We Tried the Craziest Road in Thailand! On The Road (In Thailand) with Niall and Adrie #13

This trip was one of the most fun and immersive ones we’ve recorded so far. Pai has this laid-back charm and unexpected beauty that really took us by surprise.

Adrie and I take you along as we explore some of Pai’s must-see spots — and wow, what a day. We started with the National Park Hot Springs, where the water gets hot enough to boil eggs (or a human, seriously). Then we checked out the WWII Memorial Bridge (Nara Bridge), which has a surprisingly cool history behind it. After that, we made our way across the Bamboo Bridge (NAME), a nearly 1-kilometer-long structure built for the ‘Gram, complete with swings, hearts, and even a ladder to nowhere. 

Finally, we wrapped things up at the breathtaking — and slightly terrifying — Pai Canyon for sunset. It was beautiful, hilarious, a bit slippery, and definitely memorable. If you’re heading to Pai or just want to know what it’s really like, this one’s for you.

Key Takeaways

Pai Hot Springs are natural and beautiful, but can be dangerous — always check temperatures and wear grippy shoes.
Respect local customs — the hot springs are used by locals, so be clean and mindful (no peeing, no weed, no booze!).
Tha Pai Memorial Bridge has a rich WWII history — rebuilt multiple times and now a perfect selfie stop.
Bamboo Bridge is a modern tourist gem, filled with photo ops — hearts, swings, and “ladder to nowhere” included.
Pai Canyon offers stunning views, but be prepared for narrow paths, sheer drops, and zero handrails — not for the faint-hearted.

Chapters & Timestamps
[00:02:00] Cultural Tips + Slippery Rocks
 Local etiquette, weed laws in Thailand, and practical warnings.
[00:04:00] WWII Memorial Bridge History
 A Japanese-built war bridge turned tourist stop — and a lesson in resilience.
[00:06:00] Bamboo Bridge Adventures
 815 meters of Instagram heaven, odd photo props, and a sandy, bouncy stroll.
[00:10:00] Sunset at Pai Canyon
 Stunning views, sketchy ledges, and why alcohol is not sold up there.
[00:17:00] Final Thoughts and Laughs
 Slipping, climbing, joking, and reflecting on Pai’s wild charm.

This Season is sponsored by Premier Dental.

Discover the potential of a confident and healthy smile with the excellent dental clinic in Ho Chi Minh

Transcript

1:23

Thanks for listening to this extra episode we're do now of a VM podcast that come out every Sunday. These episodes are designed for YouTube. I've gone over to the dark side, and so you can find these on our YouTube channel. You can see what we're talking about. But thank you for listening to it. I am an OG podcaster. I do love audio, but if you want to go watch the video, go to youtube.com, a Vietnam podcast, and you'll be able to see what we're up to there. Cheers.

Niall: 1:51

762 tons. It's crazy. It's just like a zigzag the whole way. This is how cold it is getting wrapped up. I put my next stuff on. I got my pollution mask. Not for the pollution, but for the pool there. So Ang Mai, no helmet. No helmet, foreign, nor with no helmet. We made it to Chiang Rai. So a few things we've noticed. A lot different between Thailand and Vina isn B three here in pi, we're at another sunset spot called Two Huts and we said we read that it gets new red, we get a little bit busy, but not too crowdy.

2:42

I rather a review that it. And it's

Niall: 2:47

absolutely crazy.

2:48

And it's Every tourist in pie is here. Yeah, I think so. And

Niall: 2:51

the sunset is even better than last night, which last night was epic. I don't even know how this could be better, but pretty better

2:59

is it for the view.

