Thailand, Farm #3 – Sahainan, Nan

Where: Nan, a town in northern Thailand, bordering Laos.

Who: Sandot and his family. (the same people who run Tacomepai)

What: A traditional organic permaculture farm run by a Thai hill tribe family who strive to maintain a sustainable and environmentally caring way of life. They also offer permaculture courses.

Volunteering hours: Entirely flexible, you can work as many or as little hours as you want.

Fees: 100baht per person per night for 3 nights and above or 150baht per night per person for anything below 3 nights.

Saihainan is an 8.5 acre (21 rai) family farm located in the mountains of northern Thailand. Started only in November 2014, it was really new when #phangandhuang visited in August, earlier this year.

Sandot, the farm owner, isn’t new to us since we spent quite some time in his previous farm, Tacomepai. We wanted a break over the National Day period (yes we’re not that patrotic), and Sahainan was a easy decision for us since we loved Tacomepai and we really like Sandot.

Being a relative new farm, there was so many oppounities to create things like craving out bowls from coconuts, creating spoons from bamboos etc. All these were new to us too!  Earlier volunteers even had the chance to set up the kitchen, make the mud oven and other exciting things too.

We particularly enjoyed playing with the mud while we were covering the walls of the toliet.

Together with us were 3 other fun and nature loving folks from Finland, Israel and London who were there to attend a permaculture course. Sometimes we would crash their course and get to learn about things like how to save seeds, start our own compost etc.

Another thing we enjoyed was the visit to a village school where alternative education is being taught. Students of the village get to learn both academic as well as practical skills like organic farming. They have a farm as well and are currently looking for volunteers too.

As with Tacomepai, the amenities are bare but sufficient. We survived on candle light in our room and toliet. There was a power generator at the classroom to charge our phones. Cooking is done over a firewood stove, no fridge in the kitchen. Other than that you’re pretty much immersed in the forest, mostly made up of cashew nut trees.

The only gripe we had was that getting there was a little difficult. For us we took a longer route since we wanted to spend some time in Chiang Mai. We flew in to Chiang Mai and took a Green Bus to Thung Chang. From Thung Chang, we had to get a driver to take us to the farm which was a little off town and not that known to the town folks too.

Other ways you could get there include flying in straight from Nan and then hopping on to a red bus. More on how to get there here.

If  you’re looking for a place to immerse yourself in nature, far away from the city, and are up to trying and doing anything that’s required, we highly recommend Sahainan!