Our Story
Where Lanna Journey Began
Five years of teaching financial clarity to people who have spent decades building their lives — now ready to understand what comes next.
Back to HomeHow We Came to Be
A School Born from a Listening Exercise
Lanna Journey was founded in 2019 by a small group of financial educators who had spent years working in banking and adult education across northern Thailand. What brought them together was a recurring observation: the people most in need of financial clarity were not beginners in their twenties — they were capable, experienced adults in their forties and fifties who had never been offered a course that met them where they were.
The name comes from the historic Lanna kingdom of northern Thailand, where Chiang Mai was the royal capital and a centre of craft, learning, and considered craft. We borrowed the spirit of that tradition — the idea that something made with care and attention will outlast something made quickly — and applied it to how we approach education.
Our first cohort in 2019 had seven participants. The content was written by hand, refined in real sessions, and shaped directly by the questions those seven people asked. That process of listening and revising has never stopped. Every course we offer today carries the fingerprints of the hundreds of participants who have shaped it through their questions, challenges, and honest feedback.
We are not a large institution and we do not intend to become one. We believe that financial education for this stage of life works best in small, unhurried settings where people can speak openly — about debt, about family obligations, about fears they have never put into words before. We protect that quality deliberately.
Teaching Team
The People Behind the Courses
Dr. Pattara Khamkong
Founder & Lead Instructor
With a doctorate in personal financial planning and twenty years of advisory practice across Thailand, Pattara developed the curriculum framework that underpins all three Lanna Journey courses.
Khun Nanthawan Srisuk
Senior Course Facilitator
A former branch manager at a major Thai commercial bank with eighteen years in retail and wealth banking, Nanthawan brings practical fluency in the Thai financial system that participants consistently describe as the most useful part of the programme.
Arjarn Sakda Leelahanon
Legal & Estate Specialist
A practising solicitor who specialises in inheritance and property transfer under Thai civil law, Sakda joins the senior Masterclass cohort to guide participants through the legal dimensions of legacy planning with candour and patience.
How We Work
Standards We Hold Ourselves To
These principles are not marketing language. They describe decisions we make every day about how the courses are run.
Regulatory Awareness
All course content is reviewed for alignment with Thai Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines and the Bank of Thailand's consumer education frameworks.
Participant Privacy
Financial conversations require trust. We do not share participant information with third parties and we do not record group sessions without written consent from every member of the cohort.
Curriculum Review Cycle
Each course is reviewed and updated once per calendar year by the teaching team. Content reflecting tax rules, property procedures, and financial instruments is verified before each new cohort begins.
Cohort Size Limits
We cap group sizes deliberately — six to twelve for the beginner and intermediate courses, ten for the senior Masterclass — because small cohorts produce better conversations and deeper learning.
Non-Judgemental Setting
Every participant arrives from a different financial history. Our instructors are trained in adult learning facilitation and approach each person's situation with curiosity rather than prescription.
Printed Reference Materials
All participants receive printed workbooks and reference sheets designed to be tucked into a personal planner. We believe that reading on paper, away from a screen, suits the pace of reflection that this subject requires.
Our Educational Philosophy
Financial Knowledge Developed Over Time, Not Overnight
Adults who come to financial education later in life bring something that younger learners rarely have: lived context. They have managed a payroll, seen a property market cycle, navigated a family bereavement, or watched a pension statement arrive and wondered what it actually means. Lanna Journey courses are built around that context rather than around abstract financial theory.
Chiang Mai has been home to our team since the beginning, and the pace of northern Thailand informs how we structure learning. Sessions are designed for reflection rather than speed. Workbooks are written to be returned to, not rushed through. Instructors are chosen not only for their technical knowledge but for their ability to sit with a question, to let a conversation develop at its own rate.
Financial education for people at mid-life and beyond calls for a different kind of rigour — one that accounts for emotion, family dynamics, and the weight of decisions that affect not only the learner but the people they care for. We consider these dimensions alongside the technical content, and we are glad that participants consistently tell us this is what sets our courses apart from anything else they have found.
Curious About a Course?
We are happy to have a preliminary conversation before you make any decision about enrolling.
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