Nan is one of Northern Thailand's most remote and peaceful provinces and the town and country provide a nice escape from Chiang Mai. The sleepy town was the centre of an independent little kingdom right up to the turn of the 20th century and has some ancient sites. It is cradled in a lush valley roughly 320kms east of Chiang Mai near the far north-eastern border with Laos. Little visited by mainstream tourism, it does, however, have mountainous wildernesses, wild rivers and lovely rural scenery.