The province of Nan is ideal for making day trips. It does not matter if you go North, West, East or South. There are rivers, mountains & hill tribe villages to be found everywhere. About 50 km north of Nan city is a mountain range that is famous for the ethnic minority village of the Hmong people. It takes a 45 km dead-end road to a height of about 1300 meter to reach the valley in the mountains. In the old days the area was infamous for being a stronghold for communist rebels and the growing of poppy fields.
Nowadays due to Royal Projects the poppy fields have been replaced by vegetables and flowers. The people living there are still descents from Hmong that came from China. And mostly they still live in their own traditional way, although of course they now have cars, TV and mobile phones. The area is also famous for the many caves and even Thailand's deepest cave (400 meter deep) can be found here. A great area for hiking. There are a few villages all referred to as Manipruek and the people living in the different villages are also slightly different .... the Hmong that used to live in the mountains (the high-landers) and the Hmong that used to live in the valley (the low-landers). The current villages of Manipruek are forced resettlements. For more information about Nan province see Destination Travel Guide Nan.