Niall: 3:02

So we haven't done many videos. Today, uh, in a bit of a workday actually. It was a bit of a relaxation day. We didn't do any trips or anything. And then I had a podcast emergency, which I'm probably thinking like, how do you have a podcast emergency? I had a podcast emergency today, so I did quite a bit of work, so that's all right.'cause we did a much plan. So we just chilled out in a few coffee shops in a digital nomad, and now we're finished for the day. We're here for sunset, and we're maybe gonna go from massage finally tonight. Check out the town again. Have some food. For sure. The food is so good. The night market has just so much food and we haven't eaten half of it. No, we've probably had nearly half of it. Not much. Not sure we

3:40

could eat

Niall: 3:41

so

3:41

much soup there. There

Niall: 3:43

is so much food. What's been your favorite food so far at the night market?

Adrie: 3:47

Right here. We had a tea leaf salad last night, which was. Yeah,

Niall: 3:52

that was amazing. Tea leaf salad is from Burma. We've had that when we went to Burma, Myanmar, whatever you call it, mean. We go with Myanmar, uh, and it really, really good. The tea leaf salad and they had one of them here and that was really, really good. If you ever come across a tea leaf salad, I would recommend that. So look at the sunset right now. As you can see, everyone else agrees. Look, it's a really good sunset. Apart from those that are pacing the other way.

4:17

Like

Niall: 4:18

guys playing football.

4:19

Oh, most people are facing the right way.

Niall: 4:23

I think that's maybe the most epic, sunset we've seen so far

Adrie: 4:28

in life,

Niall: 4:28

no, in this trip, but maybe in life this week. Uh,

Adrie: 4:31

it is pretty good. This is, I don't think we've stayed this long, which helps. You gotta wait for the like after effects.

Niall: 4:39

So one of the things we've noticed, we've known photographers. If you're gonna do a sunset photograph, the best actual views are about an hour to two hours after the sunset. And everyone makes this mistake. We do it as well where they're like, oh, sunset's at 6 0 2, so let's go for 6 0 2, and then the sunset. And you're like, all right, IE. And then, what's the time now?

Adrie: 5:01

Six 40.

Niall: 5:02

So it's about 20, 40 minutes after work. No.

Adrie: 5:06

Well. The sun dipped over the, uh, mountain and then yeah, obviously hit the horizon at like six 15. It's been 25 minutes since actually sun. The sun gets, and it just keeps getting better

Niall: 5:18

and better. I'll look away for a second, then I'll look up and I'm like, whoa, it's changed. It's so much better. Yeah, and then the video right now and the camera cannot get like, how stunning this is. I know we've done a lot of stunning sunsets in the Of

Adrie: 5:32

course. Yeah. This one's beautiful.

Niall: 5:34

We, you never get bored of them. So weird that something that happens every single day.

Adrie: 5:37

That's what I always say to you, we as humans are like, like sun rises every day, but on holiday especially, it's like, what are we doing for sunrise? What are we doing for sunset?

Niall: 5:48

Even in Saigon though,'cause we've got a nice be sunset. Like the sunset is. Pretty It sets

Adrie: 5:53

every day.

Niall: 5:53

Yeah.

Adrie: 5:54

Even at st.

Niall: 5:56

No, but it's stunning. But I think as well there is something about the sunset in southeast Asia.'cause I remember our first trip to Bangkok and the sun at the end of a street and just looking in the sky was. Bright red. I don't think that's the same in every area of the world. You think it is? Well, we did go to El Paso a couple years ago. Some was stunning as well. I, the sun does

Adrie: 6:18

set beautifully in most places in the world.

Niall: 6:21

It's not as long as you have a

Adrie: 6:22

view of the not

Niall: 6:23

glad as'cause it's cloudy. Know. That's true. Maybe that's why you, you appreciate it for, maybe that's why I appreciate it, because I'm not used to having those sun.

Adrie: 6:31

There's not one single WEP of a cloud in the. Sky tonight. It's actually last night at the Kenyan, there was wisps. There's nothing in the sky at all. It's like the clearest sky. It's really clear.

Niall: 6:44

And the other, the other best place in the other best place in the world for sunset and you know, was my favorite place in the world. Western Australia, Cal Valley, number four.

