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Remote villages in the mountains

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I'm looking for remote villages in the mountains, or any other cool and remote places where you usually don't see other tourists.

Preferebly places which are possible to reach in a day trip from Chiang Mai city, so let's say in about a 100km radius, but feel free to post any of such places in the north, i might still decide to travel there.

I'm interested in the really remote places, where the older people don't speak Thai, the houses are not connected to the public electricity, no proper roads, this kind of stuff. I'm not interested in the places with many tourists like the villages on Doi Suthep.

Please share a link to Google Maps or the GPS coordinates so it will be possible to find the place.

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Try here.  N18° 47.806' E99° 20.868'  But paved road, electric & probably fibre optic cables.  No tourists.  More villages out this way.

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Careful if you wanna grow your own be careful of the jungle gangs

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6 minutes ago, madmen said:

Careful if you wanna grow your own be careful of the jungle gangs

Pai walking street?

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Not on the run and also not going to be a farmer, for me remote locations are just more interesting to visit ????

19.368345, 98.713857

Take the road through Chiang Dao National Park Check Point, after 10 kms you will get to the hill tribe villages (Karen and Akka) with bungalows 500 per nightLcPx_kzzDayiWu0rIirUaIw0901qjUy-QE1sCDM0

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So, you want to 'get down' with the local folk with no electricity and few speak Thai, within an easy commute from CM, and no tourists ? If you pass Chiang Dao and head East toward Phrao and up the mountain, when it levels off a bit, look for dirt tracks heading south. Usually a squalid village can be found. Not friendly, mostly Black Lahu. You will get to see what happens when people do too many drugs.

Maybe it is why tourists don't go there ?

Mae Fah Luang( Chiangrai)


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Can you really do without vegan smoothies, wi-fi and/or and fiber ?

 

~o:37;

when I first came to Thailand I thought there really were villages. 

On 5/2/2019 at 8:30 PM, jackdd said:

Not on the run and also not going to be a farmer, for me remote locations are just more interesting to visit ????

Hmmm. Have  read the  legends  of  what  can be purchased perhaps?

18 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

when I first came to Thailand I thought there really were villages. 

And you were correct... 

1 hour ago, helloagain said:

Pai. Sapong. Mai hong son. 

Well, he specifically mentioned no tourists....

On 5/2/2019 at 6:37 PM, Samuel Smith said:

Try here.  N18° 47.806' E99° 20.868'  But paved road, electric & probably fibre optic cables.  No tourists.  More villages out this way.


Lol - even the google-mobile didn't want to go to the end of that road !

Doi Khun Than  

GPS: 18.495367, 99.269717

Take any of the trains from Chiang Mai.  All trains stop at the Doi Khun Tan train station which is about 1h 15m for CM rail station.  From the train station either walk the road or take the marked shortcut through the forest up the hill to the Doi Khun Tan National Park entrance.  ฿100 THB for foreigners.  If you walk around you'll notice that the park has bungalow for overnight stays.  This is not farang country.  The surrounding villages lay about 7 km from the park entrance in the valley and the park entrance in reached by a sometimes one lane mountain road.  It's rural Thailand, but it's also what I call home.  It's not as remote as places in the mountains of Chiang Rai, but it's remote enough.  Interesting day trip with a rail tour thrown in to boot.  Or overnight it and it's about as cool as you're going to get in this region at night.  

Try these:

Early morning stopping train, past Lamphun, winding up the hills to Khun Tan.

SW along CM- Hod road, turn west at Sanpatong and follow the much improved road to the hills beyond Mae Wang.

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On 5/2/2019 at 10:17 PM, blanes2007 said:

19.368345, 98.713857

Take the road through Chiang Dao National Park Check Point, after 10 kms you will get to the hill tribe villages (Karen and Akka) with bungalows 500 per night

Today i was in this area, the location that you wrote is in a field, but i was at the bridge over the river close to your location, quite nice there.

The villages on the mountain which are close to road 3024 and the village at your location clearly get some tourists, but i was able to convince the guy at the national park entrance to give me the Thai price, so i assume mostly Thai tourists. But it does at least look like as if it's quite remote.

From there i headed over to 19.318732, 98.623968 which is a Lisu village, and this is about the type of village in which i'm interested in. While i was taking a break there one guy asked me if i saw police outside, which i couldn't tell him because i came from the back and not from the front entry, but it shows that they are up to something dubious ????

