Ban Pha Mi

Ban Pha Mi — often written Phamee — is an Akha hill-tribe village high above Mae Sai in Chiang Rai, close to Doi Tung near the Myanmar border. Once a poppy-growing community, it was among the villages that switched to arabica coffee under the Doi Tung Development Project, the royal initiative begun in 1988 to replace opium with legal highland crops. Today coffee is the village’s identity and its main draw for visitors.

The village grows, roasts and brews its own beans — sold under the Doi Pha Mee name — and a dozen or so small cafés have opened along its lanes, several with terraces that look out over a sea of morning mist when the weather is right. Beyond a coffee, you can watch Akha weaving and embroidery, try a hands-on drip brew using a bamboo tube, walk the forest trails around the village, or stay over in one of the family-run homestays. The coffee harvest runs through about December.

Ban Pha Mi sits at roughly 1,200 metres, so mornings are cool and the light is best early. It is up a steep hillside road off the Mae Sai–Doi Tung route; most visitors drive or hire a car, as public transport doesn’t reach the village. Bring a light layer for the morning chill and cash for the cafés and any handicrafts.