Adrie: 6:53

Number four we're at the night market. There's a little stall with. Quite a few options. I didn't really look that carefully, but they've got tables right in front of the seven 11. Uh, we've been eyeing this up for three days now, and as we were driving by, I was like, let's just do it like last chance and it looks fucking delicious. There's

Niall: 7:15

50 bot, which is about dollars in five.

Adrie: 7:18

We got all the big things, the onions.

Niall: 7:23

Do you love this? This is the seven 11. Every night is packed just with people everywhere. Is it good? That looks good.

7:32

Yeah.

Niall: 7:35

Is it better than the first one we had?

Adrie: 7:38

The first one so long ago. I don't really remember, but it's definitely better.

Niall: 7:42

And two and three more in mind with

Adrie: 7:43

our expectations of the last couple. Oh, thank you.

Niall: 7:48

Day seven in Thailand. We are now driving back from PI to Chiang Mai, then jumping on a bus to Chiang Haii. We upgraded our bite. That last one told you it wasn't really a lemon, it just had the power of a lemon. My God doesn't even do much. We were at 25 kilometers an hour. Now we're about 17. Oh my God, yes.

8:12

Go, go, go, go.

Niall: 8:13

We getting a hot drink? It's my

Adrie: 8:15

hot time

Niall: 8:16

cold. The drive on the way here. I think we told you it was 762 tons. It's crazy. It's just like a zigzag the whole way. And then on the way here where we are now, in the middle of the mountains, it's a couple of horses just shown up really nice. You

8:35

want Whoa, A couple. Oh wait, there's five. There's like

Niall: 8:38

five pull sheets. Hold on.

8:41

Don't feel mad.

Niall: 8:43

What is going on? There is like, I've never seen this many PSEs in one place. There's six. Six of them.

Adrie: 8:51

That's so funny.

Niall: 8:53

So it's a crazy drive. And then as we showed you the bike we had in the, on the way here there's a bit of a lemon. I had the power of a Lemon

Adrie: 9:02

Pro tip. Two people get a one 50 minimum.

Niall: 9:06

Yeah.

Adrie: 9:08

1, 2, 5. Just didn't cut it with the, the turns and the hills and the inclines.

Niall: 9:13

Yeah, so that's the other thing. It's not, sorry. It's not just the zigzagged, it's zigzagged on hills going up and down, like this whole journey. We've been going for about an hour so far. Out of 128 kilometers we're only like 30 kilometers in.

Adrie: 9:28

Yeah. Which means we need to with cold.

Niall: 9:29

I know, but cold. We had to stop for a hott milk tea.

Adrie: 9:33

Delicious.

Niall: 9:34

I know we're in Thailand, so it's just a milk tea, but all the menus do say Thai milk tea. I passed it, I think it says Thai milk tea. So

Adrie: 9:42

is it,'cause it is Thai tea?

Niall: 9:44

Yeah, I think so.'cause it's like different, maybe it's been, cold pie has been amazing. But this, the trip here is. So beautiful, so stunning. We've not done any videos'cause it's so cold. We're all wrapped up with masks on and scarfs. Um, but yeah, so this morning we swapped our bike. We went to the IS service and thankfully they had a bike for us, so we were able to give back our 1 2 5 lemon and get a one 50 automatic as well. And oh my goodness, what a difference like. So this journey in this direction has to get here has been so steep and so many curves. So the problem is with the other bike, you could never get any momentum'cause you always had to slow down, take a curve, did so much of it in like cost in second gear. I honestly think if we'd still had that bike, I don't think we would've made it up. That first two.

Adrie: 10:33

I don't wanna think about it. Which then

Niall: 10:34

means that would've like messed up our day completely.'cause we would then have to drive back. Get another bike if possible.'cause the bike place like sells outta Bikes really early in the morning. We went for the opening today at like 8:00 AM be and everyone was just there like, do you have Bikes? Do you have Bikes? Even yesterday we had people and they're like, no, no more Bikes left. We've seen other people who went to get a bike and couldn't get one, then go to all the other, we, we passed them in the town like trying to find one. So it would've been really bad.

