Kanchana Tours off the tourist tracks. (tel. Thailand 08 1952 2167)
Mae Hong Son is Thailand’s north-western province, It some distance from the beaten tourist track so few people want to leave. So if you love to walk and bike in nature, to visit abandoned hill tribes and to mingle with locals, this is the area to stay for 4 to 5 days.
Mae Sariang, where Kanchana Tours is located, is a small town of this province near the Burmese border. It is an excellent departing point to Karen, Shan and Lawa villages nearly untouched by Thailand’s civilisation boost in the south.
Kanchana herself is a retired teacher of primary schools in Mae Sariang and because of this former job she has a direct entrance to all the local tribes and their families. Biking and trekking with her is a guarantee to meet the locals in their houses or on the fields and having a translator at hand to communicate with them. You will be surprised how close you can get to their ordinary lives and sit and communicate with them. These people are also honestly interested in your thoughts and backgrounds, so prepare for some curious questions.
Ask Kanchana to prepare a tailor-made tour for you personally, to visit the local market, learn to eat unknown freshly made food, to gather a take-away lunch with fish, sticky rice in banana-leaves, vegetables, curry and fruits and she will arrange it. Are you interested in names of wild flowers, plants, trees and animals? She’ll prepare you a different tour in the woods. Crossing rivers, biking or walking in a nature park, visiting a local coffee-plantation or a cockfighting farm; you name it and Kanchana fits in yours wishes. She knows that slow travelling leaves a lasting impression, not to be compared to the hasty schedules of the tourist organizations. Are you tired after a whole day of new experiences she can take you to a real 2 hours professional Thai massage. Ask her to translate the chat among the ladies who are doing the job and you’ll have a lot of fun about their friendly gossips included.
Kanchana own a beautiful wooden Thai house in the outskirts of Mae Sariang, so perhaps she will ask you to stay at her home for the night. The best restaurant of Mae Sariang is next door. Try it.
Contact Kanchana at tel. 08 1952 2167 or e-mail kanchanakosai@yahoo.co.uk
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