Having a friend like Jim, who almost lives here and knows scads of people here, is invaluable in creating a richer travel experience. He's also, of course, a friend since we were kids together in Tukwila and the perfect host.
A case in point of his ability to provide for a richer travel experience is our visit to an Akha hilltribe village this past weekend.
Jim, as I may have mentioned here and several of my readers will know, spends about six months of each year recently in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He is fluent in spoken Thai and at the highest level of learning written Thai. A long time ago, he was in the Peace Corps here, and the country seems to have seeped into his soul, as it does to many Westerners. Jim is also very outgoing and meets people easily.
So, he knows an Akha woman, and her two brothers, who works in a restaurant just up the back street from our guest house. Jim being an likable guy, the Akha woman (Fon) being generous and open as Akha seem to be and me being a friend of Jim's, we were invited to Fon's village, between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. We went with Fon's brother, Wee.
By air-conditioned bus, we traveled from Chiang Mai to Mae Suai, a market town where Jim and I were the only Westerners (but merely the first stop where this was true). We were met by two other of Fon's brothers with motorbikes and taken on the back of each across the abundant countryside and up into the hills, along a ridge line, before dropping down into the village of Ban Saen Jalearn (pop. 200). I was immediately struck by the beauty of the site and how the houses just seemed to fit into the heavily forested ravine that reached up to the ridge line. As night fell and a waning moon ascended over the ridge, Jim and I stood at the railing of the solid wooden house on stilts and gaped in awe at the scene. Then we were invited into the house, to sit on a rattan mat around a low wicker table and eat a copious meal of almost entirely local foods and drink (including a rice brandy). Nearly everything placed on the table in front of us originated within a few kilometers of where we sat cross-legged.
The brothers spoke good Thai and a little English, Apii (the father) spoke some Thai and Meegeu (the mother) spoke only Akha. Nonetheless, we not only managed to communicate but to become friends. The warmth and generosity of the family brings tears of appreciation to my eyes even as I write this.
Any superlatives I could use for our stay, the people and the village would be completely inadequate. I will try to restrain myself.
Jim and I slept in a thatched A-frame hut that is intended to accommodate Western visitors. It was much like the hut we had at Lisu Lodge in Ban Nam Rin. (See my previous Southeast Asia blog here on TravelPod.) In fact, Jim and I were soon making the comparison to Ban Nam Rin and concluding that this experience was better in almost every way. Travel experiences just don't get any better, in my book (or Moleskine travel journal).
Yesterday morning, we chilled until a simple but enormous breakfast was served us on the balcony of the house. The rice we consumed at dinner and breakfast was a dry-field variety (unprocessed and hearty) that is grown just the other side of the ridge. So, after exploring the village a bit with Wee (including a spirit gate), we trekked over the ridge to where Kai, one brother, and Apii were harvesting and threshing rice on their assigned plot of land on a hillside with a sweeping, drop-dead view over the next valley. Hard work, but what a workplace.
Eventually, we were back in the village and making arrangements to get back to Chiang Mai, where Jim has class today. Wee took each of us in turn on the back of his motorbike, breezing through the countryside past a large reservoir to Mae Suai. Racing along on the back of the motorbike, with thoughts of the hospitality we'd experienced, warm sun pouring down, I didn't want to be anywhere else at that moment. Just like in Ban Nam Rin.
Nancy sent me this interesting link to a posting about the Akha:
http://www.talesofasia.com/rs-116-akha.htm
Unfortunately, the air-conditioned bus back to Chiang Mai was booked solid. A very local bus (open windows were as good as AC) took us to Mae Khajarn, on the main road to Chiang Mai. No buses were headed to Chiang Mai until evening at the earliest, so a very friendly (too friendly to me?) conductor on the bus arranged a sawngthaew to take a large group of us. Packed in (use your own phrase of analogy here) with something like 30 other people (including several on the roof) in a vehicle designed to carry 12, we spent the next two hours winding through the mountains at breakneck downhill speeds as various parts of our bodies faded out of feeling. Perhaps to the better. Much of the way, a elderly hilltribe woman rested her hand on my knee. Well, whatever floats your boat, lady.
Chiang Mai is seductive to the traveler, and it would be easy...too easy...to spend a lot more time here. But I'm ready for more of what the rest of SE Asia has to offer. I'm making arrangements today to move on. Stay tuned to find out where. At the moment, I'm not entirely sure.
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