I went over to "Doi Kiew Lom View Point" and because i came from behind i didn't have to pay the 300 THB foreigners fee which people at the front entry pay.

The whole area is quite nice, but i saw many forest fires and a lot of ash from older forest fires, so it will be much better in rainy season, i will visit again.

 

Hint for anybody doing this at another time of the year:

If you drive from the location that blanes2007 posted over to the Lisu village you cross a river two times, which itself is of course quite cool, but today the river was just a few meters width and maybe 10-30cm deep, so easy to do, in rainy season this might be more difficult to do, maybe even impossible, who knows.

 

2 hours ago, Kerryd said:

Close to where i was today, if you had posted it today in the morning, i would have went there. I will add it to my list, next time i'm in the area i will pay it a visit and report back who is living there

54 minutes ago, Ajarnbrian said:

Try these:

Early morning stopping train, past Lamphun, winding up the hills to Khun Tan.

SW along CM- Hod road, turn west at Sanpatong and follow the much improved road to the hills beyond Mae Wang.

That area beyond Mae Wang is backpacker mecca

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1 hour ago, Ajarnbrian said:

SW along CM- Hod road, turn west at Sanpatong and follow the much improved road to the hills beyond Mae Wang.

I went there before, took the road 1013 and then turned left in the direction of Doi Inthanon at 18.697356, 98.568812

You can than either decide to enter Doi Inthanon or you can go to "Mae Chon Luang" which somehow has 30 good ratings on google maps but there was about nothing when i went there, everything dry, maybe have to go in rainy season.

There are some people living on the mountains, but you will also find many tourists in Song Teaws and on Scooters. The ride is nice, as you said the road is quite good (currently when you arrive in the Doi Inthanon national park area they are making some repairs), but it doesn't have much to do with "remote".

At 18.657102, 98.473644 you can then follow the dirt road through the mountains until you arrive in Mae Hong Son at 18.651484, 98.376600. But it's just a dirt road over the mountain, nothing special on the way.

 

The next time i will go in this direction i will not turn left from 1013 but instead go straight on 4035.

23 hours ago, connda said:

Doi Khun Than  

GPS: 18.495367, 99.269717

Take any of the trains from Chiang Mai.  All trains stop at the Doi Khun Tan train station which is about 1h 15m for CM rail station.  From the train station either walk the road or take the marked shortcut through the forest up the hill to the Doi Khun Tan National Park entrance.  ฿100 THB for foreigners.  If you walk around you'll notice that the park has bungalow for overnight stays.  This is not farang country.  The surrounding villages lay about 7 km from the park entrance in the valley and the park entrance in reached by a sometimes one lane mountain road.  It's rural Thailand, but it's also what I call home.  It's not as remote as places in the mountains of Chiang Rai, but it's remote enough.  Interesting day trip with a rail tour thrown in to boot.  Or overnight it and it's about as cool as you're going to get in this region at night.  

I have camped there and as a farang was the only park visitor. Hiked one time to the waterfall and thought the trail was one I blazed. lol

I thought Pai was overrun w foreigners and Mai Hong Son has a music festival. No?

10 minutes ago, elgenon said:

I thought Pai was overrun w foreigners

Has been for at least 20 years. Avoid. There's also gun-wielding trigger happy drunk police officers, or so I've heard/read.

Bo Kluea Nan, mountainous, electricity, internet but no tourists.


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I went there before, took the road 1013 and then turned left in the direction of Doi Inthanon at 18.697356, 98.568812
You can than either decide to enter Doi Inthanon or you can go to "Mae Chon Luang" which somehow has 30 good ratings on google maps but there was about nothing when i went there, everything dry, maybe have to go in rainy season.
There are some people living on the mountains, but you will also find many tourists in Song Teaws and on Scooters. The ride is nice, as you said the road is quite good (currently when you arrive in the Doi Inthanon national park area they are making some repairs), but it doesn't have much to do with "remote".
At 18.657102, 98.473644 you can then follow the dirt road through the mountains until you arrive in Mae Hong Son at 18.651484, 98.376600. But it's just a dirt road over the mountain, nothing special on the way.
 
The next time i will go in this direction i will not turn left from 1013 but instead go straight on 4035.

Come to the Rai
The tourists only stay for a day [emoji106]


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6 hours ago, skyaslimit said:

Bo Kluea Nan, mountainous, electricity, internet but no tourists.


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Very beautiful but depending on the time of the year (winter) it can have a lot of tourists.

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