Mae Hong Son, Land of "Forest Fire Mists"

Ringing in the new year in Mae Hong Son

Greetings all!

Coming back to you after another typically long delay. Life's been a whirlwind for the past few months! I'm back in Sangkhlaburi for this month, after quite a bit of traveling in February. Hope this post finds you well!

Since last writing, we've welcomed two new staff to my partner office here in town. They are lovely, lovely girls about my age who are being trained to take on the finance duties of the office. They have come direct from Mon State, Burma, and this is their first opportunity to live abroad, so to speak.It's also been their first opportunity to learn how to type, to eat M&M's, and to learn about Santa Claus (thanks to our English textbook).

Me: "Um, so here's Christmas, and, uh, Christmas is celebrated because Jesus was born. But a lot of Christmas celebrations include someone named Santa Claus. Have you heard of him?"

Staff: [Silence]

Me: "Ah, okay, so, um, Santa Claus is this happy fat man in a red-and-white suit. He lives at the North Pole, where he makes presents for good children--and he gives coal to bad children. And, um, he goes around the world on one night behind a bunch of flying deer, and puts the presents under trees, which we keep inside the house..."

It is always amazing how folk stories--and religions--sound when removed from their cultural context. Hearing about a man in a fur suit who lands on snowy roofs in a sleigh is one thing when you're a child in the West, and another thing entirely when you are an adult who has lived in a bamboo and palm thatch house in the jungle for most of your life. Hearing stories about Buddha's protectors, garudas (dragony-bird-man-things) and nagas (horned-snake-dragony-things), or about gods formed of soap scum from the bathtub is unusual when you're raised in a Christian tradition and not a Buddhist/Hindu one. All's fair across cultural relativism.

So, when I last wrote, I actually left us around Christmastime. While people from rural Burma may not be familiar with the trappings of the season, Bangkok was ablaze with Christmas lights, Christmas trees, Christmas cookies, and Christmas carols. The "Big Mango," being one of the most consumerist places I've been in my life, was all over the Christmas commercialization with gusto. Ultimately, Christmas has become an export not all that different from Starbucks or McDonald's. As this was my first Christmas away from home and family, and first Christmas in a predominately non-Christian country, I wasn't sure what to expect. A few shots of the season below:

Santas scaling MBK, a sprawling shopping maze in downtown Bangkok.

The tree at Emporium, another shopping mall in the city. Rabbits are everywhere now, celebrating the Chinese New Year (of the Rabbit).

A Christmas display near Ratchaprasong Intersection

Yummy!!

The 'it' Christmas gift in Thailand and Laos was a basket full of a random assortment of groceries. The absolute constants in each basket were instant coffee and whiskey. The other baskets are shot-sized 'nutrition drinks,' also popular throughout the region...though I myself doubt the nutritional value of these things and trust only the high-sugar content.

The original vacation plan wasn't always to be around Bangkok--or Thailand--at Christmas. To make a long and unnecessarily stressful story short, Nezar and I made plans to Vietnam and Malaysia that were canceled or declined before we decided on the route we took. Just a month before, Nezar had moved to Mae Hong Son for work. We ultimately decided that it would be best to stick around the country, spend Christmas in Chiang Mai, and New Year's in Mae Hong Son. I even got to help him move into his new home just in time for the new year. It was a fantastic trip, so despite initial challenges, all's well that ends well!

After my little visa jaunt to Laos, we spent the 23rd in Bangkok, and flew on Christmas Eve to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second biggest city, though a distant second. It's a backpacker favorite, with wats aplenty, ancient walls, a moat, fabulous food, and nearby jungle and "hill tribe" villages for exploring. We spent most of our brief time there on the motorbike, weaving in and around the old city, visiting the wats, browsing the shops, and, sigh, eating Mexican food! We spent Christmas Eve in the congested night market, making the rounds with a group of children caroling. We found a bamboo saxophone and rope dragons, along with the more traditional Thai market fare (fisherman's pants, string lights, Chang beer t-shirts).  With a cup of coffee or cocoa in hand, it didn't feel all that different from a Christmas market anywhere else--save the critical difference of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Inexplicably and frustratingly, I forgot to bring my camera on our Chiang Mai outings, so I don't have any photos from that leg of the journey. Guess it means that I'll just have to go back again...

