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We lucked out! We went up to the Chiang Mai area at the north of
Thailand, hoping to get up into the Hill Villages—but not the ones the
tourists had trampled, piling out of their air-conditioned tour buses to take a
quick look and then clamber back into air-conditioned comfort. We found a guide
who was married to a hill tribeswoman, who spoke their language, and who agreed
to hire a jeep and a driver to take us up to a couple of villages.
We've been to villages throughout the South Pacific—but
never over "roads" like those we traversed in Northern Thailand. But, thanks to
"Moo" and his driver, we did manage to visit two villages, and, not only
were we invited in for tea, but we were invited to partake of some opium. (We
accepted the former, declined the latter.)
You'll note that the hill tribesmen look quite a bit different
from the Thais, and they are. They're far more closely related to the people of
Tibet and Nepal than to the people of Thailand. |