Sprawling out from the village of Ban Khum, this Royal Project was founded to provide local hill-tribe villagers with an alternative source of income to growing opium, and to conduct research into which new crops could be cultivated in the cool mountain valleys of northern Thailand. Many station staff are villagers from the mixed Yunnanese, Burmese and hill-tribe villages of Pang Ma, Ban Luang, Ban Khob Dong and Ban Nor Lae, which circle the Royal Project.
Visitors can wander through the plantations and orchards – growing everything from peaches and plums to blueberries and kiwifruit – and into the villages themselves, which are working communities with none of the human-zoo atmosphere that you'll encounter on many hill-tribe treks in the area.
Dotted around the grounds are a string of pretty gardens and workshops where fruit is sorted, tea is processed and herbal remedies and beauty products are mixed and tested. Start at the outdoor garden and glasshouses by the entrance then continue to the bonsai garden and the gorgeous rose and flower gardens around the station restaurant and accommodation. The main station restaurant – a colonial-style space with waiters in flowery pajamas – cooks up good lowland Thai food and northern specialities, prepared using ingredients from the Royal Project, including their tasty own-brand 'Doi Kham' juices. Accommodation is available (dorms 50B; bungalows 650B to 3500B); most of the roomy bungalows have terraces or balconies where you can make the most of the scenery.
