This is based on a two day trip in May 2024.
After my amazing Year of the Durian tour I really wanted to go to more durian growing regions, but my wife and I already arbitrarily decided to go up north where there isn’t much durian growth. I was looking for places to stop along the train line from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and I came across the Year of the Durian blog post on Summer Green Cafe. This is a very nice durian cafe at a durian orchard in a village called Laplae, around 10 minutes from Uttaradit train station which is around two-thirds of the way to Chiang Mai from Bangkok.
I hadn’t heard of any of these places before, and the area doesn’t get a lot of tourists. I believe Laplae is the northernmost significant durian growing region in the country (what about the world?), and the durian varieties that grow here are among the world’s most expensive. Beyond this, there seemed to be little of note and I didn’t really know what to expect from the area at all. We decided to give it a shot and go for 48 hours so we’d have one full day to explore without having to travel, though I kind of wondered if this was a dumb idea and I should just go somewhere that had more things of interest. I was also concerned about being able to get around and find vegetarian food.
My concerns ended up not being that big of a deal (though they were inconvenient), and I had a really great time and am glad I decided to make this detour! Would I recommend it to people who aren’t into durian? Probably not, but do I want such uncultured brutes reading my blog anyway? The more important question is do I recommend going here outside of durian season? Also probably not, since the durian was really the main event here, but I really enjoyed the small town charms and would have had fun even if there were no durian.
I don’t know the seasonal range, but I went in late May which seemed to be perfect timing as there was a lot of very reasonably priced durian to be had. Over 48 hours, we ate, if I recall correctly, eight full durians (though they were generally on the small side), from five different varieties, and I estimate we spent around 1200 baht total on them. If we were to eat that amount of durian in Bangkok we would have spent much more than the entire trip cost including transport and accommodation, so if you want to pig out on durian then the trip will pay for itself. It’d be an especially good weekend getaway from Chiang Mai, which it’s closer to than Bangkok (and Bangkok has its own nearby durian regions to visit).
Laplae has many homestays, but none that we asked were able to make vegetarian food for us, nor did they provide kitchen access. They said we could rent a bike and get food from the market but I don’t know how to ride a bike and didn’t want to be stuck wandering around searching for food. They also weren’t cheap compared to most places we stay in Thailand (most were around 1500 baht, and the one we found for around half that cost was booked out). We almost just stayed at a hotel in Uttaradit not far from the area’s only vegetarian restaurant, but I wanted to stay somewhere with more character, and the vegetarian restaurant closed pretty early, as they often do in Thailand, so it wouldn’t have been all that convenient anyway as I intended to be in Laplae during the day. If it were open at dinner time we probably would have stayed nearby.
We decided to stay at a place called Thung Yang House in a town/village Thung Yang, about ten minutes from Uttaradit station and another ten minutes from Laplae (here they are on Google Maps, and we contacted them through Facebook). We chose it based on the price (600 baht a night), the location (next to a big market open all day, so we maybe won’t starve), and because it looked cute (wooden house, antiques, etc). It ended up being a great choice! The room was basic but clean, and it’s run by an older couple who were nice, though we could hardly communicate with them or anyone else in the town. It should satisfy people looking for 600 baht accommodation, though one downside is that the location on the main road across from the main temple means it can be noisy early in the morning.
The location is what made it great, though. The market right next door is awesome, it’s large and full of beautiful produce at low prices, and it’s very clean and well kept. I was surprised to see such a nice market in this tiny town. There were a lot of prepared foods too but almost nothing vegetarian outside of sweets and a few snacky things. We found some people selling boxed vegetarian salads (with boiled eggs, so vegans will have an even harder time) and for a few meals survived on the salad, rice, fruits, and boiled peanuts. That’s about it. I wish I could live next to this market when we could actually cook with this stuff! I really wanted to eat some of the mushrooms they were selling.
I was at least able to enjoy the fruit, including the durian which had three vendors that I saw in the market, though it depended on the time of the day. One seller was only there in the morning both days we went, and then two different sellers were there in the afternoon, and only one of those was there when we went at night. They all had different varieties, and the one vendor we went to twice had a different selection each time. Unlike in Bangkok where we’d buy containers with one or two small chunks, here we could only buy the full durian which they would cut open and package for us (or at least I think that was the only option, communication was difficult, but there didn’t seem to be a try before you buy option). I was afraid of what this would cost the first few times we did it, but I soon realized that the cost of a whole durian here is often less than what I’d pay for a small piece in Bangkok! I couldn’t believe how little I paid for some of these durians.
At this market we got the famous local variety Linlaplae as well as the lesser renowned local variety phuen muang, but we only got the other local variety Longlaplae in Laplae and Uttaradit, though they may have had it here too. We also got the more common varieties Puangmanee and Monthong, I assume grown locally though they are not local varieties. We got the Monthong twice from two vendors and both times it didn’t stand out much. The Linlaplae was like a wonderful caramel custard but it didn’t have much flesh. The phuen muang was similar, outstanding flavor but not enough flesh. Ridiculously cheap though! And the puangmanee was just perfect.
