Thailand Tour: Karen Hill Tribe Visit & The Night Train

Day 7 & 8: May 3 & 4, 2008
Karen hill tribe visit, around Chiang Mai
I really didn't want to go on the Karen hill tribe community tour...I mean, I thought it was going to be kind of like pioneer village but the men and women actually lived here. I had images of it being like a zoo, with tourists walking around, taking pictures of the hilltribe members...and unfortunately, that's exactly what it was like. The karen communities are mainly located in the mountainous areas of the western provinces and over the last 200 years they have moved away from Burma and into Thailand. 
The two Dutch girls on the tour persuaded me that it would be okay by showing me a section on the communities in their Lonely Planet guide. Apparently, many of the hilltribes are refugees or migrant workers from Burma and this 'centre' allows them to live and work in Thailand. They are paid for living here and they get all of the money they make from selling their crafts. As everyone was going, and I was starting to trust the Intrepid tour company regarding their decisions, I decided to go.
It was a seriously weird and depressing experience and as soon as we arrived, I started to regret it. The men and women were grouped according to their tribe and the women were sitting either sewing, weaving or chatting with each other. We wandered in and our slightly annoying guide-for-the-day started encouraging us to go into the houses. Now, they live in these houses, so I was not feeling comfortable just wandering in.
Most of the women had handmade crafts to sell and I decided that I would buy some of my souvenirs here so that I could at least make sure the women got some money on this rainy and depressing day. I found a stall slightly off the main walkway where I thought not as many tourists would stop and ended up buying an embroidered quilt/hanging. There was no way I was going to haggle with her....I just paid what she asked, which wasn't much considering the amount of embroidery and the size of the piece.
I also bought a small doll from this woman. Her tribe wears bright, bright colours and on this dreary rainy day, I felt drawn to the colours. My little doll is dressed in the same traditional clothing as she is.
The main 'attraction' here is the subgroup of the Karen hill tribes who wear brass rings on their necks. These women start wearing these neck rings when they are around 5 years old. The rings press down on their collarbones, giving the illusion of a longer neck.
By this time it was pouring rain and this was where we saw the kids of the village for the first time. People started to take pictures and get right up in the womens' faces. I decided to stand back and only take a few pictures. After a while I just felt depressed that these women and kids were sitting there and being pressured to pose for tourist photos. I later found out that the kids have to go to school later at night because they need to be available for photos during the day. That was it. I wanted to leave.

All in all, not a great experience. An eye-opening experience, but not a happy one.  

We returned to Chiang Mai and a group of us had lunch at a restaurant near our hotel. There were a lot of locals eating there so we thought it must be good. It was. My noodles with pork and green vegetables were so fantastic I ate them without thinking to take a picture. After lunch a group of us decided to get a Thai massage. We found a beautiful little spa and the manager quickly called for backup to deal with the 6 of us. For the next hour and a half I was in heaven as my masseuse gave me the most wonderful foot, leg, shoulder, head and hand massage (I decided against the traditional Thai massage as I am extremely ticklish). Amazingly, it cost all of $10.
Now that we were relaxed, we headed back to the hotel, packed up our stuff and got into songthaews. We arrived at the train station and found our compartments. I bought lychees and took some pictures. Before we knew it, it was 5PM and the train pulled out of the station, taking us back to Bangkok.


By day our compartment had seats and a table, but at around 9PM the train employees came around and transformed the table into a bed and pulled down the upper bunk compartment. The whole car turned into bunks with curtains that you could pull shut.

(Laura and Karen. Karen was on a trip around the world. She was hilarious.)

(Alissa, Haylee and Arjan)

(Evan and Alisa - the cute married Australians on the tour)

(Yeah, we got a bit bored and decided to take macro pictures of mangosteens and lychees)

(Sorry, the train was rocking back and forth so all of my pictures turned out a bit blurry)

Sleeping on the train was actually really fun. We talked until the train conductor yelled at us and then went to sleep. I slept really well. I guess the rocking of the train put me right to sleep and I didn't wake up until about an hour before we pulled into the station in Bangkok. After arriving back at the hotel, we said goodbye to some people and the rest of us went out for breakfast. It was sad to say goodbye to this group of really nice people. I really enjoyed my first tour experience (I'm not counting the Japanese tour of Beijing as a real tour...)
We said our goodbyes and then headed off on our own adventure of the famous Weekend Market in Bangkok, where we met up with Kayo (my adorable co-worker) and her boyfriend. Shopping was done, omiyage was bought and it was so ridiculously hot that we decided an early night was required (I didn't end up taking many pictures at the market...too many people). The next day we got up REALLY early to go on our bike tour...but that's a story for the last Thailand post...