Tribes on Hills

January 26 - 31

Ode to a Tick
This is why I should not be allowed to write poetry.

O wee thing. You look so sweet and innocent.
So small and translucent.
And then you sneak under the skin
- not completely -
But you wedge your head in just enough
To make removing you impossible.
There you set up a small head-house
Where you begin feasting on the delicacies of my blood.
The more I stare at your headless back against my skin,
The more revolted I become.
I WANT YOU OUT!
By all means, I will free my arm from your grasp:
Sunscreen, insect repellent, peroxide and more.
Everything from the medicine bag gets tested,
Nothing seems to work.
FIRE!
That should do the trick.
Right, do the trick of burning
And frustrating myself,
While your bum is kept nice and cozy warm.
Seems like hours, then
FINALLY you fall off in my hands.
I feel so proud,
Something I did must have killed you,
Or were you just full?


Another Overnight Train
From Ayutthaya, we caught an overnight train to Chiang Mai. We had planned on doing this, but we were unsure of the dates. We thought it would be fine to buy the tickets the day of departure. We were wrong, but lucky. Since mom was with us, we wanted a bed for the journey and Laura was interested in trying it out, hoping she would get a better night's rest laying supine rather than slumped in a chair. When we inquired about the trip, we were informed that there were ONLY 4 beds left on the train. Silly us, we had forgotten how TOURISTY Thailand is! Apparently, tour companies book sleeper cars just in case they have a full tour. To make matters worse for Casey, the only beds left were in super duper luxury class (he was not happy about paying $30 when he would be content sitting on a bench in the lowest class the whole night). But, what could we do. So we "treated" ourselves to the extreme a/c boxes, which were first class. The beds were large which was nice. I wished they would let the hawkers come down the 1st class train to sell their cheap and delicious snacks, but alas, we were expected to eat over-priced train food instead.

During the train ride, mom and I both discovered that we had ticks embedded under our skin. This made neither of us happy. Being the desert type, we were not accustomed to such creatures and frankly, they grossed us out. We tried everything to get them out, which only succeeded in poisoning, burning and irritating my skin, but doing little to the tick. We had heard that during the dry season, there were ticks at Khao Yai and that they were worse than the leeches. I would have to agree. Leeches are pleasant company compared with ticks, they're easier to get off and they don't spread diseases.

The train ride was uneventful and when we got off the next day, we made our way to the bus station as we would not being staying in Chiang Mai just yet. So, this would be our 2nd day spent traveling. We had planned on first stopping in Mae Sariang, a small less touristy town then any of the others we planned on visiting. Unfortunately, on the train ride, we realized that we had goofed on dates and we wouldn't have enough time to visit the little hamlet. Still, we decided to travel the long way through Mae Sariang to Mae Hong Son, our next destination. The bus was supposed to be nicer than the bus via Pai and we thought it would be nice to see a different view, since we would be returning to Chiang Mai via Pai in about a week.

The bus was more comfortable, and air conditioned. Though it was still your typical Asian public transportation with the aisles filled with packages from the post office. Apparently, this is how the mail travels in Thailand, via public buses not via postal vans. As I watched everyone step on the boxes on their way in and out of the bus, I couldn't help cringe, hoping that there wasn't anything which could be broken inside.

The road was windy and scenic, though it was the dry season. Some of the scenery was breathtaking.

We arrived in Mae Hong Son around 8pm and had our lodging pick us up. We had decided on the Fern Resort after reading their website which claims it is the "ecofriendly resort for nature lovers." This was a bit of a stretch, but it was a gorgeous place set on the hills. There were free shuttles into town, which was nice and there was a national park within walking distance. Many of the employees were from the surrounding villages and they were exceptionally friendly. They upgraded our room for free and when we stayed an extra night, they were kind enough to charge us the rate we found on the Internet instead of their published rate.

We had come to Mae Hong Son because mom's one request during the vacation was to visit the hill tribes of Thailand. She has always been interested in the hill tribes, especially their traditional arts and crafts. We had heard that Mae Hong Son was less touristy than Chiang Mai, in this respect, and so, here we were.

