24 to 26 mar 2008, thaton

this statue looked real. sk and i had to touch it to be convinced that this is not real.

a view of Thaton from a hilltop temple

she probably belonged to the Akha tribe. she had wanted to sell us some of her handicrafts but ended up being invited to take a photo with us. she put on this hat for sk to make him look nicer in this picture.

he smiled after i dug out an oreo cookie for him

he cried when sk had only enough milo bars for his sisters...

collecting water from a public tap

this lady was extremely friendly as she gladly allowed us to take a few photos of her. she was weaving a cotton top, similar to what she was wearing. they do this all day to make a living.

they belong to a tribe called Long neck Karen, originating from Burma (Myanmar). some whom we talked to were living in Thailand for 1.5 years to 15 years. it was said that they get to receive a bit of money through the entrance fee.

we were greeted by this "Lahu" tribe ah ma to buy some scarves and bags from her. she kept saying 100块 100 块, which meant 100bhat 100 bhat.

Lahu tribe - they wear big earrings and are originated from Tibet.

walking down a paved road to the karen village...

on a sangtheaw to the karen village

one travel agent told us that Thaton is a good place to see long necked karen tribe as it is not as touristic as Mae Hong San. so we took a 4 hours public bus from chiang mai to get here. from here, it is easy to reach the karen village which is 16km away and the entrace fee is 250 bhat.

i like Thaton for it is a small quiet town, just about 1km long. we stayed in a guesthouse where we were the only guests there for both nights. according to the owner, Kwan, the peak season had ended and not many tourists come by here anyway. she will be closing the guesthouse after the songkran festival (mid april) till sep and then reopen from oct to mar. she only opens 6 months each time. such good fortune. hee...

anyway, over there, we experienced a big rain one day. it was raining big cubes of ice for a few minutes. i felt slight pain when it hit me. a monk offered us to take shelter in his place. many houses were damaged and the whole town was quiet at 8pm cos everyone closed their shops to stay home.