Slow Living & Organic Food At Bo Suak, Nan

Ban Tong Chom Chan Slow Living & Organic Food At Bo Suak, Nan Occasionally you go to a place looking to visit quickly and then you come away with something greater: a quiet mind, full stomach and to feel that you were taken care of like a family member. That’s exactly how I felt at Ban Tong Chom Chan, in Bo Suak, Mueang Nan. The view is the first thing you stop at. There are huge, bright-green rice fields reaching up into the mountains. On the day I visited, the sky was cloudy in the most beautiful way: quiet, soft, “Nan-style.” It’s the kind of landscape that slows you down gently. But what resonated most with me wasn’t just the landscape. It was the welcome. Mae Chan, one of the hosts, smiled and said:  

“Come eat with us today. Let’s go pick the ingredients together.” And that’s what we did. Mae Chan and Por Ya (the other host) led us around to the kitchen to take us to their home garden to collect fresh vegetables and herbs—everything grown there, without chemicals, they had the same day and night out and took us straight home. You don’t want signs reading “organic.” You can SEE it, SMELL it and tastefully taste it. Por Ya wrote to me something inspiring too;  

This area doesn’t run on normal electric power. It would have been prohibitively expensive to install power poles, they instead turned to solar power. That decision makes Ban Tong Chom Chan feel entirely “off-grid” and inherently sustainable — not as a marketing proposition, but as everyday life. Lunch was easy, local and so great. It felt as though the world had been willfully slowed by home-cooked food while gazing out at the rice fields. Then there was another thing I loved: the kitchen culture here is community spirit, pure. “Visitors are often here to feast or stay,” Mae Chan said, “and she’s open-heartedly inviting the visitors — sometimes she even informs them that, ‘Use the kitchen freely—cook anything you like.’”  

There was something interesting that also really warmed me:  

One foreign traveler had come in for a week or so. Mae Chan cooked for him every day and even drove him through the Bo Suak community in a small three-wheeled vehicle. When the time came to leave … he was crying. And frankly, I get why. Ban Tong Chom Chan is not a grand hotel, not a tourist spot. It’s more similar to a communal living room — a place to slow down, eat well, breathe deeply and to remind yourself what it feels like to be treated with simple kindness. For serene views of rice fields, genuine home-cooking, and warm Nan hospitality, they are available at Ban Tong Chom Chan (Bo Suak, Mueang Nan, Nan). Phone: 083 320 7105