Bo Kluea Salt Wells

Bo Kluea means salt wells, and that is what the village is: two brine wells in a mountain valley in eastern Nan, hundreds of kilometres from the sea, fed by water passing through ancient rock salt deposits laid down when the region was under water. The salt has been worked for centuries and was traded across the north and into Laos - it was valuable enough that control of the wells mattered politically, and the village's existence is entirely a function of them. The method is unchanged in outline: brine is drawn from the well, poured into large iron pans over wood fires in open-sided sheds, and boiled until the water goes and salt crystallises, then dried and bagged. Visitors can watch the boiling and buy the salt. It is a working operation rather than a display, the sheds are hot and smoky, and the mountain road in from Pua over Doi Phu Kha is long and severely winding.

Highlights

• The brine wells - inland salt springs in a mountain valley.
• The boiling sheds - iron pans over wood fires, open-sided and smoky.
• The crystallisation - salt forming as the water goes.
• The trade history - salt from here carried across the north and into Laos.

When to go

November to February. Boiling happens on working days; production reduces in the wet season when wood and access are difficult. Two hours covers it.

Before you go

A working operation - hot, smoky sheds with people doing hard physical work, not a demonstration. Ask before photographing. The road over Doi Phu Kha is long and severely winding. Little English.

Nearby

Doi Phu Kha National Park is on the road in; Nan town is west.