A guide to conscious community, events and connection in Pai, Thailand
So you want to know about life in Pai? Well, this small town with a village feel is known for charming visitors with the excitement of so much going on here, and inviting a sense of slowing down to chill. The vibrant art and music scene welcomes creativity and culture at every juncture, whilst the Pai river flows and dances through the heart of this much-loved spot.
Hippy Paradise
Affectionately known as a hippy paradise, or a Thai Hebden Bridge (my reference for any fellow North of England people reading this), Pai is protected by majestic mountains and fire spinners alike. The inviting waterfall hikes and exuberant hot springs make it oh-so easy for days to slip into weeks into months with this paradise way of life.
Like the Thai island, Koh Phangan, Pai attracts a diverse range of people. A significant proportion of whom will prefer ecstatic dance and a cacao ceremony over a night raving and doing shots. As the saying goes, same same but different. If that’s you, hopefully this article may be helpful for you.
Conscious activities in Pai
This article is for people who want to find ‘conscious’ activities, as they are generally referred to. For clarity, what I mean by that is events and workshops that can help with:
- Caring for well-being,
- Helping you to feel embodied,
- Connecting to a spiritual sense,
- Becoming more aware of habitual responses,
- Getting into a meditative or relaxed state,
- Support emotional healing,
- Take a holistic view of health… you get the idea.
My writing is based on my experience of discovering these kinds of activities, as well as other people with shared values, over the past few months in Pai. My hope is that you can use this guide to orientate yourself with the conscious community, connect with others and enjoy your time in ‘the island in the mountains’.
When to visit Pai
November to February is the peak season for visitors to Pai, also known as the ‘cool’ season (with 20 degree temperatures). It’s helpful to be aware of the smoky season that follows, it’s a hot time when many people leave due to the high levels of pollution in the air due to farming processes during March and April. This is followed by monsoon season from May to October. I believe it’s still fairly rainy, but very pleasant from August time.
I am writing this article at the end of February 2023, summing up my experience of the past few months as a gift to people who may be planning their visits. My intention is to check in with friends in Pai at the start of November 2023 for any additions or amends to make to this guide so it can evolve over time.
Established and transient community happenings in Pai
The mix of established community and people passing through means that there is a mix of regular offerings and others which are more like moments in time. This article will focus primarily on the regular offerings and places.
It’s worth staying open to what people passing through Pai may be sharing, as there can be many interesting workshops and experiences to be had. For example the authentic relating workshop that I assisted at was about playing playful and deep games to connect to yourself and others.
There have also been workshops on embodied dance, connecting to your purpose, tantra, breathwork, speed dating and more. See what may call you and then go to meet others with the same idea.
You can get a view of what might be on at the time by checking out the various community noticeboards and flyers at various restaurants, as well as at one of the many community noticeboards around Pai (see below). There are also facebook groups which share information about events, including Our Pai Family and Pai Conscious Community. All of these channels are useful for finding out about specific workshops, which may be taking place as one-offs.
You can also search for particular activities you may be interested in doing more regularly to see if they have a facebook messenger chat. For example, I found one of these for contact improv, as well as acroyoga in Pai. If you can’t find the exact niche of conscious activity that you enjoy, there’s a higher than average chance in Pai of others being at least open to trying it out. So feel free to put the word out there and create your own practice group or meet-up. Be mindful that you will need a Thai work permit to offer paid events.
Different types of connection at different types of events
As I am interested in both conscious events and finding deeper connection with people on the road, I thought about how these factors have played out during my experience in Pai.
Workshops — greater potential for deeper connection and shared values. For me, the regular poetry and improv theatre workshops, as well as one-offs like authentic relating workshops, have brought deeper, one-on-one connections for me.
Community spaces and groups — regular ways to see lots of people and reconnect. Also a great way to meet people, especially those who may be in Pai for a longer time (so you’re more likely to see them again). Examples of these can include the Saturday markets or Shekina garden Sunday gatherings, as well as the contact improv dance community.
Good vibes hang out spots — because Pai is so small, these cute, high stimulation places make for sweet spots to bump into pals from the above, or make new ones. They may not have as much opportunity for depth of connection, but they are easily accessible and fun. You’ll find some of these at the end of the article.
So with that in mind, let’s get into my top recommendations so you can find your way with conscious events and community in Pai!
