Baan Hom Samunphrai: Herbal Medicine, Retreats, long stay, Chiang Mai accomodations, farm houses, natural, steam baths

Baan Hom Samunphrai's accommodations are all in traditional Thai farm houses which have been screened against mosquitoes and other unwelcome tropical visitors. There are overhead fans in every bedroom and, to provide additional cooling during the hot season, a fine spray of water on the tiled roofs. From a health point of view, it is better for the body to adapt naturally to the tropics and not to have to undergo the shock of air-conditioning every time a person ventures in or out of doors. Indeed, there's no 'inside' in the natural Thai house anyway--one of its chief pleasures as well as its health benefits. But don't worry, we do believe in hot showers and clean, modern toilets, and there's wifi everywhere.

This is the screened porch of Baan Uii Dee. We have just added an upstairs bathroom to it -- the new door is just behind the standing figure at the back.

We offer 5 traditional dwelling houses arranged as in a rural Thai village around a pond. There are 11 bedrooms plus a dorm, all of which have windows without glass, overhanging roofs, wooden shutters to close during the Monsoon thunder storms, and shaded porches. The houses are all old farmhouses on stilts but each one has hot showers and modern toilets down a short flight of stairs. There are also open social areas downstairs with mats, tables, chairs and, of course, the traditional settees for lounging. In addition there is a small kitchen for you to make tea and coffee—and a fleet of bicycles to take you out in the rice.

You must remember that the climate is very mild here and that a bedroom is just for arranging your clothes and for sleeping. Indeed, that's all you will do there as from the Yoga at 7am until retiring for the night after dinner at 9 or 10pm you will be outside regardless of the time of year -- there is no glass in our windows and no walls closing in our eating, relaxing and working spaces. And of course there is no central heating either.

What follows is a brief introduction to our houses which range from a 4 bed dorm with a shared downstairs bathroom to a private old wooden house with a private upstairs bathroom. The latter, called Baan Jung Kaew, has a large porch extending out over our lotus pond. It can be booked by a couple, two friends, a family with children, or even by a singularly lucky single person!

OUR ACCOMMODATIONS:

Beside students and their partners, our guests include individuals of all ages, couples and whole families who come to us for a variety of reasons: the beauty of the place, the good company around our big table, the herbal steam baths, massages and other therapies, and of course the opportunity to relax, catch up, recover, or get on with some personal project. There are no coffee shops, restaurants, bars or even 7/11s around us, so you can't just walk out our door for urban refreshment. On the other hand, we have rice fields, the river, small local temples and earth-markets everywhere, and very likely you will be the only foreigner wherever you go, on foot or by bicycle. It's rough, simple, and still a little too messy, but it's also somehow more than just there, and much more than beautiful.

You can find out more about what it's like in "Where We Are."

You can can read about each of our houses just below, or go here for our Rates.

Baan Uii Dee with its hand-made green tiles -- always cool and fresh under bare feet (no shoes are worn on any of our floors). You can see how the floor is used in the various photos of students preparing herbs for herbal compresses and steam baths in the subsequent pages.

1. BAAN UII DEE, "The House of the Good Old Lady."

Baan Uii Dee has just had a major renovation. An upstairs bathroom has been added on top of the old one downstairs, so the house is now perfect for guests who need an adjoining bathroom on the same level as the two bedrooms, a single and a double. There is also a large screened porch (see photo at the top of the page) that looks down on the brightly colored koi and lotuses in the pond. Families always enjoy it, as do close friends. There is a little kitchen downstairs for making tea and coffee (the white lean-to on the right in the photo) --and people say the green tiled floor is the coolest of all under your feet.

2. BAAN UII KHAM, "The House of the Golden Lady"

Our largest building, Baan Uii Kham has a red tiled ground floor with three toilets, three hot water showers, and lots of tables and chairs. The Baan Hom Samunphrai office is also located here. There are 3 staircases leading up to 3 separate porches, each of which connects to two rooms, 1 with a double bed and the other with a single.