Christmas day flew by, but I was able to call home on what was their Christmas Eve, and talk to the whole family gathered up at Grandma's. I would have amazing photos to share of my bungee jump at the adventure park just outside the city...but I totally chickened out. I was much braver at lounging on the side of the hotel pool, the other central activity of Christmas day. The next day was our flight to Mae Hong Son on this adorable little confection of an aircraft:

This is the plane that does the runs between Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son twice a day--"Nok" is bird in Thai, to explain the beak on the nose.

Mae Hong Son is another Burma border town. It's famous as the city of three mists: cold season morning mist, rainy season mist, and, um, "forest fire mist" as one tourist brochure romantically referred to smoke. While near Sangkhlaburi most of the people are ethnic Mon, Karen, and Burman, near Mae Hong Son there is a huge number of ethnic groups including Karenni, Karen, Shan, Lahu, TaiYai, and others. A particular cultural practice of some Karenni people are world famous brass neck coils used to elongate their necks. These Karenni are alternatively known as "longnecks" or "Padaung." During a visit to a Karenni village, I got to try my hand--or my neck, rather--at being a Karenni woman. I'm not sure how I feel about the results:

In true-tourist fashion, they have cutouts of the neck coils and the tunic ready to whip on for the photo-op.

To get out to this village, which is actually a sector of one of the refugee camps where Nezar works, you take a long windy road, passing rice paddies and little homes, crossing the River Pai, and generally enjoying the scenery. On the way out, Nezar drove as usual. On the way back, however, he insisted that I drive. Uh, I learned how to drive a motorbike...sort of. If you can count puttering up and down the same street back and forth at 20 mph as driving. So I insisted on a few practice runs up and down the road before I let him hop on as a passenger. Thankfully, he'd rented an automatic, which drives a bit smoother (and more easily) than a manual, so soon we were off!

My hero shot--I suppose there was something heroic about getting us all the way back to Mae Hong Son on my first "real" drive. 

Whoohoo! I'm driving!!

I'm impressed this one came out so well.

Most of our explorations in Mae Hong Son were conducted by motorbike. My favorite excursion was the trip to Baan Rak Thai, alternatively known as "Tea Village," "Chinese Village," "Mae Aw" or probably a hundred other names I haven't heard yet. Some of the names are self-explanatory. The village was founded by Chinese Kuomintang, or K.M.T. rebels who escaped when the Communists took over the country. It has kept its Chinese heritage alive--at least in a tourist sense--and it kept its economy alive for many years by producing opium. Opium was eventually tramped out by government intervention and the introduction of tea plantations instead, thus prompting the other nickname. Some photos below:

A bamboo-crossed creek on the drive out

"Rice Krispy" fields

We got this warning on a brief stopover to a waterfall on the way.

Waterfall!

Story of the road.

We finally arrived to the village!

Thus commenced the tea tasting, and the tea tasting, and the tea tasting...and the tea tasting.

The multiple tea tastings were made fun by drinking out of tiny ceramic shot glasses. I think I hunted every single shop in town for the best souvenir tea set...Nezar was remarkably patient.

 

A mini-museum to the KMT and opium. 

Dog refereeing the school soccer tournament.

The whole town is nestled around this blue, blue reservoir. Charming!

Once we wrapped up in Baan Rak Thai, we hit the road again, and headed for Pang Ung. Pang Ung is a "Royal Project," a series of government-funded initiatives to give Hill Tribe people of Northern Thailand an alternative to opium. It's also nestled around a lake, with prime camping sites and a quaint little tourist village on the road in. Can't wait to go back and give camping and canoeing a shot!

A little cabin for rent at Pang Ung

The fallen needles must make for a cushier place to pitch your tent.

Tranquility

A Northern Thailand special treat: grilled sticky rice kabobs!

A postcard shop in Pang Ung. They will sell you the stamp and send off the postcard for you, each shop had its own little mini-mailbox, most made out of bamboo.

