Thailands Hill Tribes-Taking a Trek to See Them

Holidays to Thailand are full of different opportunities. Whether you fancy lazing on a beach, visiting historic sites and temples or spotting wildlife in the countries numerous national parks then you can do it in Thailand. Adventure holidays are also very popular including things like white water rafting and trekking.

Trekking in Northern Thailand through the hill tribe lands is very popular. The hill tribes are fascinating and friendly people who each wear a distinct tribal costume. The seven main groups of hill tribe people are the Karen (the largest), Lisu, Hmong, Lahu, Yao, Lawa and Akha. Several of the groups are still nomadic and certainly don't pay to much attention to the border between modern day Thailand and Myanmar. Some of their origins can be traced to India and China. Each group has their own language and customs. To visit them and see their way of life is a truly unique experience and one that I think you should consider on any holiday you might take in Thailand.

Treks usually start from Chiang Rai or Chiang Mai and most companies offering such adventures rate the physical effort as moderately difficult and the possible culture shock as moderate. In the latter case I assume they mean showering in cold water in a mud hut and squatting over a hole in the ground for your toilet. Hill tribe treks are usually 3 days and 2 nights but you can go for longer. Independent travel is not encouraged.

Well from my own experiences I would say that the trek is only more difficult on the first day when you climb up towards the area of the hill tribe villages, part of this, on my trek was through jungle, so despite the physical effort it was quite exciting. Since you are expected in most cases to carry your own pack (porters are available from the different villages), I would suggest you travel light with just two sets of clothing , one to wear in the day and one to sleep in. OK you might hum a bit towards the end of the trek, but everyone is the same so you don't notice!

Since you are going to get wet it makes sense to ensure you keep your sleeping clothes in a waterproof container. Putting on damp or wet clothing in the morning is no great hardship but not having something dry to sleep in is. Incidentally it can be quite cold in the evenings so a lightweight fleece is a good travelling companion. Sturdy walking boots are a must but can be hired in Thailand, incidentally the Thais have a novel way of cleaning them for you at the end of your trek- but I will let you discover that for yourself.

During my hill tribe trek we stayed in two different villages one Karen and one Akha. We were welcomed in both villages. At the Karen village the people dressed in traditional dress and put on a mini craft market so we could buy home made trinkets while in the Akha village local children dressed in traditional costume and danced for us before we hit the hard wooden floor of the sleeping hut.

Living conditions on the trek were basic, communal huts, with no electricity, were used for sleeping. The toilet was a thatched hut with a hole in the ground, by the way take your own toilet paper or do your ablutions hill tribe style. Well you know what your left hand is for don't you?

There are many hill tribe support groups and an excellent hill tribe museum and shop next to the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant in Chiang Rai. I love the tag line for the C&C restaurant it reads "our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy." In the museum you can buy hill tribe products, the money going back to the people who made the products to help them improve their lives.

Real Time Stats Blogger in Draft Dashboard

A quick heads up for all you Blogger users. Google has just introduced real time stats for your blog that you can access from your Blogger in Draft dashboard. If you fire up Blogger in Draft(link at bottom of normal dashboard) you will find an extra tab under each of your sites.

Click on the stats tab and  you will find a whole host of data about your blog that you would normally only find on Google Analytics. one thing I like is the way it displays page views of individual posts, so you can see what's popular at any given time.

OK its not as comprehensive as GA, but in all honesty its pretty good and the great thing is that its in real time which is not the case in GA. For the average blogger its a quick way of checking how things are going with a post especially if it gets a Digg or is re-tweeted.

The facility is provided free and there is no sign up or code to add to your blog template, which can't be bad.

Now to give it a test with this post....lets see whose awake.

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June in Thailand

June in Thailand has been very dry with only a small amount of rain being recorded on two days. Daytime temperatures have however been slightly cooler as the SW Monsoon tries to kick in. A general lack of rain throughout the country has once again been the topic of much discussion and drought conditions apply in the majority of provinces including where I live in Prachup Khiri Khan.

