Soppong vs. Pai
 

Another question for our loyal friends and trip planners: Our guide feels Pai would be better located as a taking off point for our day trips, but this does not seem to appeal to me as much as staying at the Soppong River Inn. Any thoughts?

The surrounding hills around Pai offer a lot of hiking, national parks, temples and the town itself has a fantastic Thai restaurant. I highly suggest you seek out Baan Benjarong restaurant in Pai, ask your hotel for location.

I'm not sure that Pai would be a better taking off for day trips. Pai has become very touristed, and there are literally hundreds of guesthouse all filled with others who will want to go on day trips. If you are going during the high season, the village is completely packed with tourists and traffic.

Soppong would actually be a much better place for day trips, given that there are few tourists there and only a handful of accommodations. You would be able to visit several different hilltribe villages and there are many caves to see very nearby, and that is usually one of the Pai day trips. All in all a very peaceful and much more traditional place to visit than crowded Pai.

As you mentioned Soppong River Inn, we have stayed there before and would highly recommend it. Interestingly, the owner (Joy) is of course Thai, but actually lived in Virginia at some point, so if you are a fish from Virginia, there may even be a small world story here!

I much preferred Soppong to Pai. the first time we visited Pai was about 10 years ago and it was great. We visited last year and coold not believe how much it had grown. It is no longer the sloppy little town it once was. azuresky's comments sum up Pai perfectly. A classic case of tourism taking over and destroying what made people want to visit in the first place. That said, it is clearly a major centre for activities.

Soppong is much quieter and the Soppong River Inn is a great place to stay . As azursky says there are lots of minority villages and caves to visit in the area and some good trekking. It is still a traditional Northern Thai market town where villagers come from far and wide to sell there produce at the market.

Hanuman - thanks for your thoughts and suggestion.
azuresky and crellston, too--you are all reflecting and affirming my thoughts. Our guide resides in Pai, hence his affinity to it. But, he is happy to go along with out staying at SRI. We are in Virginia, so I will have the connection with Joy.

"Anyway,I think Soppong, there is nothing to do it is about 45 k.m. away from my hometown,pai.well my idea,you should stay in Pai cos you will get more activities at night but if you love there.there is no problem," is what our guide said. We are not interested in night life, though.

I would like to send our revised itinerary at some point soon to have you experts peruse it.
Thank you!

virginia your guide is right and you must decide between rustic with nothing to do vs a more "happening" place. Accommodation in Pai is much, much better and lots of dining choices with one of the best Thai restaurant in the country.

Even with everyone saying that it has changed or grown in the last 10 years, it is still a small town. If it was me travelling the loop I would stay in either Pai or Mae Hong Son because it does offer more activities and better accommodation.

Hanuman-we are staying at Fern Resort for 2 nights in Mae Hong Son and then, Soppong River Inn. Where would you suggest if we decide to add/stay in Pai?

Fern is just a right mix between rustic and luxury. In Pai I really like the Hotel de Artist. Very luxurious in an old teak house and if you stay there get a river view room, only 4 such rooms.

We loved Hotel des Artists - it's a really nice hotel and the rooms with the river view are great for watching the activities on the river and across the river. Based on Hanuman's rec we ate at Baan Benjarong and had one of our best meals of our 9 weeks in SEAsia & we had some fabulous food during our trip. We also had a good meal at Na's Kitchen in Pai. While I wasn't wild about the town of Pai itself, I thought the surrounding area beautiful.

Virginiafish - could be that since your guide is in Pai, he has a certain "affinity" towards it. True, there is much more nightlife and a "scene" in Pai. If you walk down the main road, you can check out late night beer bars with live music, get a tattoo, eat hamburgers or Mexican food, and stock up at souvenir shops. In Soppong, there are a few local restaurants open in the evening, but for the most part you would be listening to crickets and the river. Definitely not the place to go if you want to party and hang out with other tourists. In the end, some will prefer the nightlife and scene in Pai with all the westernised mod cons, while others will prefer Soppong's quieter and more traditional feel, which is more like the Pai of decades ago when it was considered "charming".

Yes, Pai is definitely still a small town, but one that has completely lost the traditional feel that I first experienced more than 15 years ago on a trip there. There are hundreds of places to stay now, mostly in the backpacker range, but also five star resorts so there are loads of choices. Last time we were through there, accommodations started several kms outside of town, starting with the souvenir stands at the Pai river bridge and running all the way out past Pai on the way to Soppong.

Our guide wrote, "If you have booked the hotel at Soppong you don't have to cancell cos we can do hiking there as well.there are many tribes there." So, we are staying with Soppong, since we would like the quieter option. But, I really appreciate everyone's input and we will definitely go to Baan Benjarong! We could not plan this trip without all of you!

azuresky,

What you've said is very true but I see that virginia is already going to be spending some nights at the Fern resort and she will definitely be hearing crickets by the creeks. There are even more remote resorts around the area in other small remote towns but IMO Pai is a good mix of old vs modern.

Opps just saw your post virginia so if you have already decided then no need to consider Pai.