I have not encountered anything called pi/pie/Pai that I have not absolutely loved… so much to the point where I’m considering naming my child ‘Pye’ so that by default I cannot dislike it her/him (is it normal to worry that you won’t like something you birth? That’s not a thing right? I don’t have to worry about that do I?… LOL kidding?). This was one of the first things I saw in Pai and I immediately knew that it was a great place to be
Pai is actually the most perfect little mountain town. It’s an unbelievably nauseating (albeit beautiful) 3-hour bus ride from Chiang Mai, and it’s well worth the carsickness. Pai has the feel of a small hippie beach town but it’s tucked away in the lush mountains of Northern Thailand. There are a lot of foreigners so most locals have pretty decent English skills (which meant a nice little break from the constant game of charades that my life has become in Thailand), but it somehow also maintains an authentic Thai feel, and it seems less so like everyone is trying to rip you off for being a tourist.
Shopping. The shopping in Pai is fantastic. There is a little hand-made jewelry store on the main street that I spent a total of maybe 7 collective hours in during our 4 days in Pai. The lady working there recognized me whenever I would come by, and I could see her eyes glisten a little every time I came in, probably because she knew it was impossible for me to leave empty-handed. She knew how much I loved and appreciated her work though, and is yet another Thai that has made one of the “come-stay-and-work-here-and-I-will-teach-you-everything” offers that are so incredibly hard to resist. Pai is also filled with tons of local Thai artists selling some awesome works of art.
FOOD. Oh boy. I’m not even sure where to start. First of all they have avocados here—an abundance of them. Have we talked about the fact that the climate in Thailand is perfect for growing avocados, but you can’t find them anywhere because Thais just don’t like them?! What?! WHY. Our first meal in Pai was obviously at the place that advertised avocado everything and I got a chicken sandwich with a whole perfectly green and creamy avocado cut up and put on it. SO GOOD. 
Also they said they could add feta cheese on the menu so I got some of that, but we came to the conclusion that their “feta cheese” here is actually just cream cheese that they crumble up to look like feta. Still cheese nonetheless so I had no complaints. The walking street/night market in Pai has SO MUCH GOOD FOOD—and such variety. I love Thai food. But when I walked down the Pai night market and saw Indian food, nachos, baked potatoes, falafel, burgers, pita and hummus, etc., my eyes glazed over and I forgot how much I miss other delicious foods of the world. Last food thing: brunch. Brunch isn’t really a thing here in Thailand, but we found this scrumptious little café that served all sorts of brunch foods. I got poached eggs on top of bacon and toasted sourdough bread with a roasted tomato and little smattering of pesto on top. UNREAL. The egg was perfectly poached and the pesto was out of this world. In hindsight, Pai may have had some of the best food I’ve had ever, not even just in Thailand. I paid 4 bucks for the most delicious brunch I’ve ever had that probably would’ve cost at least $40 in Brentwood. It was heavenly.
The people. FIRST OF ALL. I was reunited with these crazy beauties, so that was madness in and of itself
We stayed at Darling Viewpoint Bungalows, which is a little walk out of town, but the views are great. An adorable Thai woman named Darling runs the place and she’s the silliest and happiest little human being. She’s also a bit crazy and tried to marry us all off to her son, telling us we could run the bar she owns and have all her land. But she was fun.
CHAI. GUYS I’M IN LOVE. This man is my favorite person in Thailand. We talked to a tour company and arranged to have a driver come pick us up and drive us around to some must-see spots in Pai, and Chai showed up and drove us around in the back of his pick-up truck all day. He spoke great English, which he told me he’s been studying on his own out of a book and by just talking with tourists. In addition to driving us everywhere, he told us about the history and culture of everything we drove by/went to. After the official touring was over, he took us to a house warming party in his village where we were given a ton of beer, rice whiskey, and food. The only person that we could communicate with at all here was Chai because it was a pretty remote village and no one spoke English. Esther was drunk and kept insisting she go get cornrows where we got hair wrapped, and Chai would just giggle every time she told him, and start braiding her hair for her. I LOVE HIM.
PAI-lights
Such pretty sights
View from our hostel
Waking up on a mattress on the floor with 6 of my best friends all crammed in the same room
Filtered water
PUPPIES. THERE WERE SIX OF THEM. THEY WERE LIKE LITTLE BEARS.
Esther finally got cornrows bahah
Our neighbors doing some special farming
What? What does this mean?
Mor Paeng Waterfall
Pai Canyon – STUNNING. We climbed all through the crevices and whatnot in an adventure to get to the best sunset viewing spot
Ridin’ around crazy Mae Sai roads in the back of a pick-up
Tham Lod Caves 
The happiest little girl in the world sending off a lantern larger than her
New Year’s Eve lanterns from the bridge
More sunset magic
Saying bye to maybe my favorite place on earth
…
So we rang in 2015 in this perfect little place. On NYE, we hung out at our hostel, which had a good group of other travelers, a fire pit, and great music playing. We then migrated to the Circus Hostel next door that had a bigger party and also a trampoline (danger). The party was pretty small for what was supposed to be the big NYE party in town, but the 7 of us girls did it big in our own way. In hindsight it was probably best that we were contained in a little town on top of a mountain for New Year’s (the first time we’d all been together since October… and also New Year’s…). Otherwise, there’s no way we would’ve been able to spend so much of it together. I’m so pleasantly surprised by what great friends I’ve somehow managed to snag all the way across the world. We did a 7-way midnight kiss/head-butt, and I can’t imagine a better way to have spent the night.
Lol.
WANDERLYSST 