On my weekend break from my Thai massage course I ended up in a completely amazing place about 70km from Chiang Mai with David and Sierra. It is a home stay called Limeleaf. It feels like a little jungle oasis. While there is the sound of a chainsaw as I write at 8:30 at night which seems so out of place in the darkness other than that is just the insects and the slight breeze blowing. Instead of sounds of silence as in the desert of Saline Valley it is the sounds of life murmuring, 24 hours a day.
You walk here, the last 0.7 kilometers. If you don’t have a motorbike anyways. There is no road, just a simple path, much of it which is paved no wider than a foot path and in some places quite steep. Vinnai rides his motorbike up here. I’m thankful we didn’t choose that as our method of transport. We took a yellow taxi (set route) from Chiang Mai and then the reserve had a car sent to us. Apparently the battery died on the one the reserve owns so they hired a driver. I have a pretty high tolerance for strangeness and have traveled quite a few countries but the beater car that picked us up made me think twice about throwing my pack in and jumping in. Pieces of the car had literally fallen off in places and as we wound around the mountain curves it barely made it up some of the steep hills in low gear, but we made it to a fairly random spot on the side of the road. A sign said Limeleaf and Vinnai told us to walk up the road, up and up, and (with a wink) dont get lost.
The man who owns it is the most amazing old Thai man one could ever hope to meet. He’s a Thai Cowboy, and is straight out of a fantastic movie set or story. Wearing a black leather vest and a white Beatles tshirt, playing Thai traditional and American songs on his guitar, with white hair down to his shoulders and a white handlebar stashe to round it out, 5’2” at the most, he tells us of how he’s lived in the mountains for 40 years and has seen the changes in climate and weather, and loves John Denver, and wants to go to the old West of the US to experience cowboy culture. The huts here are all of bamboo and earthen walls, simple and not up to any building code; creative, with mattresses and seating pads all over the place. All of the little details come at you slowly and subtly and are comforting, unpretentious and creative. It is so homey and it would be so easy to stay a few days.
We go on a little walk. At first the path takes us up to a clearing. Vinnai tells us that the buildings we saw were from an abandoned Muay Thai center. The guy built it and didn’t like it so he left. Approaching the huts their palm frond roofs are beginning to be overgrown by flowering vines of several species. The paths are covered in knee high plants. We see the welcome center and then find the building with a full-on boxing ring inside of it. Hung above the concrete foundation of the fighting ring are flags from countries all over the world. In the morning we come back and play around with all the equipment: kettlebells and punching bags of all sorts, jump ropes and pull-up handles. The huts that were intended for accommodations are even further grown over, almost swallowed by the fast-growing tropical vegetation.
The flora is of everywhere. In one gaze you can see a palm tree, a conifer, a cherry with sparse and delicate pink blossoms, a prickly pear, and a generic rainforest house plant. In another you might see a pine and a banana in close proximity. Many things are blooming. Vinnai shared a few sips of the liquor he made and infused with several local plants in the area and it is delicious and potent.
Dinner is amazing. A chicken and potato soup is flavored to be some of the best I have ever tasted. Cabbage is prepared in an amazing sauce and sweet potatoes that are cubed and soft and so rich: all so simple and incredible. Breakfast and lunch the next morning were similarly delicious and prepared with love; after eating out and all of the variety we found in Chiang Mai, a home cooked meal was very satisfying.
Before leaving the following afternoon, we walk through two of the three small villages in the vicinity. Tiny little girls no more than three years old greet us with “hello you!” and prayer hands, waving at us as we walk by. Pigs and dogs roll around on earthen floors together. People are cutting firewood, building steps, reinforcing mud walls. The buildings remind me of other tropical villages I have spent time in, in Latin America, coastal Ecuador, the Amazon. The locals, small and strong and browned from the sun, with huge smiles and shining happy eyes characteristic of humans who still haven’t been forced into modern chaos, greet us warmly into their village spaces.
Incredibly, we found a coffee shop, ordered a cup of coffee. It is brought out to us in a metal French press. The beans, harvested just up the hill, are drying in the sun nearby. The coffee shop owner sits there, talking to us in surprisingly proficient English as she hand-sews a piece of clothing for the new year (next week) for her daughter. She speaks three languages: Thai, English, and their native Lahu. Her mother approaches us with a bag of locally made goods, hoping for more sales, but we all don’t have much space for souvenirs at this point.
Locally harvested coffee beans drying.
I’d highly recommend giving this area a visit if you are in Chiang Mai and want to escape the city for a bit. The mountains are nearby and there are both short and long trekking options available, as well as nearby waterfalls to visit. I’m sure you could have more opportunities to learn more about the local culture. I could perfectly envision staying a while to work on a book or other project. It is easily accessible, affordable, and the money is going directly to and supporting small communities where the way of life is important to be preserved or it will be lost.