Right across the street from the market and guest house is a very nice Wat Thung Yang where there was some event going on the two nights I was there, with food stalls and live music. How common are these events? During the day there was also music and a speech coming out of the temple’s loudspeaker, I’m not sure if this was a daily thing or was related to the festival. This area is fairly busy for an otherwise very quiet place, and it was cool to be somewhere where the temple and market are really the center of the town both figuratively and literally.
There’s nothing to really do here, but I had fun doing close to nothing. We walked around a bit and the area is very green and beautiful, with lots of old wooden houses. We walked down to the nice Wat Phra Thaen Sila At (which had interesting murals telling some cool looking story, if anyone knows what it is please tell me!), and then walked to the lovely Nong Phra Lae park, where on Sunday evening there was a fun little market where we got some good fresh juices and these local special steamed rice roll things that reminded us of khandvi (khao phan phak, we got ours unstuffed).
I didn’t do a ton of research so this isn’t authoritative, but we ate at what I believe is the fanciest restaurant in town, Lan Pho Cafe. Nice clean place, not expensive, has a pretty outdoor seating area but we opted to sit inside because of mosquitos and the heat. The staff didn’t speak English but we communicated through google translate and they understood vegetarian food well. I ordered a few salads (eggplant and lemongrass, and they kindly offered to add mushroom to them since they’d be overly simple without the meat) and asked for them not spicy, and they were solid. I can’t really speak to the quality of the restaurant based on my basic order, but I can recommend it and would definitely go back, given the circumstances. They had a La Marzocco coffee machine, which is pretty impressive, though as it was nightitme we didn’t try their coffee, and we missed our chance to check out the few nice looking small cafes in the area.
This is the smallest town I’ve ever been to in Thailand and I was struck by how nice it is. Very clean and quiet, no pollution or litter, well paved roads, not dusty, nice cars (I saw a Tesla!), well stocked air conditioned convenience stores, etc. It’s not the most exciting place, I wouldn’t especially want to spend more time here when there are so many other places to go, but if I had to spend more time here I wouldn’t mind, with the only caveat being limited vegetarian food. I can’t help but think of comparably sized places I’ve been in India and the contrast in the quality of life is massive.
The next day we took a cab to Laplae. We started at the city gate and museum. The museum was alright. No displays were in English and I got tired of using google translate for every display. Go if you like museums, but also don’t feel bad skipping it, though it’d be better if you can read Thai. They had some displays on the local foods and other products (there’s some special local broom that is sold all over town), that was the highlight, as well as the legend from the town which you can also read on Wikipedia, but the version at the museum fills in some nice details. There were a number of antiques, handicrafts, agricultural tools, etc. There was some info on Laplae being a refuge for people fleeing Uttaradit when it was bombed during WW2. Like most Thai regional museums there is info about visits made by royals to the area. Stuff like that.
After that we walked through the town to make our way to Summer Green Cafe, which took around 40 minutes. I don’t have a ton to say about the town, but similar to Thung Yang it was nice, pretty, and green. More developed than I was expecting, though without anything really noteworthy. We saw some nice temples, cafes, 7/11s, markets, etc.
We walked by a number of shops selling the local rice wraps called mee phan. They sell chewy rice paper that you eat on its own as well as a version stuffed with noodles and veggies, which they made for us with soy sauce instead of fish sauce. They were good! Recommended. The one I went to isn’t on google maps, but you’ll find these places if you look around, and it seemed many of the restaurants in town sold them. There are a lot of variations of these and we bought some of the flat dry rice sheets with sesame seeds and spices, which made for great train snacks.
Further along down the road is a temple on a hill with a cool naga stairway, but more importantly was the durian that was being sold right by the stairway. We got a full phuen mueang for 80 baht which they cut and packed for us. It was different from the phuen mueang I had at the market in Thung Yang. This one had much more flesh and had some excellent sweet caramel custardy bites, but was much less consistent, with many bites being kind of blandly starchy. Totally worthwhile though, for that price I can’t complain.
Just a few minutes past the temple and durian stall was Mon Laplae, a local clothing store as well as a cafe and restaurant. We stopped to eat here. Nice place! I have no comment on the clothing, but I believe it is a local fabric and style and it should be of interest to someone. They also had some local souvenirs. The restaurant had a menu of those local rice wrap thingies, but when I discovered that the durian green curry could be made vegetarian I obviously went for that. It was very good! (Though not next level insanely good like the durian green curries I had on the YotD tour.) I didn’t go through the whole menu but it seemed good with more interesting dishes than most places. Probably the best place in town for an air conditioned meal.
After lunch it was about a 20 minute walk to Summer Green Cafe, which is what incited the whole trip. It’s a wonderful place! You can walk around the durian orchard, order a range of drinks and desserts (many of which contain durian), and sit in AC or in the garden. Best of all, you get farm-to-table durian service, cutting them open and bringing them to you on a plate! They had Linlaplae, Longlaplae, and Monthong. These weren’t as cheap as in the local markets here, but they were still very reasonable compared to what we get in Bangkok. We went with a Longlaplae and it was perfect. Ripe, fleshy, creamy, caramely, and with a distinct melon taste. I think it was the best durian we tried on our Uttaradit trip, and eating it at the source in a beautiful garden was definitely special. They served it alongside unlimited mangosteen at no extra cost, as the cooling properties of mangosteen balance out the heating properties of durian.
