Chiang Mai and the Karen Long Neck Tribe

We flew up to Chiang Mai in the North after we finished our time in Bangkok, it was certainly very different. Much smaller city and surrounded by mountains and really thick jungle, which is just what we were hoping for. Our hotel was amazing! It kind of felt like we were the only ones there, a little eerie, but also nice.

We loved the pool, it wrapped around the islands in the middle and had all sorts of little inlets and coves. It felt like you were swimming through a jungle river with all the overhanging trees and flowers.

One day we visited one of the hillside tribes up in the mountains. These tribes are basically made up of refugees from China, Tibet and Burma and they live up in the mountains of northern Thailand near Loas and Burma. From what our tour guide told us, most of them are not recognized as Thai citizens, and are confined to a 50 km radius of their tribal land. The tribe we visited was one of the Karen long-neck tribes. It was interesting to see the homes, etc, but mostly it was just weird. It was a little like visiting a human zoo. Seriously. At the front pathway you are greet by a few guys from the tribe (the only tribal men we saw) and you buy a ticket to come in and visit. We were told that this money, along with what they make selling crafts is how they earn heir living now, since farming has become somewhat obsolete in the area.

Then you walk down a dirt road lined on each side with women selling their arts and crafts.Each women wore the traditional dress of one of the hillside tribes. This lady was super sweet, she was telling us (through our translating tour guide) about her black teeth, which are a result of years of chewing a mixture of tobacco and a some other native plants that they mash together.

Toward the back of the community is where the Karen people live/work. Most of the women spend their  time weaving and selling their scarves, tablecloths, jewelry and having their pictures taken by tourists (like I said, a bit like a human zoo).

The brass neck rings work not by stretching the neck, but by putting pressure on the collar bone and actually crushing the vertebrae.

One lady wanted me to try on one of the neck rings, I can attest to how heavy it is. Poor Ellie, was worried the whole time that they were going to make her wear the rings, so when our tour guide reached behind her to put some rings on her neck, she started crying because she was worried she wouldn't be able to take it off and she'd have to stay there.