Adrie: 11:03

I honestly, we would've had to drive back and just get a bus back.

Niall: 11:07

So a few things we've noticed that are different between Thailand and Vietnam is one. That you pay extra for ice here, like an ice drink costs more money. Two prices. Like the place we're in right now is 30 for the Thai milk tea hot and 40 for it being with ice, which is pretty same everywhere. Which makes sense.'cause ice costs money and you look at like in these hot countries, especially the amount of ice that gets delivered. Yeah, it's true because it's not like you freeze it yourself. And I don't even know if they do that in the west, not in a restaurant or a cafe. They would buy the ice, but it's so, it's a cost. But in Vietnam, it. It's not extra for ice at all. No,

Adrie: 11:41

they add ice to everything.

Niall: 11:42

Yeah. I mean, you go to seven 11 on a shop, you can buy a cup of ice, but it's only like five 50. I can't remember price. Isn't it five? Five? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Five. Well, 5,000. Yeah. 5,000 or 10,000. Not even 10,000,

Adrie: 11:53

but 5,000, which is like what, 20 cents.

Niall: 11:58

Yeah. So that's been a, like a noticeable difference here, which is nothing makes me that pretty awesome. Like they don't ever charge you extra for ice. Which I'm kinda like, you probably should, but don't'cause it's, don't

Adrie: 12:13

watch this video. Vietnam. Don't

Niall: 12:14

do that. Another few things are different. So obviously in Vietnam they have pictures and posters of Ho Chi men everywhere. The father of Vietnam, I guess I've never really heard them in called that, but I guess you could call'em that. Whereas here, uncle, uncle hall. Whereas here, the king, they have a monarch and they like love the king. So it's just pictures of the king everywhere in the, in the roads, in every shop. There's one around the earth. So it's like same, same but different. To use a phrase that is used in Thailand, I think,

Adrie: 12:45

well, just an obvious one, we were talking about a on the bike is like the, they have a completely different script. So in Vietnam, if you, even if you don't speak Vietnamese, you can recognize words because it's familiar Western script. But here, obviously Ty, really different script. So. I don't know if long term expats can recognize Thai words, but for us it's really hard to, unless it's in English or in Yeah, English writing. Yeah. It just, we wouldn't be able to recognize or see what things say.

Niall: 13:19

It is such a stark difference, right? Because in Vietnam we don't speak no language much, but we recognize words and you know what it means. And there is also English everywhere in Vietnam, whereas on the road, like you said, there's a couple of signs that are all in Thai. And so even in. Vietnam, we can kinda understand the Vietnamese on the road signs'cause we've seen them so much. So we know that it means slow down or whatnot. Whereas here, so that's a big difference. I dunno if you can see that, but it's like pretty indecipherable at first. Like many languages. They don't use the English. Not the English. Sorry. Western script. Good. Alright, we're gonna get back on the road'cause we gotta get going to make sure we get a bus, which I'm sure we'll, but. Let's keep going and then we'll show you some of this road on the way. It's pretty crazy. All right, let's go. This is how cold it is getting wrapped up. I put my next scarf on. I got my pollution mask. Not for the pollution, but for the cold air because keep my nose a bit warmer. Wrapped up. A's wrapped up right. Ready to go. So we are at Thinging Ma Jiggy Coffee Roastery.