We also got a durian macchiato (fun to try, but kind of an odd combo that I don’t feel the need to have again, though it likely would be better if we didn’t order it without sugar) and a coffee topped with durian ice cream (great ice cream, I loved the bits of durian in it). I wanted to just stick to durian things, but I couldn’t resist trying their santol ice cream. I think it was just sorbet, not actually ice cream, and it was awesome. Though obviously you should come here for the durian, the menu has enough on it to make it worthwhile year round, with other seasonal fruits getting their own special menus (the mayongchid menu was still up when we were there). Note that they just have drinks, desserts, and smoothie bowls. I saw savory foods in old photos but it seems they’ve discontinued that.
After the cafe we planned to go to the Hua Dong Market where there are rows and rows of durian stalls, but it started raining pretty heavily and we couldn’t arrange transportation. Oh well. We also hoped to check out the Mae Phun waterfall and some of the other museums (type museum into google maps and some stuff comes up…I’m not sure what they are though) but it wasn’t meant to be.
We also saw a bit of Uttaradit town the next day before catching our train. Compared to Thung Yang and Laplae, Uttaradit is more modern and developed, and not as pretty or charming. We tried going to the Khlong Pho market in search of vegetarian food, but when we got there, maybe around 11:30am, it was mostly shut down. The area had a lot of shops, cafes, restaurants, 7/11s, etc, and a surprisingly nice and busy mall where we stopped to use the bathroom.
The highlight of Uttaradit that I saw was a sweet shop near the market…or sweet shops, set up by a family member some generations ago and now I assume split among family members between multiple businesses all operating on the same plot of land. The location is here, or if that doesn’t work for some reason just type “candy store” into google maps. The names are in Thai. We didn’t go to the shop on the corner but went to two different shops further down after turning inside the lane.
The dessert they make is made of rice (the first shop inside the lane had a riceberry option), sesame seeds, and a sweetener (honey at the first shop inside the lane, brown sugar at the second shop). They are called candle candies because they are shaped like candles and flavored with candle smoke after being wrapped in banana leaves and put into a steamer or oven which I believe is never turned on but where they sit and absorb the smokey aroma. They showed us how they do it and it is really cool, and the candles are made from flowers which you can see growing in the yard. I won’t say these are among my favorite desserts or anything, but I enjoyed them, they are not too sweet, and I love the smokey aroma they have. Though they are the same dessert, they have a slightly different taste. I preferred the first shop inside the lane (which is smaller and uses honey and riceberry, not the larger one with museum on top) which I found to be smokier and slightly less sweet, but they were both good and it’s worth picking up a small box of both. If I recall correctly the small boxes cost 60 baht and had around 12 of the candies. They said they would last around a week outside the fridge (putting them in the fridge makes them hard) but ours went bad after 4-5 days, but it was humid and I blame myself for not sealing them in an airtight container.
The shops also sell some other local souvenirs and food products, and the shop in the back has a museum on the second floor, though it was renovating when we were there.
We also went to a nice cafe not far from the station called Third Place. Cute place with a surprisingly excellent iced latte from single origin Thai beans.
The last thing I did while waiting for the train was check out the temple across the station and walk down to the Nan river, which takes hardly two minutes. It was nice to see the river. More importantly, on the road between the temple and the riverbank there was a woman selling durian. She had three varieties, Longlaplae, Monthong, and I believe one other variety but it wasn’t translating well on my phone and I couldn’t understand what she was saying. I got one last Longlaplae, priced at 280 baht, and when I asked if I could just buy two or three pieces of it instead of the whole thing (I think there were six pieces total), she of course refused (why does nobody do this?) but reduced the price of the whole thing to 250. I opened my wallet and only had around 215 baht and she gave it to me for all of the money in my wallet. With the help of Google translate, I asked her to pack it for me so I could take it on the train without getting in trouble. She understood my request and did her best, but I was definitely able to smell it the entire train ride, a journey full of Hitchcockian suspense. Thankfully we made it to Lampang without anyone confiscating our durian (though I swear some people walking down the aisle got a whiff of it and glanced around quizzically), and we ate it later with our homestay host. It was great! Pretty similar to the one I had at Summer Green Cafe the day before.
For more on what to do in the area, see the articles on the good Thai website Read the Cloud (you have to translate it). They list some museums, farm cafes, restaurants, nature stuff, art galleries, and other nice looking things in the area. I would have stayed an extra day to explore more if I had a car, but it is all spread out so it would have been difficult and expensive otherwise.
I also recommend this article on Laplae: https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/travel/2345993/welcome-to-durian-country
I didn’t get a chance to find any, nor do I know if any still stand, but you can read about Uttaradit’s old cinemas here:
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