Two months volunteering on a coffee farm in Chiang Rai with the Lahu community - Part 1

Like every coffee lover at some point the dream is to be able to spend some time on a farm to understand how coffee is born and grows and that will ends up on café tables in liquid form and which many of us love especially in the morning,

I am passionate about Asia and Thailand so I looked for a farm that combined coffee with a more sustainable approach and after months of research and thanks to websites such as Wordpackers and Workaway I came across this eco-sustainable plantation, Suan Lahu coffee farm run by the Lahu community in their own territory in the mountains between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

Website : https://suanlahu.org/

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/SuanLahu

Instagram : @suanlahu_organiccoffee @suan_lahu_organic_coffee @suan_lahu

The Lahu are an indigenous ethnic group residing in the mountainous regions of the Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and China meet, they have a rich cultural heritage, a distinct language and a history of resilience, balancing traditional customs with modern influences, in Thailand, the Lahu community is concentrated in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai where they have become known for their agricultural skills, particularly in coffee cultivation.

Once dependent on subsistence farming and opium cultivation, many Lahu farmers have switched to coffee thanks to sustainable farming initiatives and projects introduced by the royal family around 1970, initiated by King Bhumibol who wanted to find a way to replace the opium cultivation that was rampant among the Lahu in the so-called Golden Triangle between Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and China. …. https://anextraordinaryandordinarylifeblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/02/two-months-volunteering-on-a-coffee-plantation-in-chiang-mai-with-the-lahu-community/