White Water Rafting in Northwest Thailand

The other day I was just moseying down the street in Pai town when I noticed a trekking/rafting agency. I thought to myself, "That could be fun!" I popped in and made my reservation to go rafting the next morning. That's what is so cool about traveling by myself - I can do whatever I want when I want to. The downside of traveling by myself is that when I am doing the things I want to I feel that I would be having 50% more fun if I had someone else to share it with.

The next morning some guys from the company came to pick me up at 7:30 am. We then went to get another guy, Charlie, and his Mom, Penny. It was nice because it was just 5 of us in the raft: me, Charlie, Penny, the guide and his assistant.

We drove 1 1/2 hours to the site where we would begin our journey on Nam Khong River. I was surprised to find that the trip out to the site was so cold! The man at the agency told me to bring a jacket or a sweatshirt with me warning that it would be quite cool and I thought he was being silly...he wasn't. I don't have either of those things with me anyway, so I was freezing on the way up and around the mountains.


They had to tie my flip flops onto my feet so they wouldn't fall off in case I fell in.

Along the way we stopped at some waterfalls for swimming and lunch. I think that besides Mai Chau, I have never seen scenery so beautiful in my entire life. We paddled through a jungle full of bamboo trees, Kingfisher birds, orchid trees and lush greenery.




Eventually we flowed into Pai river, which was a bit rougher than the easygoing Nam Khong.

We hit some hot springs and took a rest in the warm waters.
At some point our guide spotted a monitor lizard hanging out in a tree. He turned the raft around because he wanted to catch it. He asked Charlie to go with him. Eventually after some provoking, the lizard fell about 300 meters to the ground almost falling on top of Charlie, but he got out of the way and the lizard ran into the river. Our guide was so excited about what happened that he talked about it for the next fifteen minutes.
Seven hours later in the raft we reached the end of our journey.

It took another 2 1/2 hours in the truck back to Pai town.
In the evening I had dinner with Charlie and his mother. They were an interesting pair. She has been volunteering with an NGO at refugee camps for Burmese ethnic minorities on Thai border towns, and he is just visiting her from the UK.

The trip was so much fun and I definitely recommend it for anyone visiting Pai!