This was a quick three day trek in the Mae Hong Son Province of
Northern
Thailand. We drove from Chiang Mai to Pai for lunch, then continued through
barely passable jungle two-track in our 4WD. Our plan was to camp the first
night, enabling us to watch the spectacular Leonids meteor shower - the only
one I've ever seen that hasn't disappointed me. We then continued on, staying
the second night in a Karen village. It was rice harvesting season, so this
activity dominated the villagers' lives everywhere we went. We saw rice being
harvested and processed, probably in no way differently than it's been done
for centuries. An interesting thing to me, an environmental scientist that
often hears words such as "ecology" and "sustainability" being bantered about
in our modern manufacturing-based society, is that these people truly live a
sustainable lifestyle. Their homes, their tools, and their food all exist from what
nature provides them.
This was even apparent when we camped. Udom and
Dom made cups, lanterns, water buckets, and spoons all from bamboo. We even
occasionally ate the native fruit found growing wild as we hiked.
There
was only a small group for this trek. Our guide was Udom, a native Thai
survivalist that had fought alongside Americans in Vietnam. Our cooks were
Dom and Da. These two were great cooks that prepared an abundance of food,
while Udom watched over them with frequent instructions. There was also Arish
and Victoria, a pleasant couple. Arish, a Woodie Harrelson lookalike, is from
Holland. Victoria is from Sweden.
Is this an adorable little girl or what!!! Just look at that smile. It gives
a
whole new meaning to smiling from ear to ear.
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It's just amazing all the things that are done with bamboo. This fellow peeled
strips of bamboo to make this basket, working well into the dark. Early the
next morning, I discovered him continuing the job.
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This is a detail of the roof from inside our village home. The homes here were
all built on stilts and consisted of wood, bamboo, and thatch. Most homes
were either one or two rooms. The larger homes with two rooms, consisted of a
kitchen, barely separated from the sleeping/sitting area. Despite the
construction, cooking was done in the kitchen. Fire pits were made of clay
and constructed on the floor. The smoke escaped from holes under the eaves
at each end of the house.
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Like many women in Northern Thailand, this Black Lahu woman smoked a pipe.
Smoking
Opium is very common in this part of Thailand, where it is still grown
illegally.
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