Mon Cham

Mon Cham — also spelled Mon Jam — is a hilltop viewpoint above Nong Hoi village in Mae Rim, about 40 km and 40-50 minutes’ drive from Chiang Mai via Highway 107 and 1096. The ridge sits inside the Nong Hoi Royal Project, and its main draws are free: cool air year-round, a morning sea of mist over the valley, and terraced strawberry and flower fields you can walk through.

Before it was a viewpoint, this ridge was opium-farming land worked by local hill-tribe villagers. The government’s Royal Project development program took over the site decades ago, converting the poppy fields into the Nong Hoi Royal Project Development Center — a research station trialling temperate crops that don’t normally suit Thailand’s climate: strawberries, artichokes, lemon thyme, mint, chamomile, rosemary, seedless grapes, plums, and red olives, several of which end up bottled as Doi Kham jam and preserves sold in Chiang Mai shops.

The Mon Long viewpoint, on the ridge’s eastern high point, is the spot locals point you toward for the sea of mist — a wide view over the whole development center and Nong Hoi village below, best caught in the hour after sunrise during cool season. Turn south from the same ridge and you look down over the village itself and the terraced research plots, workers moving between rows of strawberries and herbs in the morning cool.

Insider Tip: the coldest, clearest mist mornings run October through February — arrive before 7 AM, because the fog burns off fast once the sun clears the ridgeline, and by 9 AM you’re often just looking at green hills.

Mon Cham has also become one of Chiang Mai’s best-known glamping ridges, with more than 20 operators running everything from simple tents with shared bathrooms to insta-famous bubble tents, many bundling a Mookata dinner and a front-row sunset into the room rate. Book ahead on weekends and Thai public holidays — sites fill fast and the ridge has limited overflow.

Watch out: the road up is steep and winds through tight switchbacks; a scooter works but takes concentration, and after rain the surface gets slick. If you’re not confident on two wheels in the hills, hire a driver or take a Grab from Mae Rim town instead.

Bring a light jacket even in the hot season — temperatures at this elevation run noticeably cooler than Chiang Mai city, especially before dawn. If you want more Royal Project ground to cover the same day, the Huai Phak Phai Royal Project Development Center runs a similar model elsewhere in Mae Rim, and the Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden makes an easy, cooler-altitude add-on on the way back down.