Visiting the Ancient Salt Wells 🧂+ Khao Soi Noodles!! | Bo Kluea (บ่อเกลือ), Nan, Thailand

good morning hope you're having an amazing day it's mark wiens i am in the mountainous province of nan which is incr gorgeously beautiful and today we're on our way to a village called banpa luang which is famous throughout history for its ancient salt wells where there are some wells that naturally produce salty water which they then harvest into salt it's been uh traded for centuries in this region so there's lots of history in this village we're gonna see the salt wells and then we will definitely be getting some lunch some food when we arrive at some point in bakla on the village it's a spectacularly beautiful place and i can't wait to visit we started this morning in a place called pua which is a bigger village across the mountains and right now we're in the middle of the mountains we just stopped at this lookout point just to have a quick break and i just had to show you the view here it's just spectacular we are in doipuka which is the national park mountain park here the mountains the greenery the freshness the nature is absolutely spectacular and then from here we're about to jump back into the car and then it should just be a 20 or so minute drive down the mountain uh we're gonna descend to the village of panpal luang stretching a little bit here enjoying this unbelievable mountain park and the gorgeous scenes the weather up here is so perfect it's to the point where you you almost need a jacket and it's in the middle of the morning ah the air the freshness it's perfect windows weather [Music] one of the highlights is definitely the drive through the mountain pass it's absolutely spectacularly beautiful and lots of switchbacks [Music] really quickly though still at the top of the mountain we're gonna stop oh yeah we're gonna stop it's a small uh hill tribe local market where they're selling some foraged ingredients some things that they grow right here you can smell oh they're grilling some corn right now she's actually eating some uh cassava i believe some mountain cassava but then the grilling corn there's uh taro there's um sweet potato there's some vegetables and then the most interesting thing though that they have it's called khao khoi it looks like buffalo horns yeah buffalo horns it really is like buffalo horns but it's some kind of a plant or fruit and that she said is they pickle them and then you can taste them [Music] salty and sour oh wow mmm oh that's a juicy snack food though very fibrous and crunchy oh it's awesome actually something that goes actually okay this one is the hot roasted cassava [Music] oh i love it roasted almost coffee flavor cut mmm from that smokiness i love the texture the dryness oh thank you the buffalo horns at first i had only seen the pickled one of the buffalo horns but they they also said you can eat it raw and fresh they have some chopped up too wow okay i love it raw fresh like that oh that's like one of the sourest mangoes you could possibly have like a mango a little more fibrous oh yeah and that is extremely sour oh i love it oh that is amazing this could have so many culinary uses because of that sourness it's similar to a bilimbi almost oh yeah you can immediately feel your your teeth the enamel eroding away from that acidity and here's a really here's a really big one but on closer inspection you could either be buffalo horns or a giant handlebar mustache or this way yes about that oh okay oh and you they wrapped it in banana leaf so you can smell that fragrance and they pulled these uh cobs of corn right off the fire they're smoky golden yellow on the inside [Music] so sweet you can taste the freshness and so juicy okay great stop we're on our way now down the mountain but that was a great stop beautiful gorgeous market amazingly fresh ingredients right here from the from the mountaintop [Music] we made it welcome to the beautiful peaceful relaxing village and there are a lot of people here a lot of tourists come mainly to just enjoy the incredible natural scenery but mainly for the the history here the salt wells and so that's kind of this main main street in town that you walk down and now because of the popularity because of the the tourism there are coffee shops there's little restaurants along this strip as well that you'll you'll find all along here we've come to the first place which is called bog blue but this is the entrance to this is the salt pits uh but you gotta see over here i could see it i could smell it drying in the sun is one of the greatest spices of this region called macwen which is related to sichuan pepper not quite as pungent not quite as strong but it's the king of spices in this region and it's just i absolutely love it and there it is drying in the sun walk back into this community it's so cool uh you can see you can smell the wood burning this is where oh yes there's a number of homes and huts uh throughout this back alley bamboo structure amazing place where they are burning firewood um and boiling the water to create the crystals to uh then uh harvest the salt right in the center of this little community surrounded by the huts where they're boiling the salt water is the ancient salt well uh so this is what it's all about this is what it comes down to whoa whoa that's pretty oh it's not too deep you can see the water down there but that's salty water down there on the sign it says it dates back 800 year old ancient salt well but i think it's even older than that i think it might be a thousand years of history here surrounding the salt well that built this community and that was included on trade routes as salt was such an important commodity in the history of this area i mean in the history of the world and even to this day and for me i'm just imagining the years and years of history and the people that have passed through this village because they were known for salt and produced salt they have this extraordinary natural commodity and how nowadays it's just i mean we don't even think about getting salt salt is everywhere and it's easy to get anywhere you go but that wasn't always the case in the history okay so now that we've seen the actual well where they draw the water the salty naturally salty water let's go find and i think there's a number of there i mean there's a number of different huts still producing the salt and still boiling the water to to get the salt and i saw one at the front that looked pretty cool so i think we'll go try to check that out [Music] and this part is so cool where they have these giant walks which sit over a mound of what looks like uh clay formed into a stove and they just