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I spent a day traveling to Tha Ton, to visit the famous long-necked women. Tha Ton is a very small village near the Myanmar border. As we drove north from Chiang Mai, we visited a Buddhist temple located inside one of Thailand's many caves. We also visited a butterfly and orchid farm - Thailand is famous for orchids.

Tha Ton itself crawls with tourists. Apparently, people come from all over the world to see these women....just as I had. The sad thing to me was that it seemed these women lived in a kind of human zoo, with people constantly taking their photo. And yet, these women were very gracious and poised, with only a hint of discomfort shown by the young girl in the picture below. Yes, obviously I was guilty of doing my part. Because of this atmosphere, I think it would've been interesting to stay the night here, to see the real life behind the tourist life. But then, my mere presence would've made this unlikely to have happened.

One of the long-necked Karen women of Tha Ton, Thailand.	One of the young girls of Tha Ton.
Tha Ton is a small village on a hillside near the border of Burma.	Tha Ton is a short walk from where the road ends. The outskirts of this village had Akha women selling trinkets. This woman objected to being in the photo of the elephant.
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