Buak Chan near bankrupt due to scammers, non-equitable government policies and poor economy

 | Thu 16 Oct 2025 17:20 ICT

In 2021 Citylife came across Buak Chan, a Hmong Village-turned Homestay and resort up the Mae Sa Valley towards Samoeng. We gushed about this pristine and beautiful local enterprise here https://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/clg/living/getting-around/falling-in-love-with-buak-jans-spectacular-vista/, talking about the post-pandemic development of this resort which aimed to tow the environmental sustainability line, implement a social enterprise method and was aiming to become a jewel of a tourist destination to shame the then-already flailing Mon Cham.

These are photos from when it first opened to visitors.

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We are very sad to report that now, five years later, Buak Chan itself is failing.

According to the co-op which oversees this village’s development, of the 25 resorts, home stays, hotels and other accommodations, only four are currently open, with a maximum of ten expected to be operational this high season.

“The economy is obviously terrible, we have had very few bookings,” said the village coop’s rep. “Not only that the government’s Half Half Plus payment scheme only works with big businesses and doesn’t really apply to many smaller enterprises such as ours, so we will be missing out on those as well. Then there are the scammers. We have suffered a lot from people making bookings on mirror sites and fake social media platforms, paying money into scammers account and then they arrive here and expect to stay. But we haven’t received any money.”

He urges the government to reconsider how the Half Half Plus programme is being applied as it doesn’t appear that it is accessible for remote businesses such as Buak Chan’s.