Spend a day with the Karen people of Mae Wang

An active Karen Cultural Tour

Into the mountains of Mae Wang National Park

This is a private tour. Your guide and driver will meet you at 0800 for your Karen Cultural tour. We will drive to the small town of Mae Wang. We will stop at a local Uy Kham market to buy some ingredients for our lunch. As you cook your lunch, we will let you do the shopping. Of course, your guide will assist you, but it will be fun. After this, we will continue to the countryside and drive into the mountains. Our destination today will be the Karen village of Huay Khao Lip, where we will spend most of the day. We have been sending guests to this village for many years as it is amicable and in an excellent trekking area.

A traditional welcome and village walk

After arrival at the beautifully located house of our hosts, we will settle down with a cup of local tea. You will meet your hosts, who will welcome you in the traditional Karen way. Before we go into the village, we will teach you a couple of words in the Pwo Karen language, such as “Ta Blu,” which means “hello.”

We will then embark on a village walk with our local guide, who will share his knowledge with us. The Karen women are fantastic weavers. In every village, you will see women weaving in the space under the house. We will show you the beautiful traditional textiles and dresses and, if you want, you can try your hand behind a weaving loom. Don’t be shy, and try out your Karen language skills. Most Karen people in this village are Christian so we will pay a short visit to their church. Time to continue our Karen cultural tour.

A Karen cooking demonstration

It is time for our culinary experience on this Karen Cultural tour. The kitchen of our host doesn’t have a gas stove or oven. Cooking is done on a woodfire with a wok, a deep round-bottomed cooking pot. We will teach you how to prepare a delicious meal on a wood fire in a kitchen that looks very different from what you are used to at home. Your hosts will teach you how to manage the fire. It is a little bit like cooking a meal during camping. After the cooking, we will taste the result with a lovely view of the village’s rice fields.

An Active Karen Cultural Tour

After lunch, it is time for tea and relaxation before we start our trek back to the main road. Huay Khao Lip has a Royal Project, which we will visit. His Highness King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the late King Rama IX, started these projects to alleviate poverty in the mountains of North Thailand. The Huay Khao Lip project has a greenhouse and fields of cabbage and other vegetables. Our host will explain and put you to work for a short while. These projects have proven to be of great value for ethnic minority communities such as Huay Khao Lip. After this visit, it is time for a brisk walk to the Huay Hoi Waterfall, where we can cool off for a while. It is not too far from the main road where our vehicle is waiting.

Bamboo rafting on the Wang River

Bamboo rafting on the Wang River has been a favorite activity for a long time. Board your raft and enjoy the flow of the river. Before roads were sealed, the bamboo raft was an essential means of transportation. Though it is only done for tourists nowadays, it still is a great experience. Enjoy the ride before we drive back to Chiang Mai. We will drop you off at the hotel in the late afternoon. We hope you have enjoyed our active Karen Cultural Tour!