Pai by Night: Street Food & Shopping

Pai is chilly at night around this time of the year. It's a nice contrast to the big cities which stay hot and humid night and day, like year-round. Lots of travelers end up arriving in Pai unprepared for the cold, but when the sun goes down the walking street starts to fill up with vendors selling everything from knit hats, to toe socks, to lemon grass tea--so there are plent of ways to warm yourself up.

Here are some of my favorite Pai by night finds:

I was over the moon when I came across a woman selling pumpkin soup. I'd been craving it for a couple of days and it was the perfect thing to warm me up and make me happy.

The process of making these was a bit like the Japanese takoyaki, or the Korean red bean snacks--a creamy looking liquid batter is poured into a heated metal mold, flipped, then removed.

These weren't the most fabulous street food, but I've grown to love anything coconut during this trip as it's fresh and refreshing. These coconut balls were warm, sweet, a bit gooey on the inside and had chopped up little pieces of something that looked like chives or green onions. Strange, yes, but it seemed to work.

The sky at night in Pai is perfect for star gazing. Constellations are easy to identify, but what confused this city girl was the slow moving glowing red "stars"--which turned out to be lanterns. You light a candle and the hot air fills it up like a hot air balloon, and then it floats up to play with the stars. People light them up and make wishes.