Nan Travel Guide

Nan is small town, and should enjoy the quietness of the town :-) there's only night market in town where you can find local food, noodle, deepfried mussles, desserts and the street vendor that "Parlez française" !

Dress Code: No suits, no formal, no neat shirts. Please go in flipflops.

Kidding, you know it. it's night market..hehe
dress whatever you like.

Thai Payap is a locally operated and run rural development org that aims to raise the living standard of minority hill tribes in Nan province. The income from sales of handicrafts, after the producers are compensated, are funneled back into communities thru development projects to do with agriculture, health and other issues that need addressing. Thai Payap has been teetering on the brink of collapse for years because human resources are stretched thinly and because there is a lot of competition from business that mass produce goods according to a supply schedule in automated factories or in sweat shop-like environs. Items for sale at Thai Payap are made at the homes of producers. There is no pressure to pump out volumes as it is understood that villagers are busy with agricultural activities during the rainy season. Crafts are made in the off season when farmers are not as busy with on-farm activities. So you can see that this arrangment does not suit the supply-demand business model.

What to buy: Woven, carved, sewn goods from Hmong, Mien and other hill tribe groups are sold here at the office and occasionally in Bangkok at ThaiCraft sales. See my Bangkok Shopping tips for details on ThaiCraft sales.
Can also be purchased on the WWW.

What to pay: You will pay less at the shop in Nan than you would at the ThaiCraft sales as there is very little overhead in Nan.

I decided to arrive by 1080 to Thai border and then back by 1081. I read in Michelin guide that I needed a whole day for this tour but I dind't trust in it. It's true: I spend 7 hours, without a stop. Kms are not so many but the raod is very winding, with very sharp curves. If you want to try you need a 4-wheel vehicole, then expect to climb up mountains and descend down a lot of times; on rainy season the road is dangerous. If you want to visit thai-lao market, remeber that the good day is saturday. But it's a wonderful tour; You see mountains like dragons that arrive in Laos and then to Yunnan. I recomned this tour, bur remember it's very hard to do.

First I have to say I'm not a sport person at all. But well.. if you come to Nan and you don't go rafting that's like missing something.

Kaeng Nam Wa is one of most popular destinations for people who love adventure of kayaking and rafting (Or those who never tried before but would love to)

Trips available from One day trip to 3 days trip. Rafting along Kaeng Nam Wa (80 km long) which there's 3 different level. Easy, Hard, and a little bit danger. (But don't worry, no record of tourists were injured)

You can contact tour operators in Nan for trips. Several days trips you might have to camp in National park or bangalow (but they will manage that for you)

Scenery while you're doing your rafting is breathe taking. You don't need to roll all the time some parts of the river is very calm you can see bright green seaweed in the river and green jungle that was so beautiful.

Should check the season before you go. Some time of the yeat river is too dry to go kayak, Best time will be rainy season.

One day trip should be about 1200 Baht/person/day
and 2-days or 3-days will be around 3000-4000 Baht/ trip include food/ accommodation.

More people --> cheaper.

Equipment: You don't have to prepare anything but clothes that dry quick. Some snacks if you want. All the gears such as life jacket, etc they'll have them ready for you.

Favorite thing: This is the game of meeting a spouse. You ask a person of the opposite sex if they want to throw a ball back and forth. If you agree, then you stand in long lines a couple of metres away from your partner and start tossing a tennis ball-sized cloth ball back and forth. Traditionally this is when you would chat up one another and, eventually, this would lead to marriage and kids, mortgages, cottages at the lake, mowing the lawn on Saturdays, the second car (a minivan), and oh, slaughtering a pig on Hmong New Year by sticking it in the neck with with a long blade and draining its blood, cooking it up to eat in 4-5 dishes with lots of sticky rice.

Fondest memory: This is the time when traditional Hmong clothing is brought out and everyone is dressed up. As you can see, the Hmong dress is beautiful and very colourful.