caterpillar in pai

Quick facts about Pai

Location: Northern Thailand
Highlights: hot springs, sleeping in quiet cottages in the middle of nowhere
Sustainable activities: broaden your horizon with some courses and workshops, enjoy vegan food, go to the waterfalls
Unsustainable activities: stuff like elephant riding (they pull at the elephant's ear to lead them) or giving money to the hill tribes


Today we went saw a stunning caterpillar close to Mo Paeng waterfall, Pai.




Also, Pai is a very alternative place. There are several meditation and Reiki courses and we also saw some ad for a permaculture workshop. You can even have vegan food here. At dusk, the town starts to be very charming and relaxed, with a lot of good bars.

Still, I feel that this town is not developing in a sustainable way. The center of Pai is bursting at the seams, because there are sooo many people and motorbikes during daytime.  Although the town attracts so many tourists, there are only 2,248 inhabitants in Pai (Wikipedia 2013). This is approximately the population as in Arnbruck, my hometown. I think my parents would move to another place, if Arnbruck was that busy, noisy and polluted.

In the end, I just wish for Pai, that the nature won't be spoiled and the inhabitants will be happy.