Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Nan, a small, relatively obscure city located in the northeastern half of Thailand’s Golden Triangle. Lying in a valley surrounded by mountains, not too many travelers know about Nan as it is still off the beaten track. The rather long Nan River, which cuts through the valley as flows from the north to the south, is the city’s eastern perimeter. Further east is the country of Laos.

After a one-hour flight to Nan from Bangkok on PB Air, a regional carrier which services some of the smaller cities in Northern Thailand, I had chance to do a walking tour of town. A rather pleasant and quaint city with tree lined streets and rural country roads, Nan brought back memories of Turlock, a small sleepy river town located in California’s San Joaquin Valley that I last visited as a child in late 1950’s. Strange but true! According to the owner of the guesthouse where I stayed, there are about 50,000 people who live in the city of Nan. Although there are a couple of coffee shops - albeit no Starbucks – which cater to the tourist crowds, Nan seems to be relatively untainted by the excesses of Western Culture – there’s no McDonalds, KFC or the aforementioned Starbucks.

Nan has just handful of hotels and a somewhat greater number of guesthouses. The largest and most prestigious hotel (also the oldest) is the Dhevaraj Hotel. Located in the heart of the downtown area, the Dhevaraj is very popular with Thai tourists from Chiang Mai and Bangkok. Nightlife is very limited, although when I was there, the Dhevaraj had some live entertainment nightly. Nancy, a rather attractive 23-year-old lady who had recently graduated from a nearby University, was one of the featured female entertainers. Although she was also employed as a nurse in a local hospital, she moonlighted as a singer at the hotel. In addition to singing some of the more popular Thai love songs, Nancy also belted a pretty good version of San Francisco (Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair). For some reason, this song is very popular in Thailand!

Of course, like most cities in Thailand, Nan has its fare share of Buddhist temples (Wats) and shrines. There is also a fairly interesting regional museum located in Nan; unfortunately due to time constraints I didn’t have a chance to visit it. On my first day in town, I walked into Fhu Travel, the most reputable (and oldest) tour operator in the city and got set up with two all day excursions. Tour #1 was sort of a countryside nature tour by minibus which featured the bizarre Sao Din’s Earth pillars and some other scenic vistas. I had seen the earth pillars at Lalu in Sakaeo Province the year before so I wasn’t totally awestruck – in fact the earth pillars at Lalu were more impressive than the ones at Sao Din. At the end of tour, I had Nong (my tour guide extraordinaire) and Chaat (the driver), take me to the lookout point at Wat Prathat Chae Haeng, a venerable Buddhist Temple located on the outskirts of the city. Situated on a steep hill, the views of the city and the surrounding valley from this old temple are magnificent.

By car, Nan is about 4½ hours from Chiang Mai and about 8 hours from Bangkok. The most practical way to get there is to fly from Bangkok on PB Air like I did (1 hour flight), then take the bus or drive to Chiang Mai, with stops at the village of Phu Lang Ka and the city of Phayao. Plan to spend a minimum of week in the area!

If you’re passing through Chiang Dao, a small town about 75 minutes north of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, I highly recommend that you visit Malee’s Nature lodge, one of the best and friendliest family owned hostels in Thailand, and the owner, Ms. Malee, is ‘a real sweetheart’. She’s very ‘Jai Dee’, a Thai expression for somebody who has a big heart and is very generous.

Just yesterday, I stopped by to pay my respects to Khun Malee and her family (and her two dogs Son and Jennie). As I was getting ready to head back to Chiang Mai, I happened to notice that Malee was growing a small money tree in her dining room. As Malee explained, the money tree is a way of raising funds for much needed improvements in the community kindergarten located near Chiang Dao Cave – plans call for the construction of a permanent roof over the playground and a special sleeping room for the young children.

The small tree is growing and prospering thanks to Malee’s attentive love and care, as well as to the contributions from many of her guests. Hanging from the branches of the small money tree are many 20 baht and 100 baht notes as well as a rather prominent 1000 baht note at the crown of the tree.

Construction of the roof and the sleeping room will begin in March 2009. If you’d like to help the money tree grow larger, you must make your contribution between now and this date. I believe it is a very worthy cause!

Malee was one of the founders and is one of the most avid supporters of this small kindergarten facility, which opened its doors some 10 years ago in response to the growing community in the village known as Ban Tham. Her precocious son Peter, who I have affectionately nicknamed Ling Lek (small monkey), is a recent graduate of the Ban Tham kindergarten.