Laplae: The Hidden Valley Town That Cannot Tell a Lie — and Grows Thailand's Finest Durian
Laplae: The Hidden Valley Town That Cannot Tell a Lie — and Grows Thailand's Finest Durian Every Thai province has a place its people talk about in a slightly different voice, and in Uttaradit that place is Laplae. The name itself means "hidden from sight," and the town earns it: a green valley folded into the hills west of Uttaradit city, tucked behind the Mae Phun hills so neatly that for centuries outsiders genuinely struggled to find it. Roads go in, the hills close behind you, and suddenly you are in a small, quiet, orchard-covered town that feels a world away from the provincial capital barely twenty minutes behind you. Laplae carries two claims to fame, and they sit oddly well together. The first is a legend — one of the best-known folk tales in northern Thailand — about a hidden town of women where lying was forbidden, and where a man who told one small, kind lie was banished forever. The second is fruit. Laplae grows what many Thai durian lovers consider the fi...