Dalama Adventures Tale of two corporate types ditching their jobs and traveling the world for 14 months... check out all photos, blogs & interesting tid bits at http://www.dalama.net

Thailand is truly not like we remember it to be years ago.  When we were here 10 plus years ago, children and adults waved and shouted "sa wat dii," and were all smiles.  I recall the outskirts of Bangkok where locals were still surprised and excited to see farang (western Tourist in Thailand).  And Chiang Mai, 12 years ago when Darrin first visited, it was such a small sleepy town.  Today, it's an over developed, overly touristed town.  With that, however, comes a well organized packaged tourism industry, and you can see lots of sights, and experience the rivers, mountains and see elephants and hill tribes very easily and all for a convenient low price, compared to trying to do it all yourself.  We were looking forward to heading a bit north, to get out of the crazy tourist scene for a few days relaxing in nature, and visiting hill tribes up around Pai.  We had read that Pai had become a bit developed, but weren't expecting to find more rows of cafes serving up banana pancakes, burgers and beer, than restaurants serving Thai food.  The town was also overrun with backpackers with "attitude."   Pai is more like the developed beach town of Goa, India, but on a smaller scale, and with no beach.  There's a river running through the town, lined with rickety bamboo huts on stilts for backpacker accommodation.  It's the hot sticky wet season, and we opted for a very cool bamboo hut, set in a beautiful garden with koi ponds in the village, with a fan, for under $10/night.  We didn't realize at the time how happy we would be not to have to cross rickety bridges to the other side of the river in the pitch dark of night, after eating and drinking a few beers.  Had we chosen to stay on the other side of the river in one of the bamboo huts, we may have ended up in the river ourselves.  The weather had a habit of dumping rain each night, and the rickety bridges were slick, with a ton of holes for a foot to fall through.  

That said, Pai is still an amazingly beautiful town... lush green hills surround the small town, and colorful street vendors selling hilltribe handicrafts dot the streets.  There's a fresh town market running down the main street where you can buy lots of veggies, meats, fish and other produce from the locals that grow it.  Buddhist temples and Muslim mosques share the streets, and you can easily get lost in the surrounding roads that wind through the hills.  It's a pleasant break from Bangkok and Chiang Mai, and a great jumping off spot to explore hill tribes and some of the beautiful nature that Northern Thailand has to offer.