3. BAAN JUNG KAEW, "The Rice Barn House."

Baan Jung Kaew is our oldest building. It used to be our only accommodation with a hot water shower and toilet directly attached to a bedroom, and still has the largest and most private of all our porches extending right out over the pond. A joy for a couple, it's also sometimes chosen by close friends who like to talk all night. There is a double and a single bed, and it's a pleasure for a family. Couples always have priority for it, needless to say, but if we have room it can even be booked by a single person at no extra charge.

4. BAAN MAI, "New House."

Baan Mai was completed just two years ago, and we did it because we wanted to have available more private bathrooms for those who really needed them. Built around an antique rice barn with huge teak posts, there are two floors, each with a modern shower and toilet. The upper bedroom with 5 windows has two separate beds between the teak pillars, and the ground floor a large double bed with folding screen doors that open out onto the garden. (There is a surcharge of 100 baht per person when either floor is booked by a single person. But we can only offer this option when we have room, and, needless to say, guests with special needs get priority).

5. BAAN CHANG PHUAK, "The House of the White Elephant."

Baan Chang Phuak has a single screened sleeping area with traditional sliding windows and 4 beds each with its own locker and bedside light for reading. There is a modern toilet and separate hot water shower downstairs with a table and benches under the lumyai trees beside it. Baan Chang Phuak appeals very much to back-packing groups who want to hang out together in our equivalent of a tree house. It is also sometimes booked by families with young children, or by student friends who want to share our quietest house. And if you are a very light sleeper or are afraid you might disturb people at night, you may be able to book the whole house just for yourself! Finally, we can make it up with a big double bed in the middle, and then it becomes our most private Private House.

ACCOMMODATION RATES for GUESTS & STUDENTS

New 2024 Rates

1.) Our GUEST RATE is now 1,200 baht per person per day for Full Room & Board Accommodation.

2.) The LIVE-IN STUDENT RATE is 2,400 baht per person per study day and includes a Private Room with 3 meals a day. It also includes an hour of Rasidaton at 7am and a Herbal Steam Bath after class.

3.) For GUESTS there can be a Refund of Bt 100 baht for a missed lunch or 200 baht for a missed dinner, but you must tell us by 9am for a lunch and by 1pm for a dinner.

4.) The DAY-OFF STUDENT RATE is 1200 baht per day. The same Missed Meal Refund applies but only on Days-off.

5.) Every student gets a PRIVATE ROOM.

6.) If we ask you to share with someone it will only be for a single bed in either Baan Mai or Baan Chang Phuak, both of which are special houses -- Baan Mai because of its private bathrooms, and Baan Chang Phuak because it is so quiet, airy and spacious.

7.) There are NO SPECIAL or DISCOUNT RATES at Baan Hom Samunphrai -- our priority is to get the right person in the right space.
Current Exchange Rate: $1.00 = Bt 36.27; €1.00 = Bt39.40

updated March 24th, 2024

An IMPORTANT NOTE on our BATHROOMS

THERE ARE NO EXTRA CHARGES for Private Bathrooms. There used to be, but because we want to decide ourselves who really needs them, we now make all the decisions based on individual needs with regard to the stairs and the distance. So do let us know and we'll do our very best to help you. If there are no physical needs we'll listen to your preferences with care and consideration as well, don't worry, but you have to let us decide.

There are 9 Rooms with 'Shared' Bathrooms:
Most of our accommodations are in old wooden farmhouses on stilts which never had any plumbing what is more anything 'private' what is more 'upstairs'. The new Baanhom toilets and showers are all clean and modern, but most of them are down a short flight of stairs from each bedroom. And there are many.

There are 2 Rooms with 'Private' Bathrooms:
We have recently constructed a new house ('Baan Mai' = 'New House'). with 2 rooms, each with an adjoining private bathroom. These rooms can be booked by a couple or by 2 friends, and if you are willing to share with another student please let us know. That choice will not only help us to fit everybody in, but can also give you access to a private adjoining bathroom!