Adrie: 14:24

We went to Rabbit

Niall: 14:25

Bit. Well, we went to Rap Bit, but that one's called Thinging. Ma Jiggy is a great one. That's like a Scottish one, is it not? Anyway, we had a quick stop, a half an hour out of Chang Mai. Had a quick stop at the couple of coffee shops here. Stunning views, like all around here. So Hunter Chang Mai. And then Bus two Shanghai. One of the things we've noticed a big difference between here and Vietnam is the WH of helmets. And I know Hanoi might be different in Saigon, but in Saigon, pretty much everyone wears a helmet. It's questionable for many of them whether they are actually safe'cause they look like tiny pieces of plastic. The one we've noticed here is a lot of people don't wear helmets at all. I don't know if it's against the law or they just don't do it. And obviously if you go to any local place in Saigon like district two or District four, you see lots of people driving about without helmets, but generally they're going short distances. You never see anyone on a highway like this or a road like this, whereas all the time, and especially in pi, which makes a little bit of sense, driving around the PI center. And not wearing a helmet, but we saw so many, a lot of tourists, so many tourists just driving about with no helmets on this woman in front of me that I'm just showing. She has a helmet attached to the back of a bike, but is driving down a two lane highway with without wearing it. So that always just absolutely baffles me when someone would not wear a helmet. But there you go. There's another difference between Vietnam and Thailand. No helmet. No helmet. Foreigner with no helmet. No helmet. So I just asked Chad, TPT, and it is mandatory for both the passenger and the driver of motorbikes to wear a helmet. They obviously don't enforce it here'cause so many people don't do it. We are on the bus to Chang Chang. Those names are not confusing at all. Likeno? Oh yeah,

Adrie: 16:29

yeah, yeah.

Niall: 16:30

Constantly mixed up.

Adrie: 16:32

Literally one letter Chang,

Niall: 16:36

we made it to Chang Rai. Pretty, pretty nice view to start these pink neon trees. So bus gently was pretty uneventful. There was one part where I thought the bus was going off the side of the road. I think you might have been slipped for that part. It seemed to hit the rumble strips, which was a bit scary.

Adrie: 16:56

Are you hurting me?

Niall: 16:57

Yeah.

Adrie: 16:57

Oh really?

Niall: 16:59

Apart from that, it's fine. One thing that Arie read thankfully, is it's freezing on the bus. They have the air con blasting. So luckily we took our jackets. If you're ever getting the bus, make sure you bring warm clothes'cause they will blast the air. Conone you get free snack, free water. Uh, don't think they gave free wifi. I didn't even look. No. Everyone has like nothing like that. But it's good. We're here in three hours and. There's another night market checked in, dropped the stuff off. It's 15 degrees right now, which is nine degrees less than normal. Right on this day. On average, yeah.

Adrie: 17:31

Usually it's in the high twenties

Niall: 17:33

and every bar we pass. So far has, is outdoor like open to the air, which means it's gonna be cold if we want to have a beer. And we saw somewhere selling GU Guinness already, which I'm gonna have a Guinness'cause we don't get Guinness inside going on tap anywhere apart from one bar in Hanoi. But one of the best things to do, one of the things to do is go to the clock tower. So we're here at the clock door, which happens to just be 170 meters from our hotel, and there's gonna be a light show in 20 minutes, but I don't think we're gonna stand on the street corner.

Adrie: 18:05

I think we're gonna look for seven 11.

Niall: 18:07

So we are reminded, one of the other big differences between Vietnam and Thailand is kinda smells bad here, just like that in Bangkok when we're been Chang Mai wasn't, no, yeah, it was pretty bad. There probably wasn't too bad. The reason is they cannot have like covered open soils, if that makes sense. So all the wastewater comes out and it's covered with concrete, but it's not in a pipe as far as I can tell, so you can smell it. So you often get these wafts of portrait smell, which is disgusting. And unless you Saigon, unless you are like behind a dump truck or you're next to a dumpster, it generally doesn't smell in Saigon, I don't think. Right?

Adrie: 18:56

Uh, no. Not, not the way it doesn't Thailand.

Niall: 18:59

No. Yeah, that's I, me it kind like

Adrie: 19:00

sewage.

Niall: 19:01

Yeah. And it kinda smells like sewage here. So there's another plus for Vietnam.

Adrie: 19:07

It's not a competition or is it?

Niall: 19:10

No, we just know Vietnam. It's not a competition.'cause Vietnam's better

Adrie: 19:13

of course.

