Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Mae Sa Valley
One of the easiest mountain escapes, the Mae Sa-Samoeng loop travels from the
lowland's concrete expanse into the highlands' forested frontier. The 100km route
makes a good day trip with private transport. Golden Triangle Rider ( www.gt-
rider.com ) publishes a detailed map of the area.
Head north of Chiang Mai on Rte 107 (Th Chang Pheuak) toward Mae Rim, then
left onto Rte 1096. The road becomes more rural but there's a steady supply of
tour-bus attractions: orchid farms, butterfly parks, snake farms, you name it.
Not far past an elephant camp is the Queen Sirikit Botanic Gardens ( 0
5384 1000; www.qsbg.org ; Rte 1096; adult/child 30/10B; 8.30am-5pm) , featuring
a shorn mountainside displaying 227 hectares of various exotic and local flora for
conservation and research purposes. The drive to the glasshouse affords some
wonderful views and once up here highlights include: the waterlily and lotus collec-
tions with some enormous leafy examples, and beautiful two-, even three-tier
flowers; and the huge tropical rainforest glasshouse complete with indoor waterfall,
where you can walk around on a raised platform giving a bird's-eye view of the
forest below. Motorbikes are not allowed in the gardens.
After the botanic gardens the road climbs up into the fertile Mae Sa Valley , once
a high-altitude basin for growing opium poppies. Now the valley's hill-tribe farmers
have re-seeded their terraced fields with sweet peppers, cabbage, flowers and fruits
- which are then sold to the royal agriculture projects under the Doi Kham label.
Sitting at the western wedge of the valley, Proud Phu Fah ( 0 5387 9389;
www.proudphufah.com ; Km17, Rte 1096; r 4500-7000B; ) is a small
boutique hotel with creature-comfort villas designed to give the illusion of sleeping
amid the great outdoors. Each villa also has a patio area right on the water's edge.
The open-air restaurant serves healthy Thai food (dishes 100B to 150B) with a pan-
oramic view of the valley.
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