Garden of Eden

A stone’s throw from Doi Luang Chiang Dao is one of the Chiang Mai area’s best kept secrets: the Chiang Dao Nest

The husband-and-wife team of Stuart and Wicha Cavaliero – he from Britain, she from Thailand – have opened a charming little guesthouse and restaurant in Chiang Dao surrounded by lush, unspoilt nature.

Chiang Dao is near Doi Luang Chiang Dao, Thailand’s third-highest mountain, and about an hour's drive from Chiang Mai, making it a great escape from the city's oppressive heat. Evening temperatures in Chiang Dao are especially comfortable this time of year.

Chiang Dao Nest's cluster of 11 little bungalows is split between two sites about 1.5 kilometres from Chiang Dao Caves. They are basic, unpretentious and very clean; all sleep two people and are built in the shadow of the mountain.

The Chiang Dao Nest Mini-Resort is quiet and peaceful, the kind of place where guests can sit and read for days.

Between meals, of course. Food is the main attraction, for Wicha is a trained chef who studied and worked in a top-end fusion restaurant in the UK for more than four years before returning to her native country in 2002.

Wicha's cooking is a veritable “Babette's Feast”. She uses local produce from hilltribe farmers to make her own pates, cheeses, cakes and breads, and creates exquisite three-course dinners for less than Bt500. Her menu changes nightly.

Main dishes might include duck's leg with caramelised mango and thyme, buffalo fillet with beet puree and baby onions in red-wine sauce and grilled fish fillet with baby potatoes, gazpacho dressing and fresh parmesan shavings. For dessert are such gastronomic treats as fresh strawberry sorbet, coconut creme brulee and baked American cheesecake with mango coulis.

Guests are drawn to the Chiang Dao Nest by Wicha's kitchen magic and Stuart's guided trekking tours up Doi Luang Chiang Dao, with its summit at 2,245 metres. As a result, the Nest is attracting an increasing number of foreign visitors, as well as expatriates from Chiang Mai, who stealthily pass on word about the place like Masonic members sharing a secret handshake.

For more information, visit www.chiangdao.com, a comprehensive website with all sorts of details about this little resort as well as the town of Chiang Dao.

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