keep stoking the fire a smoky fire low heat and so then the woks are filled with the well water and then when the water starts to dehydrate it starts to form the salt crystals you gather the salt and then they have these baskets hanging over them she was explaining to us that part of the art of the making the salt of boiling the salt is really keeping the fire at a certain temperature because she said if you uh have too high of a flame if it's too strong it will boil out too fast and then if it's too low of course maybe it will take too long so it's really an art to get the fire to stoke the fire at the perfect temperature she told me that they boil the water for about five hours uh before it's ready to then scoop the salt out uh but again throughout history people would use the salt um and it got transported all across the region as a necessity as a commodity for food and preservation what i like about this place is that they have shifted the community of shifted well they still make the ancient salt in the ancient way but they have shifted to making local products which they all sell each family sells she has a lot of cool products all related to salt including some different types of soaps some body scrubs and spa ingredients or spa items and then some of the food products different types of salt but also a lot of the pure salt one is a finer finer grain and one is the bigger huge crystals like a finishing salt uh and she has some you can you can test but we are buying some products ying is buying a few things rock salt wash cool yeah that's a good idea and also we got to get some of the the flour salt uh just the bigger the bigger crystals for cooking the complexity oh yeah that is salty that is pure salt that depth of flavor that crunch that that mineral content wow that is so flavorful so complex and so pure you can just imagine that how it would complement anything you put it on and then one more thing to see about the salt is right across in the sun here drying done she said something like the finer the finer salt doesn't need to dry in the sun maybe they just scoop it out uh but then for the larger crystals to be able to to formulate to be able to form in that flour big pieces of salt they let it dry in the sun like this down the road that way [Music] we're gonna keep on walking down the road uh you'll notice shops little boutique shops selling clothes uh selling souvenirs there's some restaurants some choices of food to eat we're coming up on the next salt well but before we stop there we're gonna stop for a quick bowl of noodles specifically i hope they have uh khao sai which are curry noodles oh man i'm ready for some curry noodles [Music] um okay [Music] foreign all the condiments are down here and there's the jar the plastic tub of chili and you oh you pick it up you see a sign there's actually a signed plastered taped to the the table that says prick pet mac which means the chili is very spicy i love this place immediately you can see uh that the broth the coconut milk curry is thin doesn't look overly rich but it's very aromatic you smell the chicken you smell the light fragrant spices and the toppings that she adds and her noodles are also very thin and also the fried noodles and then she finishes it off with some of her homemade uh pickled preserved uh mustard greens as well as coriander and then chicken in here as well before seasoning i'm just gonna taste a little bit of that that broth though but i cannot i almost cannot wait to try that chili yeah it is light it's not too buttery not too rich light and refreshing but at the same time you do taste the a hint of creaminess from the coconut milk it has a sweetness to it you taste a bit of a dry spice blend to it oh that's comforting that's exactly what you want to be eating but even more exactly what i want to be eating is that that chili that's very spicy as the sign says on the table taped to the table [Music] oh i can't wait to retry it now oh with that chili the heat the smokiness [Music] you have the softness of the regular noodles and the crispiness of the the fried noodles try the drumstick um the wing drumstick oh yeah that chili is amazing this is just good home cooking cooked with so much love and passion in her yard and it's just a simple it's a very simple tasting bowl of cassoe but it's just warming it's soothing it's delicious and her chili is outstanding and i would definitely say that her chili is a little bit spicy it is spicy in fact i need some more of it [Music] that chili is what makes it for me [Music] what a location what a place what an auntie [Music] delicious bowl of khao soi ah and we are refreshed and ready to keep walking down to the next salt well [Music] well just down the road from where we had a bowl of khao soi it's pretty similar there's some shops uh there's the well right in the center where they used to draw the water well they still draw the water the salt water naturally salt water and then there's a variety of huts around uh where they boil the water and then products that they sell ancient 800 year old well [Music] oh this one the water starts right there again very cool to see but almost exactly the same process uh as the other saltwell salt pond we ended up walking back to the other side of the village and then came to the hotel that we're staying which is called the bagla view resort which i will review and give you a full tour as well as the dinner at the restaurant where the restaurant is very famous i'll do a full review in another video but that's going to bring us to the end of this tour of bagley the famous ancient salt ponds and salt uh the famous ancient salt wells of bagla in naan it's for one it's a spectacularly beautiful place for two the history the ancient preservation of the production and harvesting of salt is so cool to see really highly recommended to visit here for the beauty for the culture for the spectacular history and nature and beauty of none that's going to be it for this video i want to say a big thank you for watching and remember to give this video a thumbs up and remember to subscribe for lots more travel videos and travel tips thanks again for watching and i will see you on the next video

Channel: Mark Abroad

Views: 328,896

Keywords: Nan, Thailand, Bo Kluea, บ่อเกลือ, น่าน, บ้านบ่อหลวง, Thailand travel guide, Nan travel guide, Mark Wiens, Amazing Thailand, things to do in Thailand, street food, Thai street food, khao soi, Nan guide, salt wells Nan, Nan salt wells, Nan salt pond, Nan salt, off the beaten path Nan, Travel vlog, travel videos

Id: 7i3Khv78Z4s

Length: 19min 14sec (1154 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021