What We Found
I could scarcely be bothered with my camera on this last trip; with so much food to eat, and so many things to occupy my time, who can? All, however, was not lost and there are still a handful of them.
Chiang Mai, according to its critics, has more or less become a backpacker’s ghetto a little worse than Khao San, with every man and his brother (and wife and sister and mother) running trekking tours. The signs are frightfully clear: “elephant”, “hilltribe”, “bamboo rafting”, being the clearest. We didn’t want to go to see hilltribes just for the sake of it; going to see long necked Karen was against my principles (for complex reasons relating to the ‘human zoo’ concept). And if I wanted to see the “simple ways Asians live in villages” I could just go to my village in China. On elephants: honestly, we’re Asian — I’m not paying a fortune to bloody wash an elephant for the novelty of it. (We gave elephants a chance in Koh Chang, it’s just one of those things you do just once; and found it very amusing to see every single white person on the group fork out extra money to “help wash the elephants” while we waited around with the elephant trainers drinking coffee then got to sit on the newly clean elephants washed by white people..).
So we left Chiang Mai and spent several days in a less popular area, but which was for me the highlight of the trip. It’s still a secret, I don’t want to have to fight to make reservations at this special place, so I can only mention that it’s not Pai; it’s often described by Chiang Mai residents and expats to be the “best kept secret” they’re not telling anyone about, so I’m not breaking ranks here. The people running this wonderful hideaway at this secret place are, expectedly, wonderful people. Their treks were not the cheapest, but I’m happy to hand over the extra, knowing they have a policy of giving as much business as possible to the less privileged locals, with part of the money we paid going to donations for villagers as well. In short, we didn’t get long necked Karens, or a troop of hilltribe villagers coming to greet us with hurrah and try to sell us bracelets. But we got:
5 hours of walking and climbing, caves to squeeze into, and wonderful views.
A tranquil afternoon in a small village. It was pretty much just the two of us.
An excellent guide who could not bear to see two girls suffering under the weight of their bags and water bottles, and so happily carried them for us.
Intruding on other people’s lazy afternoons.
Refreshing streams (imagine if I had just kicked a pipe near the waterfall, the town’s water supply would have been disrupted).
Gorgeous food.
Dirty little girls with eyes that can kill.
Many other things to look at, amongst other things.
- Posted by popagandhi at 04:27 am
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nice pics, wish to go there. where did u sleep when u was there? that village that’s one of ur pictures? wow, i’ve never slept in a place like that but i wanna try once, wondering how it is …. heh.
That girl in the pink shirt scares me.
I thought the little girl in the pink shirt is utterly beautiful! Her gaze is worldly, old beyond her tender age.
There’s no room for principles here. The karen tribe makes a living from tourist money as do many other ethnic groups do so across the world. It’s called cultural tourism and it’s a booming market in almost every country. For them, tourist money aids in self-preservation of both culture (albeit corrupted sometimes) and livelihood, so it’s a win-win situation.
I’d rather help in other ways because I believe the money from this cultural tourism flows not to the tribe but to nefarious tour operators and their collaborators (or just certain well placed members of the tribe). There are underlying social and economic problems which are pressing, but which cultural tourism will never address or redress. I just can’t bring myself to.
anonymuis: i didn’t sleep in the village. i only walked through it on a trek.. we slept in a very lovely, comfortable place.
w: she’s beautiful!
The Karen Tribe! I spent 10 days up there during a CIP trip last year, building water filtration tanks. Was great, how unnervingly quiet it was. We got to sleep in the villagers’ homes for a night, and (un)lucky for me, the pig under the house I was sleeping in was giving birth throughout the night. There were no pillows to block out the sounds.
Great experience, overall. I’ll always remember the 24baht Blizzards at Dairy Queen.
These weren’t Karen.. they were Lisu. (and on the pig giving birth) ear plugs, never leave them at home.
24 baht for ice cream! 24 baht buys me lunch! :)
Are you a professional photographer? coz the first thing that I noticed was that your pictures are of high resolution, colours fantastic (or issit the place itself?) and if i’m not wrong you use manual focus for one of those?
anyway, those pictures are really beautiful. it must have been a nice experience. I’ve always wanted to visit a village to experience life in it. You’ve captured their expressions well.
Whoops… my bad. No wonder their clothes looked different. :)
I never said she wasn’t – there’s just something about her that unnerves me. :|
Beautiful pictures.
Having just came back from Chiangmai, I went through what you described. The caucasian backpacking tourists, the signs touting “Treks, elephants, tribes”. And its kind of sad seeing the women and kids pedaling wares that no one buys.
Wash elephants? Didn’t get to do that…got to ride one though…hahah..
Girl, these are great photos! more more!
LOVE your pictures
Nice photos from a nice part of the world.
okay this is totally random,
but the little girl is seriously dirty.
i’m glad you’re back.
you and z look like you can fit in
dirty dirty dirty;
but then again, a different type of dirty
more like
dirrrrrrrrrrty
you wait you wait you* :)
-Z