Pai Bamboo Bridge

Why a village built a walkway over their own crop

Boon Kho Ku So exists because of monks, trampled rice fields and a tradition going back more than 2,000 years.

During the time of the Buddha, monks wandered from town to town year-round to teach and collect alms. The alms round, sai bat, happens every day at dawn, when monks walk through the local streets collecting food offerings from the community. A monk can't grow, store or cook their food. They have to be given it, every morning, or they don't eat.

Farmers began to complain that during the rainy season, wandering monks were trampling newly planted rice paddies and crushing the insects emerging in the mud. So the Buddha made a rule: for the three months of the monsoon, monks stay at a single monastery. In Thailand this is observed as Vassa, commonly known as Khao Phansa, or Buddhist Lent.

But while Buddhist Lent stopped monks wandering between villages, it never covered the walk to breakfast. The monks at Wat Pa Huai Khai Khiri, the forest monastery at the end of the bridge, still had to reach Ban Pam Bok every morning. Before 2016 that meant a choice between a long detour crossing two streams, or cutting straight through the paddies and trampling the young rice.

In April 2016 a monk named Phra Ajahn Sakhon Charuthammo worked with local farmers to fix it. Villagers donated strips of their own farmland, put up the funds, and spent three months building an 815-metre walkway over the crops, modelled on the Su Tong Pae bridge near Mae Hong Son. It cut the walk to fifteen minutes without trampling a single rice stalk.

The fields underneath are still worked. Every pillar stands in ground somebody farms.

You'll read that it's the longest bridge of its kind in Thailand. We couldn't verify it, and neither could the officer at the ticket booth when we asked.

When to go: green rice, golden harvest, buffalo season

The walkway sits right over working farmland, so the view under your feet depends on the month:

• July to October: tall, bright-green rice right up to the edge of the bridge.
• November: the rice turns gold before the harvest.
• December to June: the fields are harvested, and buffalo roam and graze in them under the bridge, with the mountains around the valley behind.

For what the whole valley is doing month by month, see our guide to the best time to visit Pai.

What your 30 baht pays for

Look under the bridge as you walk across. The bamboo is only the surface. Underneath it are concrete pillars coming straight up out of the paddy, with a metal frame across most of the span.

Which means the part that wears out is the part that grows in the valley and that people here already know how to work. The deck gets rewoven span by span, where and when it's needed, by the same organisation selling the tickets. So if you see fresh pale bamboo next to weathered grey, that's your ticket money, not neglect.

Keep the ticket in your pocket after the entrance. There are two starting points and both funnel through a second checkpoint further along, where it gets checked again.

The temples

There are two religious sites along this road, and visitors mix them up all the time.

Wat Phaem Bok (วัดแพมบก) is the village temple, about 100 metres from the junction.

The forest monastery is at the far end of the bridge. Its own signage doesn't agree with itself: the blue directional sign says Samnak Song Huai Khai Khiri, a monastic residence, while the entrance arch and the rules board say Wat Pa Huai Khai Khiri, a forest temple. Both are in local use. The arch carries its own English: Land of Peace.

If you're going in, cover your shoulders and knees, leave your shoes on the rack, and keep your voice down. There's usually a box of wraps near the entrance to borrow, but bring your own rather than counting on it.

The ride out

Head south on Route 1095, then turn right into the Pam Bok valley road and follow it past Pam Bok Waterfall until you see the signs for the bridge.

The valley road has been resurfaced. Most sources still describe potholes and broken tarmac, but they're out of date. It's still narrow, steep and winding though. If you're two-up on a 125, take the climbs slowly and test your brakes before you start down.

Head back before 17:00. The monastery closes to visitors then, and the valley road has no streetlights.

If you're not up for the drive we can arrange transport for you at the hostel.

Pam Bok Waterfall is on the same road, 8.2 km from Nolo Hub Pai and 1.8 km before the bridge, so the two make an easy half day: the gorge first, then the bridge.

Not riding? Our Sunday trip, the Bamboo Bridge and sunset at Two Huts, is on the Activities page, and our guide to getting around Pai without a scooter has the other ways out here.

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