Pouring in Pai

Given that I’ve visited Vietnam, Laos and Thailand at the start of the rainy season, we’ve been quite lucky so far. That was until we arrived in Pai. 

We arrived in Pai mid afternoon and checked into our lovely bungalow. Most of the accommodation is bungalows here, all helpfully raised off the floor, which came in handy that evening. 

While spending some time lying in my hammock, the heavens opened and it was non stop rain all evening. It was raining so heavy that I didn’t even bother leaving to go and get dinner. 

When I went for breakfast in the morning, the owner told me that the bamboo bridge which I walked across yesterday had been swept away. Therefore, the only way into the main town was a 30 minute walk, or to ride a scooter. So it was time for one final go on the scooter. 

Our first stop was the bamboo bridge, which isn’t actually a bridge, but a raised walkway through a series of rice fields. 

Our next stop was the Pai Canyon, which I actually really liked. For some reason it gave me flashbacks to the terrain I experienced in the outback in Australia. I didn’t venture too far as there was a lot of climbing, and I didn’t want to risk injuring myself this close to the end. 

Pai Canyon is apparently best visited at sunset. However, with my experience of rainy season in South East Asia, it usually rains at about the same time every day. After getting lunch, you could see the clouds rolling in at about 2pm, so I hurried back to my bungalow. It then rained again all evening. 

The day after followed a similar structure to the previous day, scootering around in the morning, have lunch, then retreat from the rain. 

We headed to a Buddha (which was being renovated), a viewpoint, and a temple. 

Following our time in Pai, we headed back to Chiang Mai, stayed the night there, and then boarded a flight to Bangkok, and finally to London Heathrow, where this journey began two and a half years ago…