Ban Dong

Chiang Dao is a small town in the mountains of Northern Thailand. We went there hoping for cooler weather and some quietude after a few days in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. We got the quietude, for sure! Chiang Dao's landscape is lush and stunning, dominated by a forested mountain range that includes Doi Chiang Dao, Thailand's 3rd-highest peak.

I doubt Chiang Dao is ever *bustling*, but it's not unknown to regional and even some western tourists. There are a decent helping of quaint hostels, rustic-chic boutique hotels, and plenty of Starbucks-esque coffee shops (free wi-fi, A/C, and bean origin statements!) in the area, and a strip of the highway that includes Western-style hotels as well. What was eery was being there in March, which was the peak of this year's "burning season," where many farmers burn their fields after harvest in order to clear the ground for next season's planting. The smoke from these fires pervades the atmosphere of the entire region for weeks, or even months. Naturally, this is a LOW season for tourism in Chiang Dao. I don't know if I've ever been to a town/city, as a tourist or otherwise, that felt so abandoned. I was reminded a bit of some of those liminal public space excursions for necessities in various periods of COVID lockdown (or even pre-lockdown, when even many Trumpers were afraid to go out)... but everyone running the shops, restaurants, etc., was happy (if a little surprised) to see us, and we felt very welcomed.

The main thing we came to Chiang Dao to do was to hike, but the parks turned out to be closed for smoke season. Thus most of our time was spent cruising around the country roads on a scooter, visiting the myriad temples, and sitting in any of the myriad cafés reading, writing, planning, etc. Quite pleasant, really. While the temples here weren't as visually stunning as those we saw in Chiang Rai, they did feel more lived-in and authentic--one could tell that they actually functioned as places of meditation and worship.

Two highlights: 1) Wat Tham Chiang Dao, a temple complex built around/in a natural cave that's been filled with buddhist shrines. 2) Our visit to Hoklhong Coffee, one of the best coffee shops I've visited on this trip. I hope to write a full piece on the coffee scene in SE Asia, but this spot in particular deserves special attention.

I read about this spot in a blog post from 2019 where the author described both exceptional coffee and a really friendly, engaging owner/operator by the name of P'Yuth, who was proud of his product and really eager to share his knowledge. I'm sad to say that we only made it to his café on our last day in Chiang Dao, since it's a few km outside the town itself, and it was closed for our first couple days there. When we did get there, not only was the coffee amazing, we learned that it's grown, processed, roasted, and brewed right there in Chiang Dao by the same people. The roaster/café combo is common enough here (more common, I'd say, than in the US, actually!) but this is the first time I've come across a café where the same company is GROWING the coffee just down the road. When I told our barista I was loving the natural-processed drip coffee she'd just made, she recommended we go say hi to the roaster, who was in the back (another open-air, thatched roof traditional building on the property) roasting as we spoke.

And so there was P'Yuth, who showed us his roaster, told us the story of those beans and his story of getting into the business, and insisted on making us a fresh cup (on the house) of the stuff he was currently working on -- a honey-processed local bean, which he brewed with an AeroPress. Chloe complemented the label on the coffee bag, and he said "oh yeah, that's by my friend, he also does posters for Khruangbin. He does all our designs." (Khruangbin is a favorite band of ours, an American world-fusion group with heavy Thai influences.)

He loves coffee, he said, but what really excites him is how it connects people. I couldn't agree more. I asked if his beans were for sale anywhere else in Thailand-- maybe Chiang Mai (an hr away) or Bangkok? Nope. He responded that he used to distribute to some places in Chiang Mai, but it was too much trouble. He's totally happy growing, processing, roasting, and brewing coffee for folks right here in Chiang Dao. It's refreshing to hear someone finding happiness in just making something good and sharing it with the people around them without needing to perpetually expand it out into a greater and greater scale. And P'Yuth does really seem happy. He is one of those people that just exudes peace and warmth, and I'm extremely grateful that we were able to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee with him.Read more