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ThailandDescription and is it worth a visit
Mae Salong Village or Mae Salong, whose real name is Santikhiri, is located on Doi Mae Salong Mountain. The climate in May Salong is often compared to Alpine, so the village is known as "Little Switzerland". This is not surprising, since the village is located at altitudes of about 1100 meters. This is a great place to spend a couple of days in a quiet mountainous area to make trekking and hiking trips in the nearby mountains, visit tribal villages, and see tea plantations. Yes, there are really a lot of tea plantations here, and therefore Mae Salong is even called the main tea village of Thailand.
The village and its surroundings are inhabited mainly by Chinese who arrived here in 1949 to hide from the communist regime. As a result, the influence of Chinese culture is very strong here. The restaurants serve Chinese cuisine, the architecture is typically Chinese, many Chinese temples have been built. They even say that if you want to get a taste of China without leaving Thailand, visit Mae Salong.
The sights include village temples, wonderful mountain landscapes, tea plantations and trekking to mountain tribes. You can visit the latter by purchasing tours at one of the local guest houses, or go on an independent one-day hike using a map of the area with marked mountain settlements (a map can be obtained at the guest houses). But before deciding on an independent hike, read practical information about trekking in northern Thailand. Also ask the locals how calm the situation is in the border areas. The fact is that in some places north of the village and closer to the border with Myanmar ten years ago, tourists were not allowed access, because the area was controlled by the famous drug lord Khun Sa, and there was even a Khun Sa Old Camp, it can be visited as a museum. But they say that even now in these places it is sometimes restless.
🕐 Working hours
Around the clock.
💵Entrance fee / ticket price
Free of charge.
🚶 How to get there
Mae Salong is located in the northern part of Chiang Rai Province, 50 kilometers from the provincial capital (Mae Salong village on the map). Therefore, you can get to Mae Salong by several routes (roads) from the city of Chiang Rai or from the town Taton. The simplest and more or less understandable route from Chiang Rai lies through Mae Chan, where you will need to turn left onto road No. 1089 (a sign for Mae Ai and Fang). The road No. 1089 to Mae Salong itself is very winding and you will have to drive three times more than you could in a straight line. In addition, in one place the road No. 1089 bifurcates in two, and you will need to choose the right branch. You can also get to Mae Salong via roads No. 1234 and 1130 (via Pa Sang on Highway No. 1), which are even more winding, but run through many tribal villages.
There are no direct bus routes from Chiang Rai to Mae Salong. But you can take a bus to Taton, and from Taton on Songthaew minibuses you can get there for 50 baht.
Friends, we remind you that it is much more interesting to get acquainted with the sights of Thailand with the help of excursions, and therefore we advise you to look at options with online booking and reviews on these excursion aggregators: