Food & Farm

For most of our guests, food is a highlight of their stay. Quality food is essential for martial artists in hard training and our diet is calculated to best support our Kung Fu training: we understand that we are what we eat. We are partially self-sufficiant as we have our own kitchen garden, herb garden, and fruit trees all of which are entirely organic. We also also specialise in growing our own medicinal herbs. What we don’t grow ourselves, we choose carefully by supporting poor farmers in the hill tribe villages: by buying food directly from them at market prices, or from local formers and people we know well. This ensures they get a good income and we get the best quality fresh food. Our rice is bought from local villagers: by buying rice directly from cash-poor ethnic minorities, we support their families.

We prepare local style food with an emphasis on the use of beneficial herbs to increase its value. Our diet is calculated to best support our Kung Fu training: we understand that we are what we eat.

We are extremely proud of our small, home farm!: There is something incredibly rewarding about watching your food grow, picking it, and finally eating it. It also ensures that the food is absolutely as fresh as possible, naturally ripened and free of any harmful chemicals.

Our garden is expanding all the time so expect to see even more things growing when you arrive!

Because we grow our food naturally, the supply is seasonal. Different fruits and vegetables come into season at different times of the year. September – October is perhaps the most prolific months. The hot, dry season in March – April yields the least.

Food prepared on site as fresh, organic and healthy as possible and is usually delicious local Thai or Shan style, or occasionally Chinese or southern Thai style. Each meal is typically served two main dishes with rice. Most dishes are vegetarian, but we do serve meat once or twice a week. There will always be at least one vegan dish as part of each meal. Meals are usually accompanied by one or two types of fruit and some salad.

We do not serve up a diet of greasy noodles every day. We take pride in our food, it is adapted to western tastes and much of it is organically home grown!

Breakfast will be served daily, and evening meals on training days only (5 days a week). Drinking water is always supplied free with meals and is available 24/7 from the kitchen. We also serve specialist teas 2 times a day during training. Either high-quality Chinese tea – something integrally connected with Kung Fu training – or herbal tea for health benefits.

The instructors eat in the dining area, together with the students, which is a testimony to the quality of the food and helps provide a good ethos for the school. Meal times are therefore ideal for discussing Kung Fu and asking questions.

Lunches We do not supply lunches. Most of our students prefer to choose their own lunch from the wide variety on sale in the town. Since we draw students from a very wide variety of countries and cultures the food that we serve will be different from what many people are used to. Choosing a lunch that they are used to seems to be very helpful for many of the people who have recently arrived. We do have a student fridge available to store food so if you do not wish to go to town every lunchtime, no problem. It is also very easy to ask someone to buy you a lunch from the town and food delivery services now operate in Pai – so you can simply order food in! Many people choose to eat fruit for lunch, a choice influenced by the abundance of high-quality local fruit available very cheaply.

If you'd like to purchase your own meals then almost any style of food can be purchased in Pai or ordered in (Italian, western, middle eastern, Chinese, Indian etc). The local diet is based mainly around rice, meat, fresh-water fish, vegetables, fruit and spices. However, seafood is relatively expensive in the mountains. Local fruit and vegetables are great, fresh and very cheap!