Hill Tribes
Probably the most favorite part of my trip was the portion of the time that I spent in the Northern region. I did a 4 day trek somewhere between Chang Rai and the boarder of Burma. Each day myself, 3 friends and an Akka man (our guide) Pitchi', walked up and down mountains, through the jungle, and over rice terrace fields for approximately 12-14km per day. Things I saw were absolutely amazing. We stayed in hill tribe villages, slept in huts, took cold showers and ate their food.
Hill tribes people are nomadic people who migrated from China many many many years ago. The tribes do not have Thai citizenship, do not speak Thai and do not own property. We stayed with the Akka and Lahu tribes, but there are many more. Above is a photo of a Karen man. The Karens are expert elephant handlers and the photo is of a man who rode us into the jungle on the first portion of our trek. I can now check "elephant riding" off my list of things to do in my life.
Here is a typical hill tribe village scene. We stumbled across a number of Lahu and Akka villages during our trek - - some nights we stayed in small huts and slept on the floor (no electricity, cold outdoor shower), some we just passed through. All of the people were friendly and we learned that sign language and a good guide can go a long long way.
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