Chiang Mai Province - Thailand - page 562

here aren't as competitive as more centrally located places. It also means that there is
more pressure to make a sale, since each customer who walks in the door already costs the
company. This results in a somewhat unscrupulous sales climate. One Persian rug dealer
told us that all of the rugs were made on-site by Thai workers, were decorated with Thai
symbolism, and came with a certificate documenting authenticity. If you decide to shop in
San Kamphaeng, do so with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Getting There & Away
White sŏrng·tăaou to Bo Sang (20B) and San Kamphaeng (20B) leave Chiang Mai fre-
quently during the day from the Talat Warorot sŏrng·tăaou stop on Th Praisani. Bo Sang
is 10km from Chiang Mai and San Kamphaeng is 14km.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Mae Kampong
If you plough across the Ping Valley on Rte 1317 past the housing developments and the
rice fields to Mae On district, the road begins to narrow and climb into the forested hills
of Mae Kampong, one of Chiang Mai's closest and most accessible high-altitude villages.
Most visitors are first introduced to the area on day trips with Flight of the Gibbon ( Click
here ) , a zipline canopy tour.
Sitting at an altitude of about 1300m, Ban Mae Kampong is a Thai village that produces
mêeang (pickled tea leaves), the northern Thai equivalent of betel nut. Most villagers
make their living in this small-scale industry (an average annual salary for a farming fam-
ily is 35,000B). Recently though, the villagers have expanded into coffee production, as
demand for mêeang has declined. In the early mornings the pickers stop by the local
temple where the monk has prepared a restorative brew of medicinal herbs before they
head out into the fields to collect the tea leaves. The village itself is a gravity-defying col-
lection of maze-like huts hugging the steep hillside. Flowers bow in the cool breezes and
the jungle insects screech at each other.
The community has banded together to develop a tourism initiative to encourage visit-
ors to experience their traditional lifestyle. Several families participate in a homestay program
( 08 9559 4797; r 580B) that includes three meals and basic lodging. It is estimated that
homestay families earn about 10,000B to 15,000B per year through the program, and 10%
of the income enters a village development fund that has been used for infrastructure and