Chiang Dao Nest
Tours & Trekking
Testimonials & Reviews

"I will definitely recommend all my friends to come here and do that 3 day trek. How good was that! Trekking through the mountain, staying with the tribal groups & visiting caves and not one other tourist in sight!" - Joanna - UK

Coy - Includes thoughts of Chiang Dao, Chiang Dao Nest and a mountain trek - "This hike down the mountain was so painful on our knees. Once again, I felt like a total novice on the trail, despite the countless mountain hikes of my past. Shaunna was nearly in tears at one point as her legs were wobbly, her knees were searing with pain, and she kept hitting the ground. Rung took pity on us and cut us some walking sticks for us to brace ourselves. Naturally, he and Chat never once fell down even though the shoes they wore weren't made for hiking. Hell, Chat wore camo-colored Chuck Taylors (which are made for basketball and have no tread at all). These guys were totally hardcore... smoking, laughing, and acting like it was a stroll in the park." more ...
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Robert & Annelies "The trekking starts. We go by pick up to the Lisu village where we will spend the night. Then they bring us to another village where we will do our first walks. Our guide is Nata and he takes us to the waterfall in the morning. He doesn't speak much English but he tries to explain a lot. After a great lunch (Wicha made sure of that) he takes us to a cave near the village. It's hard. In the cave it's very dark and slippery and you have to watch out that you don't fall in to one of the deep holes that are in there.

Than we have to climb the steep road back to the first village. It's torture. Thank god Nata suggest we take another route. Especially when it starts raining because the road turns into a mud slide.

Finally after about 2 hours we arrive in the first village. It seems like we've walked 6 hours though. I'm not sure I want to go tomorrow. We say goodbye to Nata and meet our new guides Sam & Niko. After dinner we're invited to Nikos hut to have some tea. Niko play on his Lisu flute for us. At 8 p.m. it's time to go to bed. The bed is a bamboo rack with a small mattress and two blankets. The toilet is full over rather big spiders, brrr..

November 5th. After breakfast we go on our way. Stuff we don't need we leave here for now. We walk down a steep road and arrive at a third Lisu village. We meet the chief of all tree villages. He's also the medicine man here. Than we go on to the cave. It's hard. Niko is 62 years old, he is carrying the food, water and my small backpack and he runs up and down the mountain like a 15-year old. I can't keep up and have to walk in my own pass or I won't make it. After the big cave we go to a second cave. Robert and Sam go and explore it. I'm not going as both Sam and Niko advised me not to. Niko is making lunch and when Robert and Sam return we eat. Niko made plates, pans and chopsticks out of bamboo.

In the afternoon we walk to the Karen village, where we will spend the night. Sam and Niko want to show us the village, but we just want to relax. People here do their thing as if we weren't there at all. They don't seem the least bit interested in us. We were warned about people want to sell you all sorts of stuff and being pushy, but that's certainly not here. After dinner we're invited to have tea in the hut of a Karen family. Like in the Lisu villages there's no electricity here and the only light they have is a fire in the hut. It sure is a fire hazard in there! Around 9 p.m. it's bedtime.

November 6th. At 4 am the roosters start to crow here. It's still dark but the Karen start their day already. We stay in bed but we don't sleep a lot anymore. At 8 p.m. we start our last and hardest walk up the mountain. I keep walking my own pass, even though Sam and Niko think I walk to slow. If I walk any faster they'll have to carry me the rest of the way. On top of the mountain a jeep awaits us. It's the happiest moment in my life! We drive to the first Lisu village to collect our things and then we go elephant riding. We feel really guilty when we ride this magnificent animal. It doesn't belong here. But it is and it needs to eat to. It looks rather healthy so what can we do. After an hour we are dropped off at a Palaung village. During lunch we finally meet the people who want to sell us all sorts of stuff. They are rather pushy and think we can buy something from everyone.

This private trekking has a lot of advantages. We got invited in a lot of homes, which wouldn't be possible if we would have been with a group of 10 or more people. We didn't have problems with others who thought we walked to slow or have to wait for other people. No annoying tourists. We didn't see any tourist during the whole trekking. The only disadvantage is that even though you want to, you can not buy something from everyone here, because there's only two of you and about twenty of them. This private trekking might have been a bit more expensive than the ones you can book in Chiang Mai, but we think it was definitely worth it. After lunch we're taken to other Lisu, Karen and Palaung villages. These are definitely the ones where a lot of tourists come. Not only did we see bus loads of them, but everybody wants to sell you something. We're so glad we didn't have to stay here! Finally after a long drive we go bamboo rafting. It's quite nice to be on the river