We signed up for a couple of day tours through the resort. They weren't the cheapest option (as mentioned by the hotel staff) but we thought it would be easier. Our tour guide was a beautiful and friendly woman named Nuie. Like many of the people of Mae Hong Son, she spoke Shan, which is an ethnic language from the Shan people of Shan State in Burma. Though she was not very knowledgeable about the hill tribes, she was willing to answer what she could and she was enthusiastic about sharing Shan culture and traditions. She was also eager to hear about life in America. Overall, she was a wonderful person to spend the next two days with.

Day 1: Soppong
Soppong (aka Pang Ma Pha) is the municipality half way between Mae Hong Son and Pai. Nuie explained that Soppong used to be crawling with tourists until Pai was discovered. Then, slowly all of the tourist accommodations and attractions left Soppong.


We were there to visit Tham Lod (Lod Cave), a popular tourist spot. The cave is quite large and has a river running through it. To reach the chambers, we travelled on small bamboo rafts. In addition to Nuie, we also hired a local guide with a lantern. Once inside the cave, there are chambers on both sides of the river. The caverns are named after the formations found within. For instance, Column Cave is so named because of the large stalactites and stalagmites that from columns. Likewise, someone thought the formations in Doll Cave looked like a doll collection. Our local guide, would stop at each of the formations she deemed "significant" and point out what they resembled. "crocodile," "breasts," "an elephant's ear."


The caves also contain wooden coffins. We didn't know this at the time, but the caves and the surrounding areas are very important to archaeology of the region. The coffins are at least 2000 years old, but there is also evidence that there has been activities in the cave since over 20,000 years ago. Much of what used to be in the caves have since been moved to the national museum in Bangkok, but there are still a few remnants. Also inside the caves are some cave drawings, which were pointed out to us. Unfortunately, there is little in the way of protection and these paintings have been rubbed out by the hands of various tourists. For more information click here.

The current tribes of the area believe that the coffins were left behind by "The Pee" which means spirits. Since the coffins are long and thin, they have concluded that the Pee were also tall and very skinny. The locals do not like the Pee and they can get a little nervous about being in the caves.

After Tham Lod, we visited a few local tribes in the area. This is the part that Casey and I were not to sure we would like. We had heard various stories about the exploitation of the hill tribes by tourist companies and the Thai government. We noted that although we were fond of our guide, she was not contributing any of our hefty tour fee to any of the villages we encountered. I was also not sure how I felt about our intrusion in the daily lives of the villagers. Mom, however, had different opinions and after some lengthy discussions, we decided to visit the hill tribes, which she has longed to do for so long.

For the most part, there wasn't anything exceptional about the villages. They were your typical far flung farming villages we've seen all over SE Asia. The only difference is that some of the women and children were dressed in traditional garments. Casey has since been informed that the Thai Tourism Authority pays these women to wear their traditional dress.

At the first village we visited, a few of the women ran to us with sacks full of souvenirs, which they had sewn, for us to buy. At one house, a woman suggested that we try on her traditional dress and have our pictures taken, for a small fee.

At the last village of the day, a group of 3 SUV's came barrelling past us as we were getting out of the car. We slowly made our way down to where these cars had parked, where we discovered that one foreigner was holding free goodies above their heads while a large swarm of children clamored about him. This act of begging for free junk and the tourist who was obviously relishing in his "kindness" was so disturbing. This scene was the epitome of everything we hate about being tourists. It also made me think about the damage good-intentioned but ill-thought handouts have on the recipients.


Afterwards, we went to a lovely little park, which is very popular with the tourists. It is referred to as "Fish Cave" in English because of the massive amounts of fish which are stuck in a small underwater cave. These fish are looked after by a Buddha Statue and because this is a place of worship, the fish are forbidden to eat. It is encouraged, however, to feed the fish and there are many vendors selling "fish food." Imagine my surprise when I discovered that carp are fond of lettuce and oranges! The fish inside the cave travel from the nearby river when they are small. Then they feast of the food kindly donated by the locals until they are too fat to leave the cave. They area surrounding the cave is peaceful and pretty. It would make a nice picnicking spot.

