Northern Thailand - Chiang Mai and Pai

Chiang Mai is a nice town. It's hard to think that it's the second city behind Bangkok because it just doesn't feel very big at all.
We had a couple of relaxing days just looking around which was nice, I found the 'trendy' art gallery area. There are very many good food options in this town so I made the most of that too. There are also nearly as many Wats in Chiang Mai as there are in Bangkok and considering the size difference they seem to be everywhere.



We decided then to visit Pai which is in the mountains to the north of Chiang Mai. It is also a 'boutiquey' little town and probably not really like anywhere else in Thailand. I get the feeling that Pai has changed a lot in the last few years as there were quite a few Thai tourists there and apparently going to Pai and camping 'in the cold' is the thing to do at the moment!
It also used to be a bit of a hippie haven but it seemed to me that that side of things was dying out - maybe I just wasn't there long enough..
The food is great in Pai as is the live music scene and we saw some great music in the 3 days that we were there. Adam made friends with Cat (from London) in the bus on the way up so the 3 of us hung around and looked at some of the many sites on offer out of Pai. After a long hike not quite to a waterfall on day one we got motorbikes and went and found some waterfalls the next day.

We visited 'Coffee in Love' which is a coffee shop that is very popular with Thai people (I think it was in a movie) but the best places we found were heading north out of Pai into the countryside. This is getting into local tribal areas and the landscape was beautiful. We also visited a national park with some hot springs that we could bathe in which was great.






After a few nights I decided to head back to Chiang Mai to sort out my visa. Thailand has recently changed its visa rules and if you cross into the country on foot you only get a 15 day visa. I had to buy an extension and could only get 7 more days so I won't be spending too long here! A relaxing day or 2 here back on my own for the first time in a while and then onto Sukhothai..