June is also the month when I need to renew my retirement extension to my O visa and this was duly completed on the 9th June. With the GBP continuing to be weak against the Baht I was worried that I wouldn't hit the income target for this procedure at Immigration, but thankfully this proved untrue and as I pen this post I note that it(GBP) is attracting about the same value as at the start of last month despite the fact that Sterling has strengthened slightly.

A trip to the local dentist was also called for due to a tooth abscess, both of which are now gone and I also got my teeth cleaned and polished. All my dental care in June cost just 1000Baht(£20).

We haven't hit the road much in the last month but we did have a very pleasant day at Wannerkorn Marine Park with a super lunch at the food centre and a trip to partake in a Chofah ceremony at Wat Dan Singkhon. The latter of these events was very interesting and my post and photographs are worth taking a look at if you have time to visit The Temples of Thailand.

My new computer also arrived in June and I am very pleased with my Lenovo ThinkCentre, I just need time to learn all the new features! My best laugh of the month has to be the party I attended at my neighbours house which left me reflecting if I was indeed waiting for Godot.

So that's it for June in Thailand, remember its the first of the month today, so don't forget to say "White Rabbits."

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Brown Girl in the Sun

Last year I wrote a post, White Skin, Whiter Skin-A Thai Obsession. In the article I took an outsiders perspective on what seemed to me a Thai obsession with having a white skin.

Here's an extract from what I wrote:

"Now I can't even attempt to provide an answer as to why Thai culture values a white face higher than a dark one although one possible answer is that dark skin equals an outdoor labouring background and low social standing while a white skin or a whiter skin suggests a higher status. You only have to look at the skin tones of Thai TV stars to see that there might be some credence in this argument."

Here's part of a comment from one of my readers:

".......I taught at a local high school for a year and I saw it with my own eyes as to the different treatment given, between light and dark skinned kids and all the hi-so people, even in a village will not send their kids to school with the dark skinned kids, they all go to private schools where the dark skinned ones are weeded out , believe it are not."

So why do I mention this clearly(in Western eyes) racist attitude displayed by many Thai people yet again. Well it started yesterday when Duen collected Doy from school. As usual Duen was gossiping but also watching and listening to the kids.

A girl friend of Doy said to Doy, "Do you like that boy?"

Doy, "yes he is my friend."

Girl now speaking to the boy, "do you like Doy?"

Boy, "no she is not beautiful she has brown skin."

OK they are kids of 7 years old and I know kids can be hurtful. But surely they are not capable of independent racist comments like this. It has to be learned behaviour surely?

In my opinion part of the answer probably lies in the fact that the boy is fairly light skinned and has Chinese Thai parents. Prachuap Khiri Khan has many such families that control the local businesses. The ruling elite of Thailand are mostly from Chinese descendants which makes me smile slightly since they are clearly not the indigenous folk of Thailand.

Now neither Doy or Duen were offended by the boys comments which I suppose just goes to show you that you have to know your place in Thailand and if you have brown skin its near the bottom of the pile.

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Welcome to the OK Karaoke

Welcome to the OK Karaoke. I am sure anyone who has visited Thailand or actually lives here will know that the Thais love loud music and I mean ear bursting loud. Whether its in the go-go bars of Pattaya, a night club in Bangkok or even a concert in the local temple grounds, there is no happy medium, its either deafening or off!

Karaoke clubs/bars are also popular, where loud music is combined with Thai crooners belting out their version of popular songs, often in their version of English as well.

Now when I first moved here I was very much aware of the noise issue in Thailand so I made sure there wasn't a bar within two miles of my home. Since there is no real planning regulation in Thailand this is of course no guarantee that a bar won't suddenly appear in your next door neighbours front garden, especially if they know the right people and pay the going rate of bribe to the village headman.

I was therefore not totally surprised when the local mini mart at the end of the lane decided to diversify and install a bar come karaoke at the back of the shop facing up the lane towards my home(the blue bungalow in the photo).

As you can also see from the photographs its not a plush affair but what it lacks in decor it makes up for with speaker wattage believe me.

So on a bad night OK Karaoke finishes at 2am, then my Thai neighbour Annan playing his early morning wake up call to try and drown out the village loudspeaker system spreading the latest gossip at around 5.30am.

Hopefully old age will overtake me soon and I will be stone deaf.


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