Today we had booked a tour to visit various hill tribe villages, caves and the long neck tribe. The tour bus was an hour late.....typical Thai time. We were surprised to find that we were the only two, so had the mini bus, guide and driver to ourselves. Our first stop was an Orchid Farm, where we were shown how they harvest the seeds and propagate the plants for sale, this could take up to 2 years.
Leaving the orchid farm we travelled into the mountains To visit the hill tribe people who migrated 100 years ago from south China and Burma. Each village has its own culture and language, although most of them are Christians. The main profession of all the tribes is farming with added income from selling locally made handicrafts to the tourists. The first village to walk through was the White Karen. These are the poorest of the hill tribes and therefore occupy the higher ground which has the poorest soil. Travelling lower we walked through two more villages, the Lisu and the Akha and noticed the difference in the quality of the houses and the ownership of motor bikes and cars.
A tasty lunch was eaten at a village, we also here visited a cave where we walked 760 metres into the mountain housing 3 Buddha shrines
The next stop was to see the women of the Long Neck tribe who have worn ornamental brass rings for centuries. Although the exact reasons have been lost in the myths of time, the end result is world famous.
Like many tribes in Africa, they endeavor to stretch their necks, slowly, a ring at a time.
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