2 Rooms with 'Adjoining' but 'Shared' (i.e. 'Not Completely Private') Bathrooms:
One of our most beautiful houses, Baan Uii Dee, now has a new upstairs bathroom serving its 2 bedrooms -- the single bedroom is right next to the bathroom, the double bedroom just a few feet away.

1 House with a Private Bathroom' all of it's own.
Baan Jung Kaew is unique with its large open porch over the lotus pond and its adjoining private bathroom. It is perfect for a couple or a family with small children, and is also sometimes booked by 2 friends (there are 2 beds, a single and a double). If we have room it can even be booked by a single person -- which is to experience the height of our 'rural' luxury!

IMPORTANT! Students with special needs for a nearby or even a private bathroom always get priority, so do let us know if you are one of those.

WORK SPACES

1. BAAN RUSI "The Dwelling Place of Rusi, the Forest Hermit."

Baan Rusi is our primary workspace. It is a large Lanna-style sala named after the mysterious forest hermit and teacher known as Rusi. There is a shrine at one end of the space with a large teak Buddha surrounded by other sacred images and artifacts -- a treasure house, in fact, always adorned with fresh flowers, incense and offerings. And just below the Buddha sits Shivaga Komarapat, the Buddha's personal doctor, and to his left an alabaster image of Rusi, the forest hermit -- he was the one who taught Shivaga Komarapat the yoga called Rasidaton, the movement that begins all Homprang's classes.

Baan Rusi has massage mats for the practice of Nuad Boran (Thai Traditional Massage) and also yoga mats for the practice of Rasidaton. The space is used as well for Womblifting and other special treatments which involve charcoal pots and hot herbal compresses of various sorts. And finally, guests and students are welcome to use Baan Rusi for other practices such as hatha yoga, tai chi, group meditation, and musical as well as artistic performances. There is a whiteboard and a roll-down screen for power point projections or videos, and the space is well-equipped for special study groups of up to 20 persons. Tables and chairs are available to accommodate more formal presentations and seminars as well.

2. BAAN HOM, "The Fragrant House" or "The House of Hom" (i.e. of Homprang!)

Baan Hom is an old rice barn rebuilt in classic Ayutthaya style. Constructed all in solid teak over a pool of clear water, it has thermal windows as well as screens and can be air-conditioned during the hot season from March to June. It has 4 massage mats and can be used both for teaching and treatments. It is our quietest space, and is frequently used as a meditation or yoga space by individual guests and/or students.

3. HERBAL STEAM BATHS

At the very heart of all Thai Medicine are steam treatments, and we have 2 purpose-built Herbal Steam Baths with changing rooms and tiled showers. (You can read more about our steam baths here.) The baths are free for students and their partners -- after a full day of training, 7am to 4pm 6 days a week, an hour of intensive steaming plus a cup of ginger tea beside the pool (and sometimes even in it) is as essential as it is pleasurable!

4. SALA SAMATHI

The Sala Samathi is an octagonal meditation space we had been contemplating for years but could never quite get our minds around. We dreamed of a space that would be useful as well as beautiful, practical as well as spiritual and, above all, one that would not exclude any of the extraordinarily diverse body of guests and students we're blessed with from Mormons to Urighurs to Sangomas, Sikhs, Lebanese Catholics, Palestinians, and even one seriously Buddhist Baptist.

There are no specifically religious images inside the space, just a fountain with moss and ferns as green as the cushions against the bare white walls. Indeed, all four elements play around you, earth, air, fire and water, and we make it very clear that the space is for anything you feel moved to do in it too -- it's a wonderful place for a chat or a nap, or for reading a book by yourself or singing or playing your dulcimer or your body in yoga. And of course its perfect for Vipassana, or any other mediation for that matter -- and needless to say, you meditators do get priority, don't worry!

5. BAAN ROM YEN - our new Training Sala with Air Con and Air Purification.

See Homepage introduction.