Doi Mae Salong is the mountain area where the 93rd Division of the Kuomintang Army settled in 1949, having moved across the nearby Myanmar border. Their hope at the time was to strike back at the Chinese Communists when the time was right. Their operations were funded by the opium trade via what was then, Burma. Eventually, in the 1970s, the community was offered Thai citizenship and permanent settlement, in return for giving up their struggle and switching to growing tea. Tea plantations are now plentiful on the hillsides in Mae Salong, where seriously steep roads wend their way round the never-ending contours.

Oolong, Jasmine, Red, Lingzhi or Green tea, madam?