Day 2: Padaung, Chinese, Hmong and Swiss Mountain Villages
Our second day of The Hill tribe Tour took us first to the famous "Long-Neck Karen." The Padaung tribe (which the Thais named the Long-Neck Karen) is originally from Burma. The "village" where they live is set up by the Thai Tourism Authority. The Padaung have the choice of either living in the refugee camp, where they are not allowed to work, or they can live in the Padaung village just outside of the refugee camp. At the village they are allowed to make money selling souvenirs. We have also heard that the women get paid by the Thai government around 1500 Baht to wear their neck rings. The family will also get the money if they have their little girl wear the rings. The rings are made of copper and are imported from Burma. Traditionally (according the the book From the Land of the Green Ghosts), only girls who are born on auspicious days are privileged to wear the rings, which they begin wearing when they are 8 or so years old. The women change the ring, which is actually a coiled piece of copper, to "lengthen" their neck. The tradition is dying in Burma, where very few young Padaung women wear the rings. Although, I have been told that the Burmese authorities are trying to revive the tradition for the benefit of tourists. In Thailand, almost all the Padaung women wear the rings, regardless of whether or not they were born on auspicious days.

The "village" was built by the Thai government. It consists of bamboo houses and an elementary school. The Padaung are not considered a hill tribe, nor are they Thai citizens. They are not allowed to move out of the village. The children cannot receive an education higher than elementary school because they do not have Thai ID cards and thus they are not allowed to attend the Thai high schools in the neighboring villages. Why would it really matter if they received an education or not, when they are imprisoned in their village with no hope of ever making a living off of anything except farming and tourism? The Padaung are also not treated the same as the other Burmese ethnic minorities who have travelled across the border. In my opinion, the Padaung have left one oppressive regime to live in a land where they are again oppressed and treated as commodities instead of human beings.

The great and wonderful Lonely Planet has a blurb about the Padaung. While they present both sides of the story (there is a good side of the story? you may ask), I think they are still extremely biased. During our time in Mae Hong Son, we heard several people use the LP's blurb as an excuse to indulge in the "cultural tourism." Besides being biased, the Lonely Planet also gives false information regarding the Padaung Village and the money they receive from the tourists. Writing this reminds me I would like to write a scathing note to the guidebook explaining their falsehoods.

Though Casey and I weren't too sure about visiting the Padaung, we were not fully aware of their situation until after our travel adventures. Again, mom was eager to see them and after explaining how we felt about the village it was decided that we would go.

The vibe I received from visiting the Padaung Village was much less weird that the vibe I got from the other hill tribes. I think this is becuase it was set up more like a business. Every house was equiped with a souvenir stand where they women sold hand-woven scarves and other cheap knick-knacks. We were able to visit the school, which was a small bamboo shack. One of the children was assigned to postcard duty, and she tried to get us to buy from her. As I said before, I guess an education isn't that important when all you'll be doing is selling souvenirs for the rest of your life. We were allowed to go into the classrooms, which seems to me not to be a very good idea. Each classroom we went in, we interrupted the session, even when we tried not to. In one classroom, the teacher seemed to be missing and a group of tiny students were teaching themselves.

Alongside the Padaung live the "Big-Earred Karen." This tribe is also originally from Burma. They are famous for their large earring holes.

My favorite part of the village was a group of small toddlers who were playing outside their houses. They were all dirty and adorable and it was only then that I took out the camera to snap a few pictures.

After the Padaung, we made our way to a small Chinese village located high in the hills. The weather here was much more pleasant than in Mae Hong Son and village, though touristy, had a much more laidback feel to it. The Chinese....

At the village, we ate some of the best Chinese Yunnan-style chinese food I have ever tasted. It was spicy and delicious. In fact, it was one of the best meals we had during our entire trip in Thailand. After the meal, we walked to a small shop, where we were able to sample a wide range of teas for free. They even gave us snacks of preserved fruit to nibble on while we drank tea. Most of the tea we tried was grown in the village. The tea was so good and the proprietess so kind, we decided to buy some locally grown Oolong tea.

