Village Life

We only spent one night in the Lahu village, but we experienced some basic aspects of day-to-day life.

The basic homes are constructed of wood and bamboo. The main living and cooking room is usually contracted most of bamboo. There is no chimney for the cooking fire, and the smoke just escapes through the porous bamboo floor, walls and ceiling.

The kitchen sink, so to speak, was made up of jugs of water and gaps in the wood floor for a drain.

Going to the toilet was always an adventure. This typical "squat" toilet made with porcelain and tile was actually a quite nice example! Do your business and then just flush by ladling some water from the adjacent trough.

We slept on thin mats on the wood floor. We had sleeping bags and a mosquito net. Although the villagers slept under basic blankets with no nets.

Trekking to Visit the Lahu Hill Tribe

Northern Thailand is inhabited by a number of different tribal groups. Called the Hill Tribes because of the mountainous terrain where they live and farm, there are several distinct tribes made up of peoples that migrated to northern Thailand primarily from China, Tibet, Burma and Laos. We spent several days walking to visit these people in their villages led by our trusty Thai guide, Chang.

The first day we hiked to village of the Lahu tribe and stayed in the home of the village's "spirit man." The village's dirt streets and basic wood and bamboo homes were perched along the hill tops.

In the evening, we toured the village learning about the culture and the people. We visited the Spirit House, where our guide, Chang, explained the tribal religion that holds ceremonies only on days when there is a full moon or no moon. We saw some kids playing soccer in the school yard, and we saw chili peppers, an ever present part of the local cuisine, drying in the sun. And everywhere we went, we were followed by a throng of the local kids, or "North's entourage" as we soon called it, because they were all completely enamored with the young blond haired, blue eyed boy. The kids, and even most of the adults, rarely see outsiders, but even more rarely do they ever see children from outside their villages.

The first day with the Hill Tribes ended with a wonderful meal prepared by our guide, Chang, and the Spirit Man, sitting around the cooking fire.

Elephants, a Zip Line and One Dead Snake

After driving and trekking around rural northern Thailand, we made it safely back to the city of Chiang Mai. Our three-day adventure started out with a visit to an elephant farm that raises and trains elephants in the traditional ways, including grazing them in the forest. We spent an hour riding the elephants along a forest path. Elephants are hungry beasts; so our guides loaded us each up with armfuls of bananas because our elephants would occasionally stop walking, reach their trunks back over their heads, and wait for us to feed them a couple of bananas before they would resume.

From the drop off point at the end of our ride, we had to cross a river to reach our car. We used a zip line that we're not sure had received its annual inspection for a while, but we made it across and were soon on our way.

On the road to the elephant farm we spotted a Thai Viper, a highly venomous snake. It was dead on the road. We weren't sure if that was a good or bad omen as we were about to head into the jungle, but it certainly didn't go unnoticed.

Trekking

Starting tomorrow, 11/30, we are going on a three day trek to visit some of the native hill tribe villages north of Chiang Mai. We will be with an experienced guide who is well acquainted with the locals and will be our teacher and interpreter.

Since we will be in the jungle for the next three days, we will not have access to the Internet. We will post a message about our jungle trek when we return in a few days.

Chiang Mai

Today we explored the old city of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is the unofficial capitol of northern Thailand, and it has the greatest concentration of Wats outside of Bangkok. Wats are Buddhist temples and many also have facilities where Buddhist monks can live and study. We spent the day enjoying the peaceful surroundings.

We finished off the evening with a stroll through the local "night bazaar" where hundreds of street vendors hawk their wares, a crazy scene.

Chinese Bird Spit Soup

On the island of Phi Phi Ley (pronounced pee pee lay) there is a cave inhabited by swallow-like birds that make nests coated in saliva. The saliva-coated nests are the main ingredient in a much favored Chinese soup (we're not sure who lost a bet and tried for the first time). The nests fetch a high price so daring pole-climbing Thais climb to the roof of the cave to collect the nests. This picture shows the cave and the rickety bamboo poles.

Spirit Houses

Most people in Thailand are Buddhists and the spirits of their ancestors are an important part of their religious beliefs. Spirit houses are a way of honoring the spirits of ones ancestors or the people that used to live on a property. By keeping the spirits happy through giving offerings, it is believed good luck will be insured for the home or business where the spirit house is located. This is a picture of the spirit house at our hotel in Krabi.