I was living in Pai for more than 2 months. For those who don’t know what or where Pai is, it is a little town located within the mountains on the road towards Mae Hong Son from Chiangmai.
How do you get there? You can either take the 3.5 hour minibus ride for 150thb or you can take the 15 minute plane ride for 1900thb. Alternatively you can just rent a car or motorcycle and drive up the mountains yourself.
Reaching there kinda takes you back in time, at least that’s how it was last time. Now it is slowly becoming modernised but not at a quick pace. Resorts are popping up everywhere, 7-11 and banks are located there, internet is fast because it is using fibre.
I haven’t been taking scenary photos in Pai because my website has full of photos from Phetchabun already. So in this series, I will concentrate more on talking about my experiences there.
First off, the weather, it gets cold for a South East Asian country. I felt cold because Singapore doesn’t get below 24, but here in Pai it went down to 9. It can even go down to 3! Right now it is averaging 12. I had to dress up like an eskimo because I’ve always hated the cold and dressing up helps me when I have to ride the motorcycle from point to point. You wake up in the morning and you can’t see anything, in Singapore the PSI would be off the charts but not here.
So what do I eat in the morning? Congee or porridge, what ever you want to call it. I ride my motorcycle to the parking area outside Seng Tong Market and have my dose of congee. It is operated by muslims so you only have the option of chicken or fish. The chicken congee with egg will set you back a whopping 25 baht! Fish will be 30 baht. Amazing price isn’t it.
LARB LARB LARB (ลาบ ลาบ ลาบ)
If I don’t have breakfast, then I’ll wait for the upcoming meal. I love Larb. What is larb? It is actually minced meat with spices. I like the punchy version which people tell me is the Northern Thai version. Best eaten with sticky rice. There are two stalls that I frequent, one is called Larp Khom Huay Poo and the other is Larb Aroy Ti Sut Nai Loke which translates to Most delicious larb in the world.
The larb at Larp Khom Huay Poo, it is milder than the one at Larb Aroy Ti Sut Nai Loke which packs more punch. I alternate between the two stalls so that they don’t think I am crazy to come so often. How do you eat it? There are different ways and its really up to you. You can scoop some onto your plate, press some sticky rice on it then eat or you can scoop it on your spoon and just put the rice on it then eat.