Saturday community market
If you can imagine a mini-festival happening every Saturday, from the morning until sunset, that’s the Pai Saturday market. A mix of locals and travellers, all contributing to a welcoming environment set in the park next to Good Life Dacha.
This is the place to gather and connect with people in Pai - from people selling food, drinks and clothes, to musicians jamming, slackliners and circus spinners. It really is a wonderful, welcoming ambiance and has been too vast and vibrant for me to capture on camera, even (big statement, I know)! If anyone has a photograph that captures the Saturday market vibe (maybe a drone shot?), and you’d be willing for me to include it in this post, please let me know!
There’s also an ecstatic dance at Good Life Dacha from 5pm — a wonderful flow from the markets to dance. This was my weekly gig as a space holder, welcoming people with cups of tea or offering a warm-up, connect to self meditation. Here’s a picture of me, post-Saturday markets, ahead of ecstatic dance, instead:
Shekina Sunday community meals and gatherings
The next opportunity to gather and connect with people comes from the Shekina community, who are well-known and loved for their generous offering of Sunday lunch plus other connection activities in their beautiful garden space. Described as a ‘Jesus Devotional Community in the heart of Pai’, they ‘create safe and creative places for people to experience the path of Christ’ in a spot not far from the river.
Shekina welcome people to join in their gatherings, held with the shared intention of celebrating christ consciousness. Their website describes the Shekina approach as loving the radical truth-speaking nature of Jesus, the hippy side of Jesus and the artist side of Jesus. All of which extends into events in the weekly schedule such as crafting and listening to a podcast followed by a discussion, as well as tending to the community gardening and yin yoga practice. Shekina garden also had a joyful festive gathering on Christmas eve, which consisted of music, dancing, readings, sharing food and fireside chats.
Pittalew art gallery parties
Regular, monthly-ish parties take place at this gallery space. Usually running from early afternoon until midnight. The invitation is generally to come and enjoy some art (when I was there, there were some collaborations with ‘unfinished art’ events where people could finish each others creations for experimental results). There’s also live music, food and drink vendor offerings. You can get up for dancing, or sit around the fire — all are welcome and mainly it’s a place for people to gather and connect. The gallery is a ten minute drive from the centre of Pai.
Like the Saturday market, this is another immersive experience that is hard to capture. So here’s some of the artwork that I enjoyed from the gallery instead. These pieces are by Sa-ard Nilkong, whose work you can find at artinthai.com:
Ecstatic dance
Ah, ecstatic dance! This was one of the main reasons why I came to Pai — during the peak of the season there were four opportunities for ecstatic dance per week! These were held at Good Life Dacha, a long-standing community hub set by the park, as well as Deejai Pai, a refurbished and relaunched for 2023 hostel with an epic dance space set to mountain sunset views.
Both of these venues have their own charms and host a range of other activities to check out, for example: Good Life Dacha has a steam room and ice bath, as well as a library and many other treasures to discover.
‘The vision behind Deejai Pai is one of creating a free space for consciousness. A playground where everyone can explore their own authentic expression and grow so that together we thrive’.
Deejai Pai has a cute games area, fire in the outdoor space and land beyond to explore. Both are community hubs and well worth extended visits to explore and find out what else may be going on.
Pai water temple
Following on from ecstatic dance, naturally comes contact improv - for which there is an established facebook group (and there were weekly jams arranged via the messenger group). So far, so conscious community.
In Pai, contact improv is taken into an extra slippery, floaty, dimension with water dance flow at Pai water temple. It consists of contact improv dance. Slowed down in a hot spring pool. By sunset. This is where my words start to become more thin… perhaps I’ll just share a moment of my experience in a haiku form:
Eyes half-open, air,
Sink into warm, fluid flow
Bodies tangling.
The water dance gatherings have been every Friday during high season, with guidance from Hester, as well as a ceremonial space to ground before and after the water dance. One practical thing to note about this is the venue is a twenty minute scooter ride away from the centre of Pai, so bring warm clothes for the ride home later that night.
Thai massage
Traditional thai massage, or Nuad Thai, is protected by Uniseco as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity — recognised as part of the art, science and culture of traditional Thai healthcare.
This means that there are many practitioners around Pai, all offering massage at accessible prices. I especially enjoyed visiting Anong massage — both Anong and Fa had exceptionally strong hands for working with the tension in my shoulders.