Niall: 19:26

Thing says a traditional Thai monument, like having a pizza hut right behind it, right next to it. And then, what is that French cafe? But we read that. Uh, lots of people as you can see across. I just notice all that and locals come out. To see this, and it was only built in 2008, which is crazy. It's like not that long ago. I just expect everything you see is like 400 years old.

Adrie: 19:56

Yeah, it's very pretty.

Niall: 19:57

Yeah. It is super

Adrie: 19:58

intricate in order

Niall: 20:00

and it's, uh, honor the king. Is that what it was?

Adrie: 20:03

King name?

Niall: 20:05

So it goes for 10 minutes, which is quite long. Don't worry, I'm not gonna film this whole thing for 10 minutes. Oh, there we go. It's on Need clockwork on. It's kind of weird'cause the music comes from like over there, not from the

Adrie: 20:21

much better from.

Niall: 20:23

Alright. We've stumbled across a food that we have not had yet before on this trip. It's one of our favorites. Chicken sat? Like chicken sat skews. Oh, clean up. No,

Adrie: 20:37

they

Niall: 20:37

got more. Woohoo. Plenty. We get, we can get 50 if we want. Oh my God, this looks amazing. Is it like all your hopes and dreams?

Adrie: 20:49

Mm-hmm. Such

Niall: 20:51

hidden PCs of chicken? Like I don't mean that in a bad way.

Adrie: 20:56

You have to get some of the cucumber. We got some cucumber.

Niall: 21:01

That pretty good? Can you feed me one?

Adrie: 21:04

No.

Niall: 21:05

How did you add this stuff to?

Adrie: 21:06

Um, I used a skewer

Niall: 21:09

easier when you don't have a camera in your hand.

Adrie: 21:11

Start at hard and then you do skewer to get. Right?

Niall: 21:16

Mm-hmm. So good?

Adrie: 21:17

Yep.

Niall: 21:18

Alright. I gotta go eat some more. We absolutely demolished that. How good was that?

Adrie: 21:24

Really good. I'm looking the plate

Niall: 21:25

now. I see why they sell them in lots of 50. You could easily D all this. 50. Yeah.

Adrie: 21:30

Said only, we only got 10. We should have gotten 20, but we have one night market to get to. Yeah,

Niall: 21:33

yeah. Alright, let's go to the other night. Pocket.

Adrie: 21:36

What shoes?

Niall: 21:38

Beer. Of night markets, Guinness Night Markets. All right, we're going for a Guinness. It's about the same temperature as higher. Later

Adrie: 21:47

is one minute later.

Niall: 21:49

We just called the new pins of Guinness and E. If you can get Guness in less than a nine, well, let's see how it travels. Uh, all the way from miles to Shanghai.

Adrie: 21:59

Thank you.

Niall: 22:00

Come all the way to Thailand to get a Guinness. Thank you very much. That was pretty damn good. It's been so long. I can't remember what it's meant to taste like. It taste and it tastes really good. It's like proper football to themselves to get in and outta the bathroom. Oh, this way. That is amazing. Three back, like 1 cent. Use the bathroom. Basically football comes down. This is our first Tom Young Soup since we got here, which is one of our favorites. Would you say that if it doesn't front All the time is good, which we've already said in this video, we bear, we think the Ty food is probably better than the Vietnamese, but I take by that piece is good.

Adrie: 22:46

That's what you want on a cold night though.

Niall: 22:49

Well, that's the other reason we got Tom Yum. Super knot. Hot, dire. Anything else? It is cool tonight.

Adrie: 22:54

Woo.

Niall: 22:56

Or you can warm me up. It's too hot for your hands. Gonna warm your cockles. Let's go

Adrie: 23:01

next week.

Niall: 23:05

And then we just stumbled across this.

Adrie: 23:09

I knew we were coming here.

Niall: 23:10

Did you? I'm no archeologist, as you would know. Why the hell do you know that from this?

Adrie: 23:21

Oh, my.