Chiang Mai’s court artisans, the chang sip mu, worked in ten hereditary crafts under the old Lanna kings, and several of those trades are still being taught, hands-on, in the villages ringing the city rather than behind museum glass. Bo Sang, for paper and paint Nine km east of the Old City along Route 1006, Bo Sang Umbrella Making Centre has processed mulberry bark into sa paper and split bamboo into umbrella ribs since the 19th century.

A group of six splits a songthaew charter for less than a single taxi fare elsewhere, and most of what’s actually worth doing here scales up naturally rather than getting awkward past three people. On the water and in the quarry, together Whitewater rafting on the Mae Taeng River genuinely needs a group: rafts run four to six paddlers working together under a certified river coxswain, and there’s real camaraderie in getting a raft through the “Elephant Slide” and “Big Rapid” sections as a crew rather than solo.