Pai - Christmas & New Year??

Hello :-)

I'm heading to Thailand with my partner on 20th December & have been asking friends for recommendations for where to spend Christmas & New Year. Most have suggested beaches/islands but one has suggested Pai. As it's our first time in Thailand & we'll have just come from beaches in India, I'm considering this option but just wanted to see what people on here think? We don't yet have the LP but will be picking one up soon.

We're up for something chilled but with the option of meeting other travellers, it being the festive season and all. Our favourite travelling past times are nice walks & nice cafes where we can drink tea & watch the world go by. Can anyone recommend somewhere nice to stay for backpackers that we could book in advance?

Many thanks

Laura

Pai ? are you joking!

Pai is a boring backbacker ghetto. Sounds right up your alley.

By Thai standards the nights get pretty cold in Pai and the surrounding hilly area in December (days still crisp but warm) so that might give it a "Christmas" vibe. It's popular with backpackers, and Thousands of Thai tourists come up from Bangkok and elsewhere to experience the "cold season" so be prepared for busy crowds in town and accommodation quite full. Have a look at backpacker-geared options on Travelfish.

You might alternatively go a bit further to the small town of Soppong on the road to Mae Hong Son. Check out Cave Lodge and Soppong River Inn and be sure to visit the huge Lod Cave nearby. Further south along the "Mae Hong Son Loop" consider Mae Sariang, a decent-size but still very chilled town with good accommodation options along the Yuam river, e.g. Riverhouse Hotel or something more rustic (cheap) Northwest Guesthouse.

Pai at New Years
Imagine small Ethiopian refugee camps dotted around the countryside and streets congested with vehicles
Otherwise pretty nice

Alligator 1 - no need to be offensive, people come on here for help not to be insulted. As I said, it'll be our first time in Thailand and I haven't managed to get a travel guide yet so don't know anything about the place - just one friends opinion.

Captain_bob - thanks for the genuine reply, will look into the links you sent me. If it's going to be too cold may head south to start with & go that way later on in our trip when it's a bit warmer, will see. Thanks.

Laura

Ha Ha, "cold" in this case means 12-15C at night, but still warm upper 20s daytime. Pai is a favourite punching bag for many veteran visitors who long for the "good ol days", but you just need to get up and walk/ride/stay out of town to enjoy peace and quiet.

my feedback (exclude the "Ethiopian") was genuinely attemptimg to reflect the NY experience
otherwise a nice place

You don't need to book ahead for budget travellers guesthouses , many operate on 1st come 1st served basis and don't take bookings . You could just turn up and stay at Dwang Guesthouse opposite the bus station then walk around to check out other places.
Pai is nothing special and even before it became a tourist town there wasn't that much there. Some people find the commercalism and endless English signs and restaurants etc etc a bit much . And its not just "backpackers" but mainstream tourists too . It may be that alot of tourists come to Pai as an alternative to Changmai which some tourists feel is too choked with traffic.
I agree with Bobs Cave Lodge recommendation about Cave Lodge and feel Tham Lod has some of the best natural scenery in Nth Thailand. However its often very quiet . although it was one of the first guesthouses in the Nth West it doesn't get that many individual travellers these days , Pai has sucked up everyone like a magnet.

LINK tp YouTube video showing scenes in and around Tham Lod , Soppong and further west to Wilderness Lodge at Ban Nam Khong . The owner of Cave Lodge -John Spees can be seen in the Wilderness Lodge footage. If staying at Cave Lodge read John's memoirs they are an eye opener.

Great, thanks for all the info, really helpful. :-)

Laura

Pai has really turned into a circus. what a joke and how sad. before the herds arrived it used to be very peaceful cheap and beautiful. i have not gotten anywhere near the place since 2005 and have no plans to ever return. PARIDISE LOST ONCE AGAIN! thank you lonely planet. what next peaceful is your next corporate victim?

I was being nice. Pai is the ghetto you seek.

quote - "how sad. before the herds arrived it used to be very peaceful cheap and beautiful. i have not gotten "
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I first stayed there in 1987 , it was just a little town with a river , nothing much there and I wouldn't say it was particularly beautiful . . About the end of the1990's it suddenly became popular (not the fault of guidebook , it had already been in guidebook for many years before that) . Some people felt it had the right balance of being a travellers meeting -social spot but not too spoilt , with live music such as Be Bop bar etc , and Titima is right food and accomm were very cheap.
But not long after that it went completely over the top and became another commercialised tourist ghetto . Another reason for its popularity may be that it became an alternative trekking center , most of the rest of Nth Thailand is so deforested and over trekked.
Having said that some people both foreign and Thai find it bizzare that Pai has become a tourist mecca . This not 'good old days' nostalgia , there were no good old days , I tried to stay there and enjoy it a couple of times and altho it had something of a rustic charm , one or 2 days was enough , can only repeat I felt that there was just nothing much there . But nowadays the rustic charm has gone and it all seems very artificial . It certainly bears no resemblance to the old Pai , altho there wasn't very much to the old Pai.

There's virtually nothing to do there. You can do a hot spring bath at a resort and drive onto Soppong for Tham Lot. 2 nights is definitely enough. Khong Chiam has far more charm and a small fraction of the farang tourists spoiling the place.

I've been talking KC up for years and still it's pristine. Far east Issan is too far for the ghetto dwellers. It's off their radar screen and there's no sleazy nightlife.

Kong Chiam should be the "new Pai" - we'll send all the "scum shallow backpacker hippies" there immediately, er uhm except that it's inconveniently 700 km off the beaten path so I doubt most of them will readily agree. These people need their cool "alternative" (real traveller not tourist) places a little closer at hand ;-)

most of the hippie/ dippie losers and sex tourists are not smart enough to make it there on their own without bargirl in tow. THANK GOD ! for that. the few i have seen there survived on their normal diet of beer and potato chips and did,nt last more than a few days. common outside of the tourists areas.

So what are the highlights of KC?
The place sounds elusive.

what are the highlights of KC ? few if any LOSERS !

Nice walks, nice cafes, drinking tea, watching the world....... pai is lovely.... Perhaps not the hideaway that some pseudo world know alls would want, but with a touch of the obscure, certainly a touch of the natural ( mud springs, spas and mineral baths), walks from a few kliks to a full day's slog through the world's most beautiful scenery, not too sure about the quality of the tea, but if you are so inclined, after a day's exertion, there are many quiet little layovers where you can enjoy a beer, coffee or tea if thats your thing.... And I guess that for me is the essence of Pai. You can sit back and be pretentiously judgemental.like the detractors who have responded to your query bored with the fact that Pai does not jump up and provide any sort of 5 star elegance or effort free entertainment, you can wander around and do nothing in particular, even pick up up a few, regrettably unusually expensive, hill tribe souvenirs, or you can simply enjoy the quality of the local population or the hordes of local people likely to descend on the place to experience the fog and ( very gentle) frosts of the "cold" season. Pai is lovely, has plenty of accommodation of a range of qualities and pursuits, and, if you were to spend your Christmas there with your significant other, I have no doubt it will be a Christmas you will remember and treasure the memory of throughout your life. Chok Dii

Respect your opinions about Pai , but if you haven't already done so also check out the scenery further west of Pai.
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PICTURE village of Ban Nam Khong about 70 kms west of Pai.