A new crossing from Laos to #Thailand ...

Endless valleys like this, but keep your eyes on the road.

Route 1080 runs smoothly all the way from Nan for 138km to Huay Kon, beautifully lined by gnarled rubber trees and teak, casting dappled shadows across the road. 20km outside town is the Nan Riverside Gallery, an artful enclave of studio chalets.

The town of Pua is a fertile oasis, and Thung Chang is tidy and prosperous. Tractors chug along hauling bales of hay. Then around Ban Pon the road begins to wriggle and twist up the mountains, presenting beautiful vistas both sides of the ridge.

I've come here to check out Huay Kon, site of a new Thai-Laos border crossing, just opened.

Huay Kon itself is something of a disappointment (I may have used a stronger word at the time!). It’s a non-descript Thai village with a few houses clinging to the hillside, sleeping dogs, and chickens crossing the road in time-honoured fashion.

Khun Sawat: still waiting for his Michelin Hat.

But a bowl of Khun Sawat’s kanom jeen noodles proves to be a hearty 25 baht refueling, with smiles and witty banter thrown in for free. Sawat speaks Thai and Laos, and confirms that more Laotians seem to be coming here now.

The new land crossing is 6km north, off the 1080. I often sing the praises of the roads in northern Thailand, but not today. Oh no! This motley stop-start affair of tar, gravel, ruts and ridges is enough to put off all but the most determined, jing jing.

Finally we reach the border, an ornate gateway with flags aflutter. Trucks and cars are parked here and there. Minibuses decant their human payloads. Half a dozen adventure motorcyclists. Noodles, coffee and tyre shops. And red dust.

Trucks bringing in teak - and what else??? - from Laos

As a border town, Tijuana it ain’t!

One Thai lady I speak to is on her way to work as an accountant in Luang Prabang. Many of the men are truck drivers, hauling pre-cut teak timber from Laos to Thailand. The European motorcyclists are kicking up a fuss because their paperwork is not in order. Two of them are sent back, before the rest are hastily summoned by the Thai immigration officer in brown (with gold medals glinting) to get going because the Laos side is going to close.

I idly wonder whether, if I came back here in 10 years, Huay Kon is going to be souvenir row, with stalls and stalls selling I Love Thailand trinkets, T-shirts, copy watches and Viagra? Maybe then Khun Sawat will have a whole chain of kanom jeen noodle shops doing flourishing business. And maybe then this place will be far too busy for dogs to sleep on the road anymore.

Only time will tell.

Useful travel information:

Nan Immigration checkpoint: open 0800-1700 daily (note: no entry to Laos after 1600).

Nan to Huay Kon: approx 2-2.5 hours via minibus, approx 3000 baht per trip (up to 8 people). Tel: Khun Mon 087-175-7377

From Huay Kon to Nan/ Phrae: 2 minibuses leave the border checkpoint each morning. One minibus at 4pm. For Chiang Mai service, change at Nan.

Nan to Chiang Mai: approx 6 hours via song taew van, approx 4000 baht. Tel: Khun Nai 081-764-8987

Nan, the new Middle City - again.

Cars haven't been invented in Nan yet ...

There has been a lot of chatter of Thailand’s Nan becoming ‘the new Pai’, referring to the latter engaging – albeit somewhat over-touristed – hillside getaway in Mae Hong Son. But could the views be as beautiful? Could the people be as warm? Could the city possibly be as charming?

To my delight, yes, Yes, and YES.

Everywhere in the northern provincial capital finishing touches are being put on a new boutique hotel, or a cool café, restaurant, or market. Nan is clearly enjoying a renaissance.

You see, Nan has had an on again-off again history. By the 1500s it was one of the major Thai-Lao principalities forming the fabled Lanna Kingdom. And in the 1600s Nan became known as Chiang Klang, meaning ‘Middle City’, because it was roughly half way between the other powerhouses of the day, Chiang Mai and Chiang Thong (better known these days as Luang Prabang).

Wat Suan Tan: it's seen some changes since 1449

This heritage is clearly evident with a half kilometre of the battlemented old city wall still intact, and several distinctive Lanna-style wats, like Wat Suan Tan, dominating downtown. “It’s the best maintained town of Lanna culture left, because it was so inaccessible in the past, and less corrupted by outside influence,” a friend had ventured. Judging by the number of teak-wood houses with criss-cross galae motifs on their roofs, he is right.

Many developments in town leverage that quaint heritage, such as the 75-year-old Pukha Nanfa Hotel which stands in newly refurbished golden teakwood splendour, or the Jan Taeng Guesthouse, and little cafes like Nan Seeing Tour café with old bicycles out the front, and pockets of hanging flower baskets. Suddenly everything old is new again. And cool restaurants are blooming everywhere, like the minimalist Just Jazz, run by a couple who left Chiang Mai. 

Jan Taeng's airport limousine service waits you ...

“The rents here are about one quarter of Chiang Mai,” they explain. Jing Jing!

But all of that might change with the recent opening of the new Thai-Laos border crossing at Huay Kon, 138km north. Suddenly, Nan is the middle city gateway, again.

Nan is in pole position to capitalize on this new flow between Thailand, Laos and China. Stylish new hotels like the Nan Boutique Hotel are already running full, contemporary Kad Nan draws a crowd, and beer gardens like Na Na and nightclubs like Channel X and Fifth are already partying late into the night in anticipation of much better times ahead.

“Nan is pure,” says Khun Nine at the Nan Boutique Hotel, originally from Uttaradit then Chiang Mai. “Nan is real, not fake. If somebody smiles here, they are really smiling.”

I see this not so much as the new Pai, but as the renascent Nan.