Ban Tha Khanthong Community

Ban Tha Khanthong sits in Ban Saeo Subdistrict, Chiang Saen district, strung along the Mekong River directly across from Laos — one of the furthest-north villages in Chiang Rai province. The community describes its own culture as “ELA”: a blend of Isan, Lanna, and Lao influences, the product of Isan migrants who settled here among Northern Thai neighbours more than fifty years ago, with Lao dialect and customs seeping in from across the river. Thai Rural Tourism Award judges gave the village their top rural-village prize in 2020, along with a separate award for its homestay programme.

Activities centre on everyday rural life rather than staged performances. An e-tok (a modified farm truck) tours the village and surrounding gardens, including plots of sacha inchi (Inca peanut) grown alongside more familiar crops, and stops to watch rice being milled the traditional way. Boat trips run along the Mekong past the site linked to Suwannakhomkham, a legendary lost city of local folklore, and there’s a hands-on weaving workshop producing the cotton the village sells as its OTOP product — including a pattern that traces the river’s course.

Insider Tip: Book the boat tour and e-tok ride together a day ahead rather than turning up — activities run on request, not a fixed timetable, and same-day availability isn’t guaranteed.

Grilled pork with the village’s own dipping sauce is worth trying at the Tourist Service Center, alongside whatever’s cooking at the small food stalls nearby. Evenings sometimes bring mor lam and khaen performances — the folk singing and bamboo mouth-organ music of the Isan tradition, carried here by the community’s own roots. Homestays are available for visitors who want longer than a day-trip, typically including a baisi sukhwan welcoming ceremony. Dress modestly and follow the usual courtesies around any shrine or ceremony you’re invited to join.

Nearby in Chiang Saen district, Chiang Saen Lake and the Chiang Saen National Museum both make an easy pairing with a Tha Khanthong visit.