THAILAND
Hill Trek
Off on the hill trek
All through northern Thailand, everyone offers "hill treks", backpack journeys among the Hill Tribes. They can range from canned and packed to something more authentic. While ours was no question a tourist journey, we were lucky to be the only ones on our trip which gave us at least the illusion of something outside the norm. Either way, it was a great way to see the gradient of development in the northern Thai hills...
Hmong village
Our humble abode for the night
we slept on bamboo mats on wood slats. Pretty hard on the back. That evening, we sat around the fire in front of this building and listened to the chatter. The highlight was an old man telling stories and snorting opium. The lowlight was the pair of hunters with spotlights.
Chopping wood
This was truly a sight. On her back is a swaddled baby, which endured the pounding for a long time. Note the motorcycle. This village was connected with the outside by a motorcycle track, in contrast to village #2, connected only by a walking track. This, of course, led to subtle but important differences in the goods they could receive, but most importantly, in the goods they could sell.
Sorting rice
While the parents sorted rice, the kids played. This picture is a perfect illustration of the drawbacks of digital. I had this shot framed with all three faces looking at me, but in the second delay from button push to shutter opening, they turned...
You have to improvise sometimes...
Eating the seedcorn, one kernel at a time
Strolling to the second village
Dung beetle hard at work
There were spiders everywhere
But there was almost no birds. Why? Because they get shot for food. We would find many piles of feathers, particular owl feathers, but few if any live birds.
These hill treks often come with an elephant ride.
Here our mahout gets himself ready for the ride
The elephant needs to bathe its back before putting on the saddle
On the great beast
It is a long way up there
Strolling
The mahout "controls" the elephant by pulling the string, which is attached to the hook behind the elephant's right ear. For some reason, she submits, though in the back of my head, I wondered how little effort it would be to yank that strong from the mahout and go berserk in the woods.
Thanking her for the ride
Village II: Karen
Every day the women remove the husk from the rice grain the hard way
Here Ellie gives a hand
After some pounding, the bits are removed and the separated
The skill with which she sorts these was tremendous.
Every morning and every evening this task occurs. The first task to get mechanized when power arrives.
Bringing in the rice
Brood baskets
Our pal and host on a termite mound in the middle of the village
The water buffalo are brought in every night and kept under the houses
Doi Inathanon National Park
On the way back to Chiang Mai
Water buffalo at work

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