Hitch Hiking Around Pai

Pai is a little tourist town in the north west of Thailand, close to the border with Burma and a three and a half hour drive from Chiang Mai. It's easy to see why so many foreigners arrive here and never leave; the town is situated in a valley surrounded by lush green mountains, thick jungle, waterfalls, caves and canyons. The scenery is stunning.

The town earned itself a reputation for its live music scene that started about 20 years ago. Now, however, it seems any fool with a guitar can star in their own acoustic night at one of the many bars, many of them not such good musicians. For once I would have preferred Ric's singing.

View over Pai from a hillside temple.

While Pai has a lot to offer in terms of bars and restaurants, we were more interested in getting out into the mountains and enjoying the nature. Most tourists who come to Pai hire a moped for several days, this allows them to drive off into the hills and explore. Unfortunately we don't have a very good track record with scooters and have avoided them throughout the trip. It's a shame because you really can get off the beaten track and see a lot more on a scooter than on a bus or a bicycle, however we've seen so many injured tourists that it's been easy to resist the temptation.

Without moped and with no intention of cycling up any mountains we came to the conclusion that we would hitch hike around the valleys surrounding Pai. We set our sights on a nice loop that goes down one side of the river and back up the other into Pai. Armed with our tent and a few layers of warm clothes we set off to see where the universe would take us. As it turned out, the universe had some nice surprises in store for us.

Once we'd walked to the outskirts of town we stuck our arms out and thumbed a lift - Thai style. In Asia, instead of waving or holding out your thumb like we would in Europe, you attract a driver's attention by doing a limp-wristed hand flap, it's the same as in Korea.

After only a couple of minutes of being gawped at by Chinese tourists who almost crashed their scooters staring at us, a pick-up truck slowed down for us and we approached the window. The driver turned out to be John, not only was he British, he was also a Northerner!

Showing true northern hospitality, John dropped us right on the doorstep of Pai Canyon and invited us back to his guest house to cool down in the pool once we were done exploring.

Pai Canyon.

The Canyon is incredible; breathtaking views over pai, vertical plunges down the sandstone edge of the narrow paths and some tricky scrambles down steep crumbling rock faces. In the midday heat we were soon exhausted from our brief climb and we headed down out of the canyon to John's guest house.

Balancing on the narrow ridge of the canyon.

True to his word, John welcomed us to his home and left us to enjoy his swimming pool, set in beautiful gardens with a beautiful view of the mountains. After a few cold beers we were ready to head off and find a pitch for the night but John invited us to camp in the orchard behind his house, for free! He even offered the use of a bathroom in one of the empty guest rooms. Talk about landing on our feet. 

Not a bad spot to spend an afternoon.

With the rest of the evening to relax we returned to the Canyon and watched the red sandstone ridges turn gold at sunset. 

As the sky turned to dark we ate dinner in a local restaurant and walked back along the pitch black country roads, our necks straining from staring at the starry sky.

Sunset over Pai Canyon.

After a peaceful sleep in our little green tent we did a spot of gardening as a thank you for John's kind hospitality, before a final dip in the pool. Then John gave us a lift down to the river where we set up our tent in an elephant trekking camp next to the river.

For the small fee of 200Baht (£4) we were invited to camp at Thom's elephant camp and use the on-site thermal hot springs, showers and tea and coffee making facilities. As we sat eating dinner by our tent in the evening a herd of elephants trudged past us on their way to the jungle to spend the night; not something you see at camp sites back in England!

In the evening we sat around with some eccentric German hippies singing songs and playing guitar. The Germans knew the chords but sang "na na na" to a host of well known songs.

River in Pai.

We hitch hiked back into Pai the next day and jumped straight on a bus for Chiang Mai. It was a much easier and relaxing two day adventure than we had anticipated thanks to the kindness of the people we met. If we'd had hired scooters we'd have had a completely different experience. Hitch hiking and camping was a fine way to discover the area and meet some lovely people, away from the noise in Pai town.

How To Get To...

Pai Canyon: About 8km out of town on the road to Chiang Mai, easy to find with a free map from any Pai guest house.

We Stayed At...

Thom's Elephant Camp 200Baht to camp with our own tent, rooms are also available. Many resorts will allow you to camp in their grounds and use their facilities for a small fee.

Hitch Hiking To The 4,000 Islands

It was a lot more difficult to leave Champasak than it was to arrive; we were headed south and so had to cross the Mekong.

The journey started in a minivan which picked us up from our bungalow and drove us to the dilapidated boat pier at the northern tip of town. We eased our way down the muddy bank that served as a pier, and on to a narrow, wooden boat with a 12 year old boy at the helm. On the other side of the Mekong we climbed up another mud bank and onto the back of a flat bed truck. Perched on oil cans and bottle crates we bounced along a pot-holed dirt path to the main road. We were told to wait there for a bus which would take us the rest of the way to Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands), our destination.

We waited, and we waited, we ate some breakfast from a street vendor and we waited some more. We chatted to an angry American and we continued to wait. After some time we gave up on the fabled bus and waved down a passing car.

The friendly, English-speaking soldier was going our way and was happy to practice his English with us while speeding down route 13 at 120km/hr. He dropped us at a car ferry terminal on the southern tip of Laos, where we were to take an ancient wooden canoe 100m across the river to Don Khong island. Our new friend’s only request was that we pose for some photos with him before saying goodbye. 

When we alighted on Don Khong we found that we were still 5km away from Muang Khong town, the island’s biggest settlement. We set off walking down the dusty, single track road towards the town in the midday heat but luckily it wasn’t long before a passing pick-up truck stopped and allowed us to climb in the back, all the way into town. Despite travelling by minivan, boat, truck, car, ferry and one more truck, the whole journey took only three hours.

Si Phan Don is a landlocked archipelago carved out by a web of rivulets in the south of Laos, where the Mekong marks the most southerly boarder with Cambodia. It is here that a long length of ferocious rapids cut straight across the river, providing the one and only obstacle for boat travel along the Mekong from Tibet straight through to southern Vietnam.

We spent only one night on Don Khong. Despite being the biggest island it has very little to offer other than a crowded strip of guest houses and a handful of simple Buddhist temples. We spent the afternoon reading and relaxing before heading off early the next day.