Northern Thailand

The rest of the hot and humid summer proceeded on without anything of note, until the Korean holiday- Chuseok. This holiday is similar toNorth American Thanksgiving, and generally people return to their hometown and spend the week with their families. We headed out to northern Thailand, and spent the week around Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, with only a week it's hard to organize independent travel, so we did most of our hiking and excursions with a group or a hired driver.

Northern Thailand is extremely luscious and mountainous, and it feels like virtually all the land is blanketed in tropical forests. The area felt so secluded- even with the many voices of the group we were hiking with, it felt so peaceful. The group was incredibble- there was a group from Israel, a couple of South Koreans (we impressed them with our minimal knowledge of Korean) a couple from Ireland, and four of us form Canada. The Israelies and South Koreans had an interesting talk about their views of mandatory military service, as a few of them had just completed their time in the army. Most people we have met in Korea seem quite resentful of the years they are forced to dedicate to the military, whereas the four from Israel all spoke about their time in the army as if it held some of the best memories of their lives. Anyways- interesting to think about how countries motivate a sense of patriotism and desire to serve into their citizens.

As a prairie girl, I guess any change in elevation seems to awe me, but the streams weaving through the mountains, and the steep slopes topped by little villages in the distance would have impressed even the toughest critics. The humidity was extreme (which I used as an excuse for my insane sweating hehe), but a powerful little waterfall in the middle of the hike was a perfect escape from the heat.

We spent the night in a indigenous mountain tribe village. Their traditional housing is raised huts, in which one generally lives (in tight quarters) with most of their extended family. The family we stayed with made a delicious dinner of curry, veggies, and lychee fruit. Mmmmm....


We hiked out of the village the next morning to an elephant camp, where I rode on my first elephant! Their trunks were adorable- always snuffling around for snacks. We followed up an already incredible day with some whitewater rafting and bamboo rafting on a nearby river.

Later on that week, we spent a couple of days driving west past Mae Hong Son, where we took a boat close to the border of Myanmar to visit some of the Karen Long Neck hilltribe villages. The Karen have long been living in Thailand as refugees of Myanmar, but recently the Thai government as recognized them as residents/citizens of Thailand. The women in these villages begin wearing these coils around their necks, forearms, and calves from as young as 5 years old, although we were told in the village we visited that the rings are not mandatory. Their purpose was originally for protection, and communities were losing many women to foreign "businessmen" who would essentially kidnap the women to take them home as brides. The distinctive rings make the women much more identifiable, and therefore offer some protection against these kidnappers.

Karen Long Neck hill tribe village

Long Neck woman living in the village