Plans for Chiang Rai
Posted by Stuart at 05:00 PM on July 06, 2003Before I started working on my paper today, I started preparing for my 3-day weekend trip to Chiang Rai. First, I went to the Mo Chit bus station to buy my ticket. Even though the trip is several days away, I learned my lesson about travelling on holiday weekends on my last trip (everything sells out!) and bought early this time. Once back in downtown BKK, I made a stop at the bookstore at Siam Discovery to buy a Thailand road atlas. I will (hopefully) be going to an area with few tourists, so the Lonely Planet guide won't be of much help.
So, in a few days I will be visiting a Thai family that I met on the boat back from Ko Samet a couple of months ago. As I mentioned before, the family is from the Karen hilltribe. They graciously invited me to visit their village sometime and I am finally taking them up on their offer.
To prepare, I did a little bit of research on the Karen tribe today. They are the largest hilltribe in Thailand making almost half of the hilltribe population. (The other half is made up of tribes such as the Akha, the Hmong, the Lisu, tha Lahu, and the Yao.)
Originally from Myannmar, but mostly pushed out due to the long-running civil war, the Karen like to live in the lower elevations of the mountains, building small villages of about 25 bamboo houses on stilts. The space underneath the house is used to house their chickens, pigs, and buffalo. They also use tame elephants to help clear land. Like all hilltribes, they are good farmers. The men are also good hunters, using crossbows and spears and the women are very skilled in weaving.
Many of them (including the family I will visit) are Christian. In fact, it is the Christian Karen who have been waging the war against the corrupt Myannmar government for so long.
Needless to say, I am excited about the trip and will be sure to share my experiences here!
