Mon Jam

Mon Jam is a highland ridge above Chiang Mai that fifty years ago grew opium, cleared by Hmong villagers of Nong Hoi who found little else would sell on the exhausted soil. The guide follows Thailand's Royal Project and the trade King Bhumibol Adulyadej offered these farmers: give up the poppies for crops the cool, 1,300-meter air could support instead. The Hmong families who farm here still shape the ridge, their textiles and traditions woven into the fields around you.