Visiting Hill Tribes Around Mae Salong

We spent the better part of yesterday hiking and taking a motorbike to hill tribe villages near Mae Salong. Most of the villages we visited were Akha villages. The Akha are an animistic tribe originally from Tibet, and at the entrance to the villages there are carved wooden figures with huge phalluses as well as gates carved of wood and bamboo. These figures are supposed to ward off malevolent spirits, and I think the gate also represents the connection between the spiritual and the profane.

The Akha are very poor. It would be hard to romanticize their way of life. They live in bamboo huts and they are very resistant to integration into Thai culture, which also results in fewer opportunities. Walking through the Akha villages, I fully understood the reservations that some people have about trekking in hill tribe areas. In other situations, I feel a self-consciousness because I am the only farang, but for once, I actually felt too much a voyeur, like I shouldn't be here. The kids stared at us wide-eyed. The adults ignored us. And when we were a safe distance away, the kids shouted merrily, 'hello, hello, hello!' An older man watched us leave the village to make sure we didn't touch the totemic figures.

We also visited a Lisu village. The Lisu women wear colorful purple dresses and are known for their needlework. As we walked through the village, a woman with a plastic tarp over her shoulder followed us. Soon we had a group of women around us, their tarps unrolled to reveal homemade bracelets, hats and belts.

I didn't have any small money but Zander bargained for several bracelets. Because the Lisu don't speak Thai or English, this was the extent of our interactions. Using some basic sign language, they were able to convey prices and also the extent of their need. More than once a woman pointed at a swollen hand or her bad teeth. Some would use the sign for food and point at their bellies.

The best sign we received was when an old woman made a gesture as if wearing glasses. We had no idea what she meant but she led us down a dirt track to a beautiful vista of tea fields in the valley below. When she made the sign again, we knew exactly what she meant.