Enter The Nest - A mini resort in the City of Stars
It was a really lovely morning in the early rainy season, a time of the year when nature is full of sparkling colors and different shades of green.
I sat in the Nests open restaurant with its thatched roof, admiring nature while enjoying my morning coffee. Impressive enough, I concluded that the owners realized that with a view like this, you cannot serve just a cup of coffee. A whole pot of coffee is required! As a Swedish coffee addict, refill of coffee it’s a high priority, so the “three cup pot” was a wonderful surprise. Nearby, my wife and son were still asleep in the bungalow with just the fan on. Chiang Dao is cool at night- no air-condition required during the rainy season.
I was just reflecting on that it would be interesting to meet the owner of a place like this. The Nest, where does the name come from? So brilliantly located in wonderful surroundings, only one and a half hours from Chiang Mai. The place is balanced to suite families with kids, as well as busy career people who want to withdraw from the bustling big city for a while. The Nest defines itself as a mini-resort. For me, I came to think of the term “social lounge”, a place where travelers with higher demand for quality accommodation than the regular backpacker can find good food and great atmosphere, but with the same family feeling that you can get in a guesthouse.
The Nest also makes a great alternative to the top, high end resorts, many of which are constructed according to a similar “master plan”: that is a concrete building with some wood finishing in traditional Thai style, and repeating the same cultural concepts over and over again. There is of course nothing wrong with smiling Thai women doing traditional wais in equally traditional outfits. But the Nest breaks the pattern a bit, and creates some new refreshing thinking in the world of Thai resorts. Directly when you enter The Nest, the location itself strikes you, steep mountains all around and in the garden you find plenty of huge dipterocarp trees with hundreds of year’s history that are reaching for the clouds.
Then a Thai woman sat down at the table next to me, rolling her own cigarette. After finishing with her cigarette she started up a conversation in perfect British English.
- This is our Nest. Yes, we call it the Nest since the kids haven’t flown out yet. We have created our own nest, a great place to live but also for others to enjoy. Do you like the coffee? This is the way I have served coffee since I had a little coffee station on Koh Samui years ago.
I realized that this was the owner - Khun Wicha, that I wanted to meet. The moment for enjoying morning coffee developed into a short interview. I was so curious about the place. I declared that I was not only impressed with the coffee, but also the food, the pavilion with toys for children(that also is within eyesight from the restaurant), that they have working wifi here in the forest, and the comfortable beds in the pleasantly cool, small bungalow hut.
- You really have thought of everything, I said. How come, one can find this kind of a crossover western food style out here?
- I have worked several years as a chef in the UK, but since I am Thai taste always come first. In England, I met some chefs who didn’t even taste their own food. They only talked about the importance of ingredients. The ingredients are indeed important, but never forget the taste. I spend much time developing new recipes, and to get our local staff to understand the way how to cook western food. We also try to use organic vegetables and ingredients that are locally grown. In our menu we have tried for instance organic (free range chicken). We have our own fish pond and cultivate passion fruits, as well as rice. We try to listen to what our guests request; in the beginning we didn’t have showers in all rooms. But since people asked for this convenience we had to adjust. The same for the meals, we like to hear the opinion of the guests. We have nicer nature surrounding us than Pai, Wicha concluded. And we are supporting the local community and the hill tribes around here.Another part that we at The Northern Rose like is the idea of planting new dipterocarp trees in the area. Wicha told me that they have 1200 dipterocarp seeds which they want to distribute.
There is no lack of good reviews about The Nest; however the Northern Rose thinks that the word deserves to be spread. Enter The Nest for a weekend, you won’t regret it.
Facts/Getting there:
Chiang Dao translates as the City of Stars, on road 107 towards Thaton, and Chiang Rai. On The way from Chiang Mai to Chiang Dao you can also visit Mae Rim and/or Chiang Dao Elephant Camp. Not far from The Nest is Chiang Dao’s holy cave.
The Nest opened up at year 2002. Read about their history here. And about the people that run the place here.
Actually, there are two Nests. The Nest One has a swimming pool and western foods. At The Nest Two Thai foods is served. If you need to do some excursions, at The Nest, they also have an award-winning trek program.© Text and Photo; Per Sundberg
