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Mu Aye Pu
A long-tail boat on a misted highland river.

Visit

Come as a guest

Mu Aye Pu is a village, not a resort. There is no ticket office on this river.

Atmospheric image of Kawthoolei river travel, not a route map.

People have always arrived here by water. A guest who is welcome is met on the sandbar, fed, and shown the hills by people who already live in them. That is still the right way.

How to approach

Mae Sot, in Tak Province, Thailand, is the usual first town: markets, guesthouses, and the border that looks across to Kawthoolei. Crossings and river landings change with the season and with the security of the hills. This page is not a route map. Coordinates are not published.

Arrangements are made with people who already know the village. This website does not take bookings, and it does not publish private telephone numbers or addresses.

People and a long-tail boat at a sandbar landing on the Moei.
The landing at Mu Aye Pu. Documentary photograph.

What a guest may find

  • The river itself: boats, sandbars, the far bank of Thailand
  • Forest at the edge of the houses, and the karst behind
  • Village hospitality: rice, fish, tea, a place to sleep
  • Weaving, bamboo work, the ordinary life of a riverside kaw

For a time there was a small cafe at the village, 2 Bears Cafe, named for two Asiatic black bears the community had taken in. Facebook invited guests there from Mae Sot or Mae Sariang. A volunteer in 2020 described a shop being built for people who had already come. It once operated. It is not a booking on this site, and it is not something a guest can count on now. The animals were never a zoo. See the bears and Jungle Doctor.

You are in someone’s home. Walk where you are invited. Ask before you photograph people. Do not step into fields, graves, or forest without a host.

The hills are not a theme park

Kawthoolei has lived with war for generations. After the 2021 coup in Myanmar, fighting returned across much of Karen country. Some seasons the village can receive guests. Some seasons it cannot. Ask locally. If the answer is no, it is no.

Read the place, the people, and the history before you come. Come slowly.

Language project

Volunteers teach English and German for people of this village and the wider hills, online and in person when the landing can receive students. If you wish to study, or to help, start with the language project. Enrolment and contact are on their own site, not on this form.

Enquiry

If you wish to write, use the form. It is for a visit, the language project, press, or a general question. It is not a booking. Enquiry page.

For a visit, the language project, press, or a general question. This is not a booking, and it is not an invitation to invest. Village telephone numbers are not published. To enrol or volunteer as a teacher, use the language project’s own site.