Back from the Karen Villages

No matter what I say, there is no way I'll be able to capture the significance of my experiences over the last three days. For now, I will provide basics and will work on putting the actual experience into words.

The group was divided into two smaller groups of 8 students each for our trekking experiences. My group left our guesthouse in Mae Hong Son at 8am on Saturday morning in 4x4 Suzuki "jeeps." Our destination was the Ban Huey Hee village within a national park about 30 km from town. Although the distance was short, the trip took almst two hours because it was constantly up and down mountainsides on a road that was only paved about half of the time. Four wheel drive was definitely a necessity, and because it is the dry season, the roads are in the best shape they are all year right now.

Once arriving at the village we were met in a "community center" where we had lunch and our Thai leaders figured out in which house we would all be staying. The significant aspect of this type of trek is that it is Community Based Tourism (CBT) where the entire village shares the benefits of tourist revenues. The majority of tourism in this area (mass tourism) only benefits one or two households of the "headmen" of the village who always accomodate the tourists. Anyways, so we met our hosts and then were taken home to get settled. My roommate for the night was Deng, one of our local Thai guides who owns his own tourism business as well as works with REST (Responsible Ecological and Social Tours) the operator of our tour. It was a huge benefit to be rooming with a translator as I was able to learn a lot more from the family. They had two kids, Ving Rapan (5 yr boy) and Sotedah (7 yr girl). (Note that because they don't use a roman alphabet, there names are simply my phonetic interpretation of how they sound...and most of you know how good I am with phonetics ;). The kids were both very personable and we played for a while. They really enjoyed taking pictures with my camera. In the afternoon we climbed the mountain over the village, Doi Pui (the village was at 1040 meters above sea level and the peak of the mountain was about 1800 meters). From the top the views were breathtaking and we could see Mae Hong Son as well as across into Burma...You'll have to see the pictures! Then we went home for dinner and had a meeting/chat with a bunch of the townspeople (the villages had about 28 households) to ask questions to each other. The night was cold....no heat, drafty walls, right around freezing outside, just lots of blankets!

In the morning (Sunday) we visited their farming area and then got back in the suzukis for another two hour drive to the next village, Huey Tong Kor. The road was even worse for this part of the drive...Most of it was at least a thirty degree incline either up or down! This village was about the same size and we followed the same basic day plan except that instead of climbing a mountain we only climbed a large hill through their community forest. This night was even colder than the first, and we were provided with less blankets...but I survived and in the morning (~730) went outside to join the family around a fire to warm up (monday morning).

Today (monday) we drove all the way back ( a little over three hours...i think a little more of it was downhill). The Karen people number about half a million throughout Thailand, and are mostly in small villages. Their tradtional way of life is hillside farming and the government has been harrassing them for destroying the forest ecosystem by using "slash and burn" techniques. In reality, it is more of a crop rotation than simple slash and burn, but they are still struggling to maintain their traditional way of life. Anyway, I've written enough for now....More about it in person!