Pai 3/2/13 - 3/5/13

After such an amazing time in Chiang Mai, we were running out of days before we needed to head south to meet up with Kristin's family.  Luckily, we had enough time to make it north to Pai, a mountainous/hippy-esque small town.  We headed through the mountains of the Thai countryside in a van packed with tourists and hung on as we took on all 762 curves of the windy road.  Talk about a long 4 hours, but at least the scenery was beautiful.    

Pai was another town where we arrived and things just felt good.  The town had a good, relaxed vibe to it!  Our favorite part was the plethora of street food stalls that lined the streets at night.  There was the traditional Thai food stalls with pad-tai and such, but there was so much more:  burritos, sushi, kebabs, hamburgers, sausages, pancakes, vegetarian dishes, and a few more we might have missed.  

Night food stalls on the main street.

Lots of meat on sticks.

Sushi in northern Thailand....we were brave and tried it (Matt two nights in a row).

There weren't a whole lot of things to do in Pai, but relaxation was exactly what we were looking for.  We stayed at a very nice guesthouse thanks to a recommendation from Chris and Annie. 

View from the balcony.

We went to Pai looking for a nice place to spend Kristin's birthday, and use internet to catch up on long overdue blog posts.  Kristin had a lovely, relaxing birthday spent enjoying delicious foods, walking around town, enjoying fruit shakes, and indulging in an amazing cheesecake for her b-day treat.  It was the perfect environment to sit back and enjoy Thailand.  

Kristin loved her energy fruit shakes.

Kristin's b-day dinner of fried chicken cashew nuts (one of her fav Thai dishes).

Birthday cheers.

After enough relaxation, Matt decided to get out and see a bit of the countryside.  He rented a bicycle and went out for a ride.  Although it was nothing eventful, he was happy to be outside and be active while Kristin took care of the real duties like blogging and dealing with pictures.  While we had reliable internet, we also worked on the not so fun task of buying a flight home.    

Matt's not so much a fan of "productive" days.

Kristin's scenery for most of the day.

After two days of serenity in Pai, we took a van back to Chiang Mai and went straight to the train station to take the overnight train down to Bangkok.  We had to figure out our game plan to meet up with Kristin's whole family!