PAN CAVE HOME STAY
We are delighted to offer our guests access to perhaps the best home stay in Northern Thailand, Pen Caves Home Stay. We have put together a truly wonderful four night package that departs Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai and arrives at the Pen Caves Home Stay in time for lunch. From our home stay base, we will explore the surrounding environs and meet somefacinating people, and hopefully make some new friends along the way.
Day One
Arrive Tham Lod (Pencavehomestay) approx. 10:30 AM. Check in and have lunch.
Then go to Tham Lod Cave, one of the longest accessible limestone caves in Southeast Asia, complete with stunning limestone formation, three cavernous chambers and a river running through the entire length of the cave. Also visit the archaeological site in the cave with remains of the ancient Log Coffin Culture. The Log Coffin Culture is a mysterious group of people that lived in this area around 1,500-3,000 years ago. The most striking remains of the culture are the enigmatic log coffins carved from entire teak tree-trunks and perched high in the limestone cliffs. Some pottery and human bones have also been found with these coffins. Other than a few archaeologists, very few people have seen these relics in their natural setting.
Watch the vast swirling clouds of swifts and bats at sunset as the swifts return home to nest for the night in the cave, and the bats leave for their nocturnal search for food.
Return to homestay (Pencavehomestay) accommodation at ThamLod Village. Enjoy a dinner of traditional Shan recipes unique to this remote highland area. These dishes are full of healthy organic herbs and fresh wild plants and vegetables that impart a distinct and rich flavor to the local varieties of chicken and pork. The Shan food is accompanied by organic brown-black rice grown high in the mountains by remote Lahu villages.
After dinner have a supper of tea grown in the Lua territories near the Burmese border. The tea is brewed in the traditional fashion using bamboo tubes over an open fire and drunk from bamboo cups. At this time we talk about local history, traditions and folklore.
Retire to bed in the Shan family houses.
This can be a Four Day tour or extended to multi day, multi destination, depending on your itinerary and travel schedule and it is easy to do either when arriving or departing via Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai.