Gong Valley

Gong Valley is a small Arabica coffee farm and eco-café on the hillside road to Bok Krai Waterfall in Ranong’s Kra Buri district, run by a local grower known simply as Gong. Walking the plantation costs nothing — you pay only for what you eat, drink, or, if you stay, sleep in.

Gong grows and hand-roasts his own beans on the slope behind the café, and has built a following of more than 200,000 people on Facebook documenting the process. He’s also organised a collective of Ranong coffee farmers to negotiate better prices with distributors, rather than each selling individually to middlemen. A walk around the farm takes in rows of coffee shrubs climbing the hillside, the drying and roasting area, and the timber café where the day’s batch gets poured. Ask, and Gong or his staff will usually talk you through how the cherries are picked, processed and roasted — the same beans taste noticeably different depending on roast length, and tasting two side by side is part of the appeal.

Insider Tip: Gong runs an annual yoga retreat here with an Australian instructor, folding in day trips to nearby sights. Worth checking his Facebook page if you’re travelling through during that window.

Simple bungalows and a small kitchen serving local food mean it’s easy to stay longer than planned, and the surrounding greenery — a stream, coffee trees, the odd wandering turkey — keeps things quiet rather than curated. Early morning or late afternoon are the most comfortable times to visit, when the valley air is cool.

Watch out: Gong Valley is off the main road with no signposted public transport — arrange a private car, rent a motorbike, or book a pickup in advance rather than counting on a songthaew.

Chum Saeng Waterfall sits nearby too, so a free-entry waterfall and a coffee stop fit into the same morning without much backtracking.