Symbol of Lampang’s unique heritage
- Suandok Road, opposite to Pin Hotel
- Operating hours vary
Horse cart heritage
Lampang is the only town in Thailand that still uses horse carriages as public transport. In the 1950’s Lampang was known as Muang Rot Ma or Horse Cart City, with hundreds of carriages. Even today there are still about 100 horse driven carriages navigating the Lampang streets. Horse carriages first made their appearance in Thailand approximately a century ago at about the same time as the railway. The owner of the first carriage was Northern Thailand’s last hereditary feudal king, Chao Boonyawat Wongmanit. He hired an Indian driver from Bangkok to drive his carriage around the city.
From Burma with love
It was the teak merchants from colonial Burma who brought the carriages to Lampang. In Myanmar -as it is now called- one can still travel by horse carriage in the small hill station of Maymyo near Mandalay and in Bagan.
Lampang is the only town in Thailand that still uses horse carriages as public transport.
Made by hand with love
Horse carriages are still made locally in Lampang and can be custom made with their iron wheels or the more traditional wood spokes if desired.
In the old days Burmese buffalos were used to pull the horse carts! Want to know more? Visit the horse cart museum at 122/1 Pahmai Road with an amazing selection of horse carts from all over the world in various shapes and sizes. Mr. Akarin lovingly maintains the vintage vehicle fleet and also is a bit of an inventor himself. He’ll happily show you his self fabricated steel bicycles.