Monday, November 3, and time to move on...driving from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. (Try not to get confused by the similarity in names!) The drive takes 4 hours, plus stops...and we had several of those, visiting hill tribe villages. The people living in the villages generally came to Thailand to avoid prosecution in their own country (principally Myanmar). Some have obtained Thai citizenship, and some haven't. The traditions have carried on, in food, dress, crafts, etc. one of the more interesting stops was at the "long-neck" village, where women wear coiled brass around their necks...originally to protect from tiger attacks, but now just tradition. They start wearing when young, and increase the height as they grow up. This tribe makes woven fabrics, and their "mall" consisted of stalls lining the dirt road into their village, where they wove and displayed their wares.
They were a very warm and friendly group (as were all the hill tribes we visited). Their living conditions were crude by our standards, but didn't seem to matter to them. Here are a few photos...Rita is wearing one that ties in the back. The real ones can weigh 5 pounds or more!
More photos follow!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment