Smoked salmon & cream cheese on a bagel

I’ve been back in my home country for a few weeks and finally made it up to Pai (after my mom nagged me about it for ages — it’s basically her favourite place, she’s been up here almost 10 times this year 😂). Pai’s up in the mountains, which means surviving a whole lot of twists and turns on the way up, but once you’re there… yeah, totally worth it. Super chill, hippie little town. Very slow, very calm.

We stopped by Lemon Thyme Café for lunch after a mini hike, which probably explains why this bagel didn’t quite fill me up. Also pretty funny — we were likely the only Thai group there. Not just in the café, but honestly around Pai in general. Apart from the locals, it feels like almost everyone else is a foreigner.

The bagel itself was surprisingly good. Nice chew, lightly toasted, and better than I expected for a small mountain town café. The cream cheese tasted very much like Laughing Cow wedges — light, familiar, easy eating. It also came with a few slices of cucumber and tomato on the side, which felt very Thai. You know that thing where you order fried rice and somehow get cucumber and tomato every time? Same energy 😂.

Tasty overall, just not quite enough after the hike, so I ended up ordering a plain bagel on the side to snack on. They’ve got a pretty big menu too, with heaps of iced drinks, which feels exactly right for Pai.

Nice service, chill vibes, easy lunch stop.