If you read anything about the mountaintop town of Mae Salong, you’ll be told that it doesn’t resemble a typical Thai town at all and that you’ll feel like you’re in northern Laos or southern China. That’s very true; the reason being it was founded in 1961 by remnants of the Kuomintang, (KMT, or Nationalist … read the full post

I won’t add this post to the “see and do” category, but being a generally positive sort of person I won’t add a new “don’t see and do” post category either for what is one of North Thailand’s more contentious “tourist attractions”. We’ll try and highlight a few of the pros and cons of visiting … read the full post

An Akha village just off the road between Tha Ton and Mae Chan, close to the turn off for Mae Salong in northwest Chiang Rai province, Ban Lorcha is also the site of a community-based tourism scheme run by the Population & Community Development Association (PDA). This pilot project aims to create a sustainable tourism … read the full post

The Akha are probably Thailand’s most visible ‘hill-tribe’ group and these days you certainly don’t need to go anywhere near northern Thailand to come across them. The sight, and sound, of an Akha woman with a wooden frog will be all too familiar in any of the country’s tourist hot spots, from Phuket to Khao … read the full post

One of Northern Thailand’s most distinctive and colourful ‘hill-tribes’ and one of the ethnic groups you’re most likely to come across in that part of the kingdom are the Lisu, or Lisaw in Thai. They inhabit a wide swathe of the mountainous northwest and are most populous in Mae Hong Song province, but also well … read the full post