Pong Nam Ron Mueang Paeng

Pong Nam Ron Mueang Paeng is a natural hot spring in Mueang Paeng subdistrict, about 28 km from Pai town, in a valley of rice fields and hills. It is free to visit, separate from and further out than the better-known Tha Pai Hot Spring, and outside the boundary of Huai Nam Dang National Park, so there is no park entry fee here.

The source water surfaces at around 95 degrees Celsius, hot enough that it bubbles and occasionally bursts rather than sitting still, and it is too hot to touch, let alone soak in. Distinctive orange-stained rock surrounds the outflow, coloured by the minerals in the water. A small stream carries the hot water away from the source until it meets the cooler Paeng River, and it is in that cooler stretch downstream, not the boiling source, that anyone gets their feet wet. This is a much more rustic site than Pai’s other hot springs: bamboo-built service stalls rather than a developed bathhouse, with no changing rooms or private bath facilities to speak of.

Insider Tip: Bring your own eggs. Cooking them in the hot water near the source is the standard activity here, more than bathing, and it costs nothing beyond the eggs themselves.

Watch out: The source water is close to boiling. Keep children well back from the main pool and any place where you can see the water actively bubbling — this is not a place to wade in casually the way you might at a developed spring.

Cool season (November-February) is the most popular time to visit, when the contrast between the cold mountain air and the rising steam is part of the appeal. Because it sits well outside town with no scheduled transport, a rented car or motorbike from Pai is the only practical way in — pair it with a fuller loop through Mueang Paeng’s countryside rather than treating it as a quick stop. If a proper soak is the goal rather than a look at a boiling spring, Tha Pai Hot Spring inside Huai Nam Dang National Park has developed bathing pools, for a park entry fee, much closer to Pai.