A coffee shop between Baan Rak Thai and Pang Ung--sometimes Thai "cute" is saccharine, and sometimes they hit the right note--like here.

By the time we rode back it was getting dark. Once nightfall hits and you're speeding along on a motorbike, the chill factor increases considerably. The sore butt factor also increases exponentially after spending most of the day dipping and weaving around on the mountains. We got back to Mae Hong Son and got Italian carry-out (which is definitely not an option here in Sangkhlaburi). We pulled the mirror down from the bathroom wall and turned it into an impromptu table for our feast while catching up on the news. It was a rockstar day.

We had a few other trips out of the city, here are some of my favorite pictures:

Mountains south of the city

Rustic roadside coffee stand

A slightly posher coffee shop next to one of the wats near town.

And this...is the most adorable thing in all of Mae Hong Son (sorry Nezar):

This is Daw Deik ("Little Boy"), the office puppy at Nezar's office. He was so small when I first saw him hiding under the truck that I thought he was a dirty washcloth. The office guard takes care of him, but he offered him to me--God, that was a hard offer to turn down.

YUM!

Milk goatee

Mae Hong Son, like any self-respecting Thai town, has several stunning wats, including a famous one in the center on the "lake," which is really a glorified pond. They also have another on the mountaintop overlooking town. I happen to like wats lots! So here's some pictures: 

The main wat in town, Wat Jong Klang.

Wat cat doing his afternoon shift to collect donations.

 

Wat dog doing his evening shift to collect donations--think someone might be working a little harder here.

Neon, flashing Buddha halo

The view of the city and, ahem, lake from the mountain wat pathway.

A Monk marionette at the upper wat market--this is a Burmese influence, Burma is famous for the quality of its marionettes and puppet shows.

The mountain wat in the late afternoon

Just as no Thai town is complete without its wats, a festival or special occasion is not properly marked without lanterns. This is one of my favorite things in Thailand, lighting them and watching them float up until they are hard to distinguish from the stars. As luck might have it, there were lanterns every single night in Mae Hong Son, as a) it was tourist season and lots of us falang like the lanterns, and b) it was a way to fundraise for the wats (new roof construction, etc.). We tried to do lanterns most nights while I visited, but we made a special effort of course for the new year.

Getting our lantern ready for lift-off!

Ignition!

3, 2, 1.....!

Blast off!

Praying for a peaceful new year

I love lanterns!

 If it's not obvious by the total overload of pictures, Mae Hong Son is a lovely place. A week there came to a close all too quickly, but we had one last adventure with some of Nezar's friends. We rented a boat in the River Pai to visit one more Karenni village outside of the city. It was perfect weather, a beautiful ride, a really nice way to close out the trip.

Gorgeous scenery, but a pretty hot sun--we obviously rented hats to protect ourselves...

Nezar in cowboy-impersonation

Me utterly failing at rice farmer-impersonation

Arriving to the village

The schoolhouse, where about 4 of 7 subjects are languages: Karenni, Burmese, Thai, and English. What's amazing is that they will probably need all of those languages to survive...life on the border.

Peek-a-boo! A lot of villagers weave scarves and shirts, as forms of income are limited.

What I love about this picture is that while we tourists come to see the Karenni culture (and the famous brass coils), one of the girls here is watching the tourists with fascination. It reminds me of that old ad for the St. Louis Zoo, "Who's Watching Who?" Of course there are a multitude of ways to look at this situation, thankfully the "commodification" of the Karenni seems to have abated from its blatant stage to a more equitable one. It's a complicated situation, but, then, what isn't complicated on this border?

Ah!, this post has already taken me the better part of a few days to write. I would love to say more, include even more pictures, or just have more time to edit content. I'd also love to come up with deep insights into work and the culture here and my personal life, yet, somehow work and my personal life feel hectic enough to prevent me from too much distraction and daydreaming. They leave me with just enough time to document events (months late!). Suffice to say for now I had a lovely vacation in the north over the holidays. It's one of my favorite places I've visited ever. But, I really must make a break with it somewhