Yun Lai Sunrise Viewpoint is a Pai trip delight as you can take a good early morning walk through the famous Ban Santichon Chinese Village (หมู่บ้านสันติชล), another Pai attraction.
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In case you are lucky and skies are clear, you may enjoy amazing views from the top as sun rises behind mountains. And in case it is all mist and a sea of clouds, you can enjoy the feel of the place with popular Chinese tea and buns. Former or Latter, we still recommend a visit to Yun Lai Viewpoint just for that refreshing morning walk and the atmosphere on the mountain top, almost packed with people.
Walk through Ban Santichon Chinese Village, Pai
When we got up early morning. It was still cold and dark with starts over us as we left from our farm stay. We wanted to have a walk through Ban Santichon village up to the mountain top and thus had buffered some spare time. We parked our scooter at the village entrance and start walking on the narrow up slope road that passes through the Ban Santichon.
Ban Santichon Yunnanese Village was settled by Chinese Nationalist soldiers and their families who fled the Chinese revolution of Mao Tse Tung. After all these years, the descendants still live here. At the entrance of the village, you will find traditional Chinese Clay houses and few shops selling Yunnanese Tea. We did not find this part much intriguing and thus kept on walking towards Yun Lai Sunrise Viewpoint.
Children getting into school bus, morning road market with fresh vegetables and fruit supplies, chickens confused to cross road – As we walked past Ban Santichon, it turned out to be a proper rural place. As we walked past the village and reached fields, we could see golden top of mountains with sun rising up.
Yun Lai Sunrise Viewpoint, Pai
It turned out to be a bit treacherous to walk up the slope as we paced up with the fear of missing sun-rise. Especially the last stretch, it was full ascend to reach to the Yun Lai (also known as Chinese village View point). We even had an argument for who amongst us had decided to leave scooter behind 🙂 And you know when we reached on the top, it was full of mist and clouds and sun even did not come up for another 2 hours that we stayed there :P. Even without sun-rise, it turned out to be a nice experience for us –
Place was full of people sipping Chinese tea and trying buns. This is a popular dish and must try at Yun Lai. Yunnanese cutlery kept on tables would itself intrigue and attract you.
Then there were people who were enjoying their morning time in their own way either by doing yoga or by getting clicked by Jack Sparrow. Yes Jack Sparrow !! This photographer (Main picture of the blog) is by himself an attraction over here as he looks like Jack Sparrow in pirate get-up and goes around clicking pictures.
Some even jumping around like us !! There is also a camping facility at mountain top and you can stay overnight. Not sure about booking process but some people have pitched tents in the ground nearby.
We were here for around 2 hours clicking around pictures before we walked down again for our next destination – Mor Pang Waterfall. Here is our selfie video on top of Yun Lai Sunrise Viewpoint. This will give you a good reason for getting up early and reach on top of this mountain.
Location of Yun Lai Sunrise Viewpoint
Time and Entry fee for Yun Lai Sunrise Viewpoint
- Time: 4:30 AM to 6 PM
- Entry Fee: 20 Bahts per person
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