From there, we headed to the "Little Switzerland" of Mae Hong Son. This is a small, quite community high in the hills. It used to be home of large opium poppy plantations, but they have since been destroyed and in their place are stand of pine trees. There is a large lake in the town and someone was kind enough to put some swans in it. It was very cool up here and it seemed like a nice place to relax away from the hectic life of the rest of Thailand (it is a popular spot among local tourists). On the way out of town, we stopped at a little coffee shop that grew and processed it's own coffee. As we waited for our cups, we toured the coffe plantation and the processing room. We drank our coffee on a hill overlooking the plantation with a cool breeze blowing in our direction.


On the way back to Mae Hong Son, we stopped at a Hmong village. Again, it was hard to tell one rural village from the next. I do not think that this village is as touristy as the others we visited because noone was wearing their traditional dress. We stopped at the school to watch some boys playing with large wooden tops. We watched some women talking in the street and sewing. They were preparing garments for the upcoming Hmong New Year's festival. We inspected a large stone rice mill which was located outside another house. We commented on the funny looking chickens running around everywhere and then we got back into the van and headed back to the resort.

A Little on Mae Hong Son
Like I said before, Mae Hong Son is a small town, which is the capital of the small Mae Hong Son Province. It is located fairly close to the Thai-Burma border and the majority of the people who live in the town are Shan. There are many different hill tribes in the area. All in all, the Thai government recognizes 6 or so hill tribes, though some of these designations are made of several tribes. These hill tribes have all been in Thailand for the past couple of hundred of years. They do not have the same rights as Thai citizens and they have a different ID card then the ethnic Thai's. One thing that sets them apart is the fact that they are not allowed to get jobs with the government. In the area of Mae Hong Son there are the Hmong, which are originally from Southern China but came to Thailand via Laos. There is also the Lahu and Lisu. Tribes such as the Padaung are not considered "hill tribes" because they arrived to Thailand just recently. Even if someone is say a Hmong, but they moved from Laos then they would not be considered one of the hill tribes either.


There are two markets in Mae Hong Son, the day market, which as far as we could tell was the most anti-touristy thing in Mae Hong Son...it seemed strictly for the locals (which made it all the more fun to roam around). There is also a night market, which is the extreme antithesis of the day market. Most of the vendors at the night market are hill tribe women dressed in their traditional garb and selling their hand made products. When we first arrived up north, I was very fond of looking at all of the nice "traditional" handicrafts. I was fond until I realized that EVERYONE makes the same handicrafts. It doesn't matter what hill tribe they are from, the products are so commercialized now that everyone just makes what the tourists will buy with the result that every product looks the same (well, the colors may be a little different). I know my mother wanted to come here to find some traditional Hmong designs that they no longer make in the United States. Of all the "hmong" wears that we saw, we only ran into a few that made what she was looking for. The night market was a nice place to people watch, however. We would order food from a stand near the monastery and sit on mat next to the lake and watch the people pass by. It was a wonderful setting with the golden monastery lit in soft lighting that reflected off of the lake.

Of all the tourists at the market, we were usually the only ones to sit back with a local dish on the outside tables. It seems like everyone is afraid of catching some communicable disease from the street vendors. It is such a shame too, because of all the places we've eaten in Thailand, I would say that the vendor food beat out the upscale restaurant food anyday. When we first arrived to Mae Hong Son, we tried a few of the restaurants "recommended" by Lonely Planet. It didn't take us long to realize that these restaurants were HORRIBLE! They took everything that was Thai out of their Thai cuisine, so all that was left was a terribly bland mess of meat and rice or noodles. Needless to say, we did NOT trust the LP after that. Basically, I decided that if the Lonely Planet recommended something in this region is was best to avoid it AT ALL COSTS.

In Mae Hong Son there is a little monastery on a hill. It is a quaint little place with a nice view of the valley below, and all that is the provincial town. There is also a monastery near the lake in the center of town. This monastery if famed for it's ancient paintings on glass of the life of the Buddha. When I heard of these paintings, I made note to see the monastery. The monastery was nice, there were a couple of buildings in the complex that were from different areas and the contrast made for an interesting site. The paintings were a dud. Too Bad.

Overall, I think that the town of Mae Hong Son is a nice little respite set among some gorgeous mountains. I wasn't a big fan of visiting the hill tribes, but they too were set in gorgeous locations and visiting these areas was definitely a learning experience.