Asia's Golden Girls

Give me one good reason why you wouldn't sign up for a three day trek in the Mae Tang mountains. You don't have tennis shoes or socks? No problem - I didn't. You want to get a good night's sleep? Eh, you can sleep when you're dead. It's expensive? No, actually, we got an unbelievable rate to do this (no, this isn't coming out of funds donated for our support). So? You'll go? Great!

We headed out early the next day to join the Cool Man Tour guide, a Thai named Non, in a three day adventure that promised many entertaining moments. We met the only other man on the trip, Robert, from Australia. After two heart attacks, he stopped working for himself and travels for fun. He's been to Thailand ten times and hasn't ever done a trek, so he figures he'll go for the gold. Three days is the longest trek we'd been able to find, and it was scheduled to end only hours before our return bus to Bangkok, so we signed up.

We were dropped off first at the local orchid garden and butterfly pavilion. We loved watching the 10 or 15 butterflies they had in there, but having been spoiled by the orchids in Singapore, I had less appreciation for the garden. We anxiously moved on to a local market where Non would buy our food for three days. We held off the anxious mountain village women selling their wares as they were quite aggressive. Their clothing was phenomenal, though, all made by hand of very colorful material.

We rode off to begin our adventure with the 7 Mountain Tribes, the most famous of which are the Long Neck Karen Tribe of Burma. The Thai government has granted them permission to reside in Thailand as the Burmese government is "not friendly" towards minority groups. These tribal people come together to sell their hand-woven scarves, metal bracelets and wood carvings in an area where many live. As we entered the tribal area, we met a woman who was busy weaving. Our guide sat beside her and told us the sad tale of her people.

The women of this tribe are made to wear gold rings around their necks as early as age 3, which are added to throughout their lives until they reach 35. When they marry, they can stop adding rings, but no one can ever remove them, both by tribal tradition and through necessity, as the rings make the neck muscles and bones weak from the spreading. If removed, the women would be unable to hold their heads up. The rings are very heavy and are put on in a spiral fashion over time.

We were told many different reasons why they put these rings on, none of which make too much sense: to protect from tigers biting the neck, to make them ugly so other tribal men won't steal them away, etc. The rings hardly make them ugly...they all smile so nicely, and the sparkling gold and multicolored clothes they wear hardly detract from their natural beauty (though I'm not condoning the practice). They also wear rings around their legs, right below the knees, as the picture shows. As this is naturally the fattest part of the calf, their leg growth has been severely stunted, but they walk fine. I don't know why those are necessary. Some have the rings around their ankles as well.

The girl in this picture is only three years old, but you can see that she's already been adorned with her neck rings. Her mother beside her, has an exceedingly long neck, and plays a hand-made guitar and sings to passers by. They are a joyful people, always smiling, happy to tell us of their traditions. Each woman has a hut with a front that acts like a store. They live behind it in the same place. I saw a husband wasting the day away,  snoozing on his back. Long Neck Karen certainly is a patriarchal society.

The woman in this picture told me her story. She's my age - 23 - and her husband is still in Burma. She has been in Thailand for four months without him and wants children, but can't have them with him being gone (hopefully obvious). She let me try on some "practice" neck rings, which had been sawed in half for easy application. They were very heavy, and the number of rings in the one she gave me stretched my neck out just from wearing it for a minute.

The tribe shared the area with several others, including the "Big Ear" tribe. The women gauge their ears with metal loops. Try not to lose your lunch...but here's a nice shot of the ring removed.

Now, we had an incredible time at this place, though we recognized the unique challenges it left us with. We felt bad that these people were so very...available. Their homes are in a village designed by the Thai government to welcome and encourage visitors, which is both educationally enlightening and invasive. We were glad they are safe from the danger of the Burmese government, who is daily wiping out the minorities in their country, but were disappointed that their cultures may be reduced to entertainment for curious travelers. We recognized that we were a part of this, and from all this I've come to the conclusion that I'm better off for meeting them, and they're better off for not being in Burma.

Our journey continued that day at the elephant camp, which I will describe next. Stay tuned...