Member-only story
Another TechBro™ goes to a remote village in Thailand and finds Nirvana
Disclaimer: I was going to write this as a satire piece poking fun at the wanderlust travel subculture but after this adventure, I genuinely feel like there’s something for me to explore in writing, so instead I am going to try and earnestly distill my experience into useful substance.
Pai is an interesting place, to say the least. Twenty years ago, the remote village in northern Thailand was nothing more than a small outpost inhabited by a few indigenous groups, sewn together by mountains, rice fields, and the flourishing Pai river. These days, it’s a tourist mecca and draws in backpackers who seek good vibes amongst the cheap guesthouses, healthy street food, and eclectic crowd. In fact, there are SIX 7-eleven convenience stores, ranking it high on my very unscientific scale for measuring the appeal of a location.
Convenience stores aside, there was definitely an energy to Pai that I viscerally felt but just could not put into words. I spent three days there towards the end of my post-grad travels and during that time, implemented a physical and digital detox, which was unlike anything that I have experienced before. At the…
