04 Days Northern Discovery

• Pick up from your hotel in Chiang Mai or Chiang Mai airport and drive to Mae Sa Valley, where you will watch elephants at work in the forest.
• Optional: A one-hour elephant ride into the jungle surroundings (cost per person: If pre-booked & prepaid: 600. – Baht).
• Continue to an Orchid Farm. After lunch at a local restaurant you will receive an introduction to the various handicrafts produced around Chiang Mai with the opportunity to watch the production of lacquer-ware, weaving of Thai Silk and the painting of paper umbrellas. A visit of a reputable Gems cutting workshop and a well-known Thai wood carving factory with the possibility to buy Burmese antiques are included in the afternoon program as well. In the evening enjoy a typical Northern Thai Dinner with a presentation of Thai traditional dances from Northern Thailand at a Kantoke restaurant. Overnight at Empress Chiang Mai Hotel.

After breakfast, visit the most interesting places in Chiang Mai such as Wat Phra Singh with its famous Buddha image, the Hill-tribe museum (closed on Saturdays and Sundays) and Wat Doi Suthep, tucked away in the mountains at 1,056 meters above sea level. The temple is reached by a staircase with 290 steps, flanked by a Naga balustrade on either side. The monastery was built by King Gue-Na in 1383. After lunch at a local restaurant, depart for Lamphun and visit Wat Haripoonchai, an incredibly beautiful temple dating back to 1157. The golden Chedi is a postcard favorite and a spectacular site. Continue towards Lampang with a stopover at Tung Kwian Market, where ceramics, handicrafts, fruit, vegetables, preserved foods and live animals are sold. Shortly before arriving to Lampang, visit Wat Phra Tat Lampang Luang with its huge golden Chedi and beautiful Lanna style architecture. Dinner and overnight at Lampang River Lodge Or Wienglakor Hotel.

After breakfast, visit the local market, which offers a colorful display of flowers, fruit, vegetables, spices and herbs. Watch out for the 2 symbols, which Lampang is famous for: The cock, which can be found on street signs and ceramic bowls, and the horse carriages, which can only be seen in this town in Thailand. During a leisurely ride in a horse carriage one can still admire wooden houses built along the river. You will also visit Wat Chedi Sao, a temple with 20 stupas. Monks at this temple prepare medicines from medicinal herbs and plants, which promise to cure a large number of remedies. Continue towards Phrae with a visit of Nam Tum weaving village, where you can observe the local women weaving nicely patterned cloths on wooden looms. Another stop will be made at Ban Tung Takra, where woven baskets and household goods are sold along the street. After lunch in Phrae, visit the exquisite Vongburi House, a wooden mansion built in 1907 with fine wood carvings. Phrae is also famous for producing “Mo-Hom”, the blue shirts worn by villagers all over Northern Thailand. You will visit the home of a family, where the process of dying the shirts will be explained to you. Continue through rural villages to Muang Phi, which depicts strange eroded rock formations, sandstone canyons and creeks. In old times villagers often got lost in the shrubs, which inspired them to name the place Phae Muang Phi, or “Ghost City”. Dinner and overnight at Dhevaraj Hotel in Nan.

Breakfast. Visit Wat Phumin, famous for its mural wall paintings in Thai Lu style. They are considered highly valuable and depict legends concerning the Lord Buddha as well as local legends and the local way of life, which include native attires, weaving and commerce with foreign countries. Close by is Wat Chang Kham Woravihan. Its main features are the sculpted upper halves of elephants adorning around the Chedi, a Sukhothai influence. Stones with ancient Thai scripts relating to the alliance between the kings of Nan and Sukhothai have been found here. An ancient golden Buddha is enshrined in the Wihan. We then pay a visit to the Nan National Museum. The museum was constructed in 1903 and once the residence of a ruler of Nan. It displays exhibitions concerning the town's history and major structures, evolution of arts in different ages, and numerous ancient objects, the most eminent of which is a black ivory tusk. lt also provides anthropological information on the northern indigenous people including the several minorities residing in Nan. The last visit in Nan is Wat Phra That Chae Haeng, about 2 kilometers from town, an ancient religious site of the province. Once in the center of the old town, it was moved to its present location in about 1368. It features a 55 meter-high golden Chedi containing a holy relic from Sukhothai. Over the Wihan's door frames and on parts of the roofs are plaster designs in the shape of Naga, the great serpent, which represent the artistic best in local architecture.