NOT JUST THE CAVE. You can stay at Cave Lodge at Tham Lod which is as I said 8 kms from Soppong . I don't talk up Soppong , I said many times I think its just a highway town ( I hope Poidog doesn't see this).
Linguse just went to the cave wiithout realising there was a village there , and he knows nothing about the walking possibilities around Tham Lod.

If you stop in Pai for a day or two or three, you'll definitely just see those bummer KSR type things. I ended up there for 10 days last month (just because I got comfy at Pai Chan Cottages, beautiful nature around, nice bungalows for a decent price, and I had no time constraints). After a few days you can get into the laid-back vibe, meet the kind of people you'd personally like to find while traveling and start to see them around each day, eat great healthy food, take day trips to a new waterfall or hot spring each day, and be treated to beautiful natural surroundings. Buried beneath all the touristy crap, there is a good music scene, with traveling musicians bonding over open-mic nights and people who stay for weeks or months and create small communities. If that's your thing, you'll like it.

Yes, it is very dry out there right now and the locals burn the hillsides, creating a lot of smoke and smog. But the tourist masses are probably dying down as it gets hotter.

I personally wouldn't do that crazy drive for just a day or two! I also didn't like the drawbacks mentioned here by the naysayers, but I dug the place overall.