Tribes

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We've had a bit of an adventure today.We met our guide at 8am this morning and drove to a small village about 15 mins away. This was where we got to ride an elephant I was a little dissapointed as i thought we would do more of a scenic trek than we did but it was still a fun thing to do. When we got off we were also able to feed him some bamboo and bananas. he was a beautiful creature and i loved his hairy head! I wnat a pet one! After this we went into the very small village and teh guide showed us where they make whiskey from rice. We also met t2 other people who were spending the rest of teh day with us Baum and Wendy from belgium.We then all got in teh back of teh truck and went to a place where there is a refugee camp close to teh burma border teh people are allowed out of teh camp during daylight to go to work .(we did not see thsi camp thank god!) almost next tdoor to thsi camp is a village with 3 different tribes in it (i cant quite understand why they do not have to be in teh refugee camp as well since they ar eall from burma too! but anyway) we saw long necks (not correct name) which are were teh ladies have heavy brass neckware which makes thier necks appear longer however it just pushes teh shoulders down! we also saw big ears teh ladies from this tribe put these things in their ears that make massive holes very attractive! there was also another tribe but they had no distinct charecteristics i think they were Shann. It did seem very touristy and they all had little souviner stalls I brought a scarf that they had hand weaved it was only 50 b and hopefully this place is not so corrupt that the people will get the money! the kids here are so cute and they do have a school and a hospital which has apprantley been funded by tourists money i do hoe the school is teaching the right things about traditions and not just how to make money form tourists! we spent about 1 hour here and then got back in teh truck. we drove for sometime and then had lunch at a place on teh roadside thai style noddles followed by coconut rice both really good!
we then got back in teh truck and went to another village where they used to have a really bad opium problem but the king and queen told the people if they wanted to stay in thier country (as tehy were from burma also) they had to stop it so teh king and queen showed them new ways to make money and tehy now grow coffee rice and veg and teh ladies to embridorary for teh queen. it was beautiful up here it was highj in the mountains and tehre was a massive lake and tehy say its like switersland even though no-one has been there!
we were soon back in teh truck and onto another village. we even stopped and picked up an erdely couple who loved in this village it would have taken them hours to get back home. they are of chinese orgin in teh vllage and again had an opium problem. they now harvest tea here and we got to sample it in one of the tourist shops! teh tea was really nice and i even brought soem green tea! Damian musta been having a gay day as he brought soem moisturizer and soem soap! we also watched a lady diggin for crickets she gets 1b per cricket and it looks liek bloody hard work.
on teh way home we stopped at a really nice waterfall and some boring fish cave thing!
teh scenery up here is just beautiful i hope my photos do it justice.!

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