Life in Pai: The Markets, Transport, Mobile Connectivity and more

Pai is, at its heart, a thriving village. It is a couple of hours north of Chiang Mai and is nestled among beautiful hills.

These beautiful winding village roads make for great drives

Rolling green fields, wild flowers and waterfalls add beauty to this place. It is a great place to visit over the weekend, or like us, you can opt to stay a little longer. If you are staying for a month or so, Airbnb has some great options nearby. Alternatively, there are a good number of guest houses, hostels, and resorts available as well.

A random shot from the roadside
Pai is surrounded by mountains, making such views easy
Every sunset in Pai is beautiful
A beautiful riverside somewhere off Pai
Rice is a major crop in the region
Our ride on a beautiful day
A view of the centre from a hillock
Golden sunset
Never miss a sunset in Pai

The first order of business after settling in should be finding something to eat. If you are staying long-term, it is best to head to one of the many markets around for some supplies. Now, it is also a market that caters to a large number of foreigners. So, there are enough shops all around Pai selling everything from baggy elephant pants to sushi. But leaving the tourist behind, if you want to shop the way locals shop, read on about the main markets here.

The Markets

1. The Municipal Market (Saeng Thong Aram Market)

This is a very good place to pick up local fruits and vegetables
Pretty much everything you need, from grains to herbs

Pai’s permanent municipal market, officially the Saeng Thong is located on the main road through Route 1095, just after the Post Office. During the day, this place sells mostly fruits, vegetables, meat, and spices. The market is housed mostly in a huge covered hall and functions from early morning to around 06:00 p.m.

Or may be some dried fish
This is how you keep the flies away!
Shop the way locals do
A friendly seller
In case you want to buy a gift

 At night, it comes alive with a good number of interesting food stalls. Unlike the more touristy walking street, you will find mostly the local crowd eating here. The food mostly caters to them.

These tiny stalls crop up at night
Most stalls here specialise in a couple of dishes, mostly non vegetarian
There are many local dishes to choose from

A few unique items like spicy fish steamed in banana leaf, rice and taro pudding, and crispy chicken legs can be found here. Walking around at night, you are likely to come up with some interesting dinner items.

You really can’t go wrong with food in Thailand
Try every Thai sausage you can
Most of these vendors cook the food from home and bring it over to sell

 

 

2. Don Bai, or Afternoon Market

This is where local farmers come to sell their goods

This market is located near Pai Municipal building. Essentially a farmer’s market, people bring their produce here in trucks and sell them. This is where you will find the sweetest pineapples and the nicest avocados. There is at least one root tuber to be discovered every day of the week (everything from yam to yuca).

Every type of fruit you would want

The nearby shops sell local spices, and you can buy brown, black, or white rice. Language is likely to be an issue here, as no one speaks English. A bit of google translate and a lot of hand gestures will be needed. But that is part of the fun. The market also sells amazing local food.

From raw sausages to greens
Corn and Pandan leaf flavoured Sago in coconut milk

These are meant for the vendors who work there, so they are as authentic as they come. However, this is a day market and winds up by 02:00 p.m.

Most sellers are farmers who bring their own products
The covered portion of the market
Tropical fruits make the best deserts

 

 

3. The Walking Street.

This street really comes alive at night
Many artisans set up stalls
A lane in the walking street

Well, this is where all the tourists are. The street is lined with food stalls. There is hardly any produce to be brought. However, the variety here is certainly worth exploring. Walking from one end of the street to the other, you can pretty much experience a culinary tour of Asia. Everything from Pad Thai, to authentic Indian biriyani, to sushi, to slow cooked pork steak can be had in a single walk. If you look closely, there are some more interesting items like fried crickets or roasted worms. Spent some time, explore, and you may find something you have never tried before.

Enough interesting things to try
Sushi anyone?
Or may be an egg baked in a banana leaf bowl
All dressed up
They tasted like cashew nuts
In case you feel a little adventurous. They are remarkably yummy
Momos… Chicken or Pork?

This evening market starts at around 05:00 p.m. and stays open officially till around 10:00 p.m. This colourful space also hosts a number of street performers. We found a couple of people singing to collect funds for social service activities, a school band performing for supporting other underprivileged kids, and a Lisu family trying to raise money for education.

A street performer raising money for art education
These people volunteer part time as street musicians to raise money for an organisation that supports children’s education

There are also a few traditional performance artists that show up occasionally and many of the pubs in the area have live music performances.

Walking through the walking street
The yummiest pancakes we have had, made right in front of you. Flavours of your choice
They look good too
Pizza anyone?
You are never too far from home. An Indian food stall in the middle of the walking street, Pai.
She just had kind eyes
Pretty much anything you fancy can be found here
Really good cinnamon buns and cakes
Pai Postbox
There are a number of events to enjoy
These stalls sell a variety of hot and cold drinks
You can come back with the bamboo cup for a refill and you get a discount
A few dream catchers
Many people sell their artwork here
Original paintings for sale
A good place to find a souvenir
Hand knitted funky hats
A beautiful shop to browse through
A beautiful street for a walk…
…to stand and stare…

Apart from these, large number of 7/11 outlets are available for most day to day purchases. These stores also sell SIM cards. There is a store named 97 near the old market which caters primarily to western customers. It has a decent bakery and carries a reasonable variety of cheeses and sausages as well.

Local grocery stores
This store ’97’ sells more supplies catering to the Western diet
The many local 7 elevens cater to most needs. There are many of them in this small village. You will never be too far from one

 

Once the immediate town is explored (it can be done on foot), you will want to take a look at the beautiful countryside surrounding Pai. It is these beautiful surroundings that make Pai worth visiting in the first place. There is, however, no real public transport in Pai.

Transport in Pai

Honestly, the best way to get around in Pai is using a two-wheeler. If you are comfortable cycling through hilly terrain, there are a number of outlets that rent out bicycles. If not, do rent a motorbike. The term motorbike is being used liberally here, as most vehicles on rent are 100-150 cc two wheelers. The quality of the bike will depend heavily on where it is rented from, so take your time to pick one that functions well. Do a test drive, and only then choose. There are places that rent larger bikes of 400 cc and above. If you are interested in that, it is best to rent them from Chiang mai.

Best explored on a bike

We picked one from AYA, and it worked fine (though we could have liked one with a higher power rating). More powerful bikes are best rented from Chiang Mai as you are likely to have more choice there.

Bike rentals are a huge business in Pai
Another smaller rental

The only other real mode of transport are mini vans which ply between Pai and Chiang Mai and Pai and Sopong (towards Mea Hong Song). The bus stand is right at the centre of the town and many operators sell tickets. It is even possible to directly book a bus to Bangkok for around 1000 TBH.

The Pai Bus station. These mini buses ply to and from Chiang Mai.
They stop for food on the way. This also gives a much needed stop to recover from motion sickness caused by the hairpins of Route 1095

Riding in Pai is easy, as the traffic is pretty much non-existent. However, the terrain does pose a risk to some tourists and it is very common to see people have small scooter accidents. In such an event, Pai has some emergency response system that can help out.

A rather perfect winding road
A wooded stretch of Route 1095
A very steep hairpin along the route connecting Pai and Mae Hong Son

Medical Care

Pai has a tourist police stations located near the city centre. These English-speaking officers can be contacted by calling 1155 and they can aid and assist with any grievance. For purely medical emergencies, Pai has a government hospital that treats foreigners. You will be charged a registration fee of 200 TBH and asked for a passport. The doctors and staff speak decent English and all in all our experience with the hospital was good. The hospital also has an ambulance service. Throughout Thailand, the number 1669 can be used to contact an ambulance. In addition to the hospital, Pai does have a couple of clinics specifically catering to tourists. However, since most locals prefer the government hospital, we stuck with and do recommend it.

The main police station in Pai

Banking /Cash

In Thailand, it is normal for Banks to charge a relatively hefty ATM fee. Typically this amount is around 200 TBH irrespective of the amount you withdraw. Most ATMs ask you if you prefer this fixed charge, or a floating amount based on exchange rates.  However, most travellers report being charged more than the fixed amount when this happens. This charge is an unavoidable inconvenience, so it is best to take larger quantities of cash each time and minimise the number of ATM transactions. In Pai, ATMs are rather easy to find.  7 Elevens and petrol pumps are a good bet in case you are looking for one.  While there is not much difference between banks, we found the K bank ATMs to be the most reliable.

All markets  and fuel stations have ATMs near them

Mobile Connectivity

Internet is a very important resource for anyone today. If you are travelling long term like us, then you are probably working at least part time, making a stable internet connection necessary. In general, Thailand has three major service providers: AIS, truemove, and dtac.

All cities and most of southern Thailand has uninterrupted 4G coverage. Most places including those in the northern side has 4G, 3G or at least 2G. The coverage can easily be verified at https://opensignal.com/. If you are travelling to very remote locations it is best to enquire with locals and find out.

We strongly recommend that you don’t pick up a tourist sim from the airport. These are normal sim cards topped up with offers specific to tourists which are much costly compared to other packs available.  From our experience, if you are buying a sim for internet, then these packages are unnecessary. Just get a sim card and top up for some unlimited data plan .  Top ups can easily be done at local shops and all 7 Eleven stores and the balance can easily be used to activate the packof your choice using sms codes.The cost here depends on data speed. For example, unlimited internet at 4 Mbps will now cost 450 TBH, 650 TBH and 500 TBH respectively for AIS, truemove and dtac at the time of writing this. There are other similar offers available as well and it pays to do your research in this area.

Visit the websites of these providers and check current offers. Click on the links to reach their respective sites.     truemove     AIS     dtac

 

 

3 Comments Add yours

  1. Sim says:

    Very well written and informative. Can you tell me what is there to do besides the markets?

  2. Hey guys, are you still hitting the roads of India? I hope you are all doing great! Best wishes , Michael from A Bowl of Compassion, Bodhgaya

    1. team drivelogues says:

      Hi Michael, it is great to hear from you. We are staying at Kochi right now. 🙂

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