Mud Trekking

Starting a hilltribe trek in Northern Thailand...I took a boat up the Kok River to a Karen village with group of chained elephants waiting. I tried to spread the sugar cane evenly.


















Animal exploitation: you ride an elephant halfway up a mountain to a small Yeo village. For some reason, I developed a fear of heights and steep vertical climbs on this trip which seemed to kick in for the elephant ride. Also compounded by the fact that the 3 foot path the elephant walked on was muddy and he kept slipping (causing immediate 5 feet drops down or backward).



















Since I come from a heavily developed nation where the vast body of plant and animal diversity has been destroyed, I'll try to minimize my judgmental, moralizing prickness about the elephants.I was pretty leery of the elephant situ. However, I was "assured" that the elephants are unchained and let free to roam in the mountains for food at night -- and smart beasts that they are, spontaneously return to the village during the day. Asian elephants are beautiful, smart, social beasts. I'm fortunate to have seen them, and I know nothing about what they need to thrive. The hilltribes use them as work animals, and in this capacity, they are not slaughtered.














Perty mountains.
















Outside Lisu village















Morning in the Lahu village.
















An open wood fire in the center of a bamboo hut.



















Many of the hilltribes with the "help" of the Thai gov't have given up their nomadic lifestyles. The guide identified at least 7 distinct groups that have migrated from southern China into Burma, Thailand and Laos. Trekking norther Thailand is a very popular tourist excursion so obvious the tour through these villages is very organized (you stop every two hours to eat and drink beer -- really roughin' it). To obtain Thai citizenship, the tribes have to be "stationary" for 10 years, so the people in the



Trekking was more about falling on your ass that day.