Yoga
OK, we are fully into the conscious activity classics now! The main yoga studios with daily classes are Bodhi tree yoga as well as Sawasdee Pai Yoga by the concrete bridge. However, it doesn’t stop there. Various hostels and other resorts have teachers passing through that offer classes, for example at Good Life Dacha and Deejai Pai. So it may be worth looking into what places near your accommodation are offering yoga (because there is a LOT).
Sharing circles
There are a few of these in Pai, they can be a great place to be deeply heard and make friends, especially if you are new in town. I believe the men's circle is generally a closed group and spaces come up as and when people leave. There were various women’s circles taking place at different people’s houses when I was in Pai. It’s best to ask around when you meet people, ideally residents, at regular community events to find out the latest status for these types of sharing circles and how you could get an invite.
For those wanting to share specifically about abstinence from substances, there are also regular in-person NA (narcotics anonymous) meetings in Pai.
Meditation retreat centres
There are many Buddhist meditation centres across Thailand and South East Asia where you can do a vipassana meditation. Pai has both Pa Pae and Wat Pa Tam Wua which are less than two hours drive away.
Full disclosure: I haven’t attended either of these places, but wanted to include them for reference. From reviews, it seems these offerings may have been adapted for more of a ‘beginner’ audience, perhaps to cater to the large numbers of conscious activity-seeking tourists passing through Pai.
This is as opposed to following the very specific guidelines of a traditional Vipassana (such as honouring a noble silence throughout the experience, no phones or even journalling, etc).
More high-vibe destinations in Pai
So Good Life Dacha and Deejai Pai are already established on your list for conscious activities and community. Some other favourite hang-outs for vibes and bumping into like-minded people around Pai include:
Malamong art cafe — A tea house-come-way of life on walking street. I’ve played card games, seen bands perform, bought incense and been to a pop up rave all in the magical Malamong space.
Walking street — Where everyone goes to pick up culinary delights of an evening. Walking street is a great place to bump into people and see where the flow of the night may take you.
Art in Chai open mic night — A regular, cosy, auspicious gathering of people who want to express themselves. Pai poetry legend, Jason Geller, also held weekly poetry workshops beforehand in this cafe of curiosities. The poetry workshops, and subsequent open mic nights, quickly became my favourite way to meet people in Pai for the depth of connection through shared expression. Shout out to Jason in Bali! Shout out to Art in Chai!
The Jazz House — A live music institution every night of the week, get your dinner on walking street and take it in there to eat and meet people. Sunday nights are open mic — on the subject of which, there’s also an open mic night on Wednesdays at Super Moon bar.
Spirit bar — A cute and cosy, fireside live music venue with cauldrons of tea, space to chat and even a view of the starry skies when it’s clear. Look out for the psychedelic corridor off walking street and enjoy the warm, Spirit bar welcome into another dimension.
Fire spinning shows at Paradise bar — A twice weekly ritual, which is usually followed by open mic. There are plenty of opportunities to party at Paradise bar, if that is what calls you.
Getting to the end of this article, I realise there is a final addition to be made, because after all of those stimulating hot spots, you may need some peaceful time. And this wouldn’t be an article about connection without a recommendation for connecting with nature, right?!
As well as the many waterfalls and other hikes around Pai, Conserve Natural Forests deserves a mention. It is a non-profit organisation, around thirty minutes drive away where you can take an eco-tour at their environmental restoration, wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism HQ.
As well as planting hundreds of thousands of trees every year, they also have intermittent projects to help endangered species in the region. The team is currently in the process of creating a botanical garden on-site. Which could make for a sweet addition to your High Season 2023 Trip to Pai list…
Their biggest project is rehabilitating previously-abused elephants to eventually release them back into the wild. Here’s the current resident rescue elephant, Kamee, who is free to roam the land and do as she pleases:
Ending on a natural high, that’s your summary of conscious community, events and places to meet people in Pai. For more info about Pai, you can also check out this article I wrote about ways to consider supporting Thai-owned businesses and community in Pai here.
I hope the information serves you well and that it can guide you to carve out your own slice of Pai and community! If you’re reading this as a person in Pai and you would like to add more tips for conscious community, events and connection, please feel free to do so in the comments. Love to Pai, always.
