Thai Cooking With Fresh Natural Ingredients

When it comes to cooking, there's nothing better than picking your own ingredients fresh from the earth beforehand. At Karen Hill Tribe Lodge, you'll learn how to create deliciously fresh Thai meals using the herbs and vegetables growing nearby. Who needs a supermarket?

Master warming dishes such as Tom Kha Kai (chicken coconut soup), Phad Thai (stir-fried Thai noodles) or green or red curry with a little help from your tribal teacher. These 100% fresh, tasty and satisfying recipes will be perfect to impress back home, too.

As authentic as Thai cuisine can get: this experience takes you through the hill tribe village collecting fresh vegetables, herbs and fruit, before a cookery lesson in the lodge. Harness the aromas of traditional Thai herbs such as lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, and master curries, soups and stir-fries. A great skill to bring back home.

Available in

Meet the tribal people

Now is your chance to experience a real cultural adventure: life with one of the oldest ethnic groups in Thailand. Once a semi-nomadic tribe, the Karen people have now settled in the mountains north of Chiang Mai, between 800 and 1,800 meters, and developed fascinating ways to living in harmony with nature. Warm and welcoming, the tribe's people will show you how they fish, pound rice, and weave bags, rugs, clothes and more.

Available in

Visit a tribal village

The Karen people live in hand-built split bamboo houses on stilts, with thatch or large leaves for the roof. You will be welcomed in to see how family life here revolves around one big room: with a fire in the middle, and chickens, pigs and cattle kept inside at night, no-body gets cold. Cooking and weaving are done outdoors on the verandah, and families sit and sleep on mat in the main room altogether. Talk about cosy.

Available in

Try weaving

Watch the girls with their hair tied into a knot on top of their heads weave complex dresses out of brightly-coloured thread. Traditionally, girls as young as 10 are responsible for weaving their own clothes, which means you can normally guess how old they are by how intricate their dresses are. Patterns are passed on through generations, and colours are extracted from plants found nearby.

Have a go at helping to weave an ornamental bag from homespun thread. The traditional colours are red, indigo or black, and thin stripes down the sides indicate every day work bags, where as fine woven ones are more decorative.

Available in

Mushroom hunting with tribal guides

Wood ear, Enoki and Straw are types of Thai mushroom used extensively in indigenous cooking for unique flavours and textures. And these are just a few mushroom examples found near the Karen Hill Tribe Lodge. The mountains north of Chiang Mai are bursting with fungal delights growing on trees, within the earth, by rivers and deep inside forests, ideal for frying, boiling or braising. Head into the wild with a tribal guide to identify and collect the delicacies, before bringing them home for that night's dinner. Yum.

Available in

Bird Watching

Rufous throated Partridge, Black-backed Forktail, Purple Cochoa, and Chestnut-tailed Minia: have you ever heard of these? Probably not. That's because these birds are rare. They are also beautiful, and can be seen around the Karen Hill Tribe Lodge. Being away from any cities, perched in the mountains, here you are perfectly positioned to see some of the rarest and most colourful northern Asian bird species. Simply sit on the Lodge balcony, or roam through the forest on foot or by elephant and you'll witness some of the most unusual birds you have ever seen. Don't forget your binoculars.

Available in

Fishing The Hilltribe Way

From carp to catfish, the fishing near Karen Hill Tribe Lodge is fantastic. Head to a nearby river with a tribal guide, and before you know it, you'll be skilfully drifting your worm bate past undercut banks, rocks and vegetation, and waiting for the sharp tug on your line. Fish fillets for dinner, anyone?

Available in

Hill Tribes

While living in the Karen Hill tribe village, you'll have plenty of opportunities to spend time with the locals and join in their way of life. Help to weave scarves, hats and bamboo mats, pound rice and fish the traditional way. The tribes here still use century-old methods without machinery to maintain the natural environment. Although the Lodge has satellite telephone communication isn't it great to put the cell phones away: Bliss

Available in

Unique Photography Experiences

The rich colours of the forest, the cheeky animals and feathered birds within: this is a photographer's dream. At Karen hill tribe lodge, it's easy to snap picture-perfect scenery and portraits of the smiling hill tribe people. Bring your camera and return home with amazing shots, or, better yet, join in our photography lesson with National Geographic Photographer Gett, Somyot Chamnanrith as your guide. Contact us to find out more.