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Old Trade Route History
The Old Trade Route followed a path from Chiang Mai, north to Ban Thaton (the last boat jetty and home of the Maekok River Village Resort) then up into Burma along the Maekok River, or down the Maekok to Chiang Rai, Chiang Saen, and downriver to Luang Phrabang – all part of the La Na Kingdom. See the Old Trade Route Map for more information.
Follow it and the tapestry of Thai rural life unfolds before you, as you travel through vast rice plains without horizon tended by rural Thai farmers, through mountains inhabited by the colourful Lisu, & Hmong peoples, across rivers in which the proud Karen Mahouts wash their elephants, and in the Lahu fish silently..
Travel to the border areas, where the Shan or Tai Yai traders, live amicably amongst the Kuomingtong Chinese, and the regal Yao people keep very much to themselves.
Background to the route development
Chiang Mai is often referred to as the ‘Rose of the North’. The description is accurate, but it applies to the Province and not to just the city itself. Advertising and marketing people, in seeking to promote their city-based products have, by borrowing the phrase, employed a certain degree of artistic license.
That the city of Chiang Mai is full of interesting tourist attractions -- ranging from temples to handicraft markets -- is not in doubt, but it is a city of contrasts. The economic boom of the ‘80s, and progress in general, have laid modern hotels and boutique shops located next to teakwood houses from another era. Pedicabs and trishaws vie for position on the road with late model Mercedes; handcart-mounted foodstalls hug the curbs in front of plush restaurants. The city is a mosaic of the old and the new, of traditional slow pace and modern rush side by side. Chiang Mai certainly has its own distinctive and unique character. A more fitting description of the city would be that Chiang Mai is the gateway to the Rose Garden of the North.
To see the North as it is often depicted in promotional literature, one must leave the city behind and get out into the provinces to where little has changed in the past few decades. Perhaps the best way to do this is to follow one of the road systems radiating out from, and returning back to, Chiang Mai in a rough loop that runs through the heartlands of the North. Using the road system as a general axis, the potential for detours to places and attractions of interest is virtually unlimited!
In surveying the region over ten years ago, Track of the Tiger deemed that the ‘Old Trade Route’ that runs from Chiang Mai through Chiang Dao, Fang, Ban Thaton, down the Maekok River to Chiang Rai, up to Mae Sai, the Golden Triangle and Chiang Saen, and then back to Chiang Mai via Wiang Pa Pao, afforded the greatest balance of beautiful scenery, soft adventure type activity potential, and access to the widest range of ethnic minority groups in the North.
Confident in our assessment, and wanting to ensure our guests of a genuine ‘grass roots’ holiday experience, we built our Maekok River Village Resort, with accompanying Outdoor Education Centre, not in the city, but on the banks of the Kok River in Ban Thaton.
Travel with us along this ‘Old Trade Route’ and the rich tapestry of Northern Thai life unfolds before you. The scenery constantly changes from verdant green rice paddy to rugged granite hills, from dense jungle edging the road to shaded riverside rest points that entice you to linger.
2-4 day programmes along the Old Trade Route
Our programmes are classified as soft adventure tours and generally start from and return to Chiang Mai, and follow a fixed but flexible itinerary that allows you to opt to stop at places and attractions of particular interest to you. For tours departing from Chiang Rai, look for ‘B’ at the end of the tour number i.e. SA 202B.
A soft adventure tour is defined by Track of the Tiger as one in which “the itinerary of the day may involve a modest degree of physically demanding activity on the part of the guests, but where standards of safety and comfort are well above average and options provided to ensure all guests can enjoy the programme”.
The programme content is specially designed so that if an individual client wishes to abstain from any particular activity (or activities) in the programme, he or she may do so, without affecting the enjoyment of the rest of the group. Soft adventure programmes are designed to appeal to all participants, from ages 6-60.