
Overnight at the Palong People: a family adventure
Day 1: Chiang Mai- Palong village
Family Trekking Adventure: local market and bamboo rafting
Your guide and driver will pick you up at 0800 at your hotel for your Family trekking Adventure. Your transportation will be an airconditioned minivan with safety belts. The minivan will be on standby during your trip and will transfer your luggage to the village, where you will spend the night. During the trekking, you will only have to carry your camera, raincoat, and drinking water.
Here you can find more about the history and background of hill tribe trekking in Chiang Mai. You will drive to the north into the mountains near Chiang Dao. The first stop will be the Mae Malai local market. Your guide will do some shopping for the coming days, and he will take you along and explain all about the different ingredients he will use for meals during the trek. Then, enjoy a river trip by bamboo raft. Your helmsmen will maneuver the raft through the gentle rapids. We will provide life jackets. Please wear them and have a look at our bamboo rafting policy.

Hike to the Palong village Mae Chon
Continue to a Palong village near Chiang Dao where we will have lunch. After lunch, we will start trekking. The trail has a few steep hills, but most of the trek is relatively easy. Together we walk about two hours with many stops along the way. Your guide will explain specific trees and plants in the forest. There will be time for taking pictures.

Visit a fruit plantation
After arrival in the village, the children will participate in activities in the village. These will vary from picking fruit, collecting vegetables for dinner, feeding the pigs, and taking part in sports with children from the village. You will visit a fruit plantation. Many varieties of fruit, herbs, and vegetables are growing in his backyard. It will depend on the season, but you will see bananas, jackfruit, guava, papaya, longan, and many other varieties. You will see mountain rice and bamboo, which is edible. We will pick some of the ingredients for our dinner in this garden.
Learn some local cooking!
The parents can relax, explore the village or learn some Thai cooking by helping the guide prepare the dinner. He will tell you about the herbs and ingredients he uses. After dinner, your guide will take you to one of the village houses where you will meet some of the villagers. The Palong people are originally from Myanmar and escaped to Thailand in 1984.
Overnight will be in one of the village homestays.

Day 2: Palong Village – Chiang Mai
Visit the village school
After the sounds of nature and the locals woke you up, your guide will prepare breakfast. Start the 2nd day of your Chiang Dao Family Trekking Adventure. After breakfast, your guide will show you around the village. He will explain about the village shrine and the ‘huja rawl’, the ‘village heart’.Then we will visit the local school*. The children will donate pens and paper to the school.
After this, we will say goodbye to the villagers and start trekking for about 1.5 hours to the Karen village Thakilek. Along the way, we will stop at Lahu village Ban Huay Bong, where we will visit the fascinating spirit temple and a blacksmith.
The lovely Sticky Waterfalls
After this, we will continue trekking to the Karen village. After that, drive to the restaurant where we have lunch. Drive back to Chiang Mai. The next stop will be the Buatong Waterfall. This beautiful waterfall is also known as the sticky waterfall. We will spend time here relaxing and bathing in the crystal clear water of these falls.
The rocks on which the falls flow are limestone and not slippery. You will see other people climb on the falls. You might want to try it, but please be careful! Drive back to Chiang Mai. We will drop you at your hotel at around 5 pm. It is the end of your Chiang Dao Family Trekking Adventure.
*Unless the school is closed of course which is the case on the weekend or on holidays. The donation will be made anyway.
