Climate
In November, sunflowers bloom, but the peak tourist season is during December-February when the hills are alive with white plum blossoms and pinkish sakura cherry blossoms. It gets misty and cold during this time, so pack a sweater and decent shoes! Tea production gets into gear toward the end of this season, with the smell of roasting tea wafting through the streets, but the same haze and rising temperatures that affect the rest of northern Thailand are in evidence here too from March onward, and the rainy season from June to October is rainy indeed.
Understand
Mae Salong was settled by remnants of the former Nationalist Kuomintang Chinese Army 93rd Division who moved from Burma to Thai territory in 1961, after the Communist Party under Mao Zedong consolidated its hold on China. Originally a military base biding its time for an attack back, funding its arms purchases with opium production — notorious warlord Khun Sa lived a few kilometers away in Ban Hin Taek — in the 1970s the Thai government struck a deal with the renegades: the battle-hardened KMT would help them fight Thailand's own Communist insurgents, and would be granted citizenship in exchange. As part of the integration process, opium production was successfully substituted with mountain produce like mushrooms and above all oolong tea, which is now Mae Salong's main product.
Some guidebooks wax lyrical about today's Mae Salong as a miniature Yunnanese Shangri-La, but if you come with this image in mind you may be a little disappointed: at first glance, Mae Salong looks much like the little Thai town it is. However, the crisp climate, the lingering Chinese influence, delicious native Yunnanese dishes and small hotels and guesthouses catering to visitors still make this a popular getaway, accessible even on a hurried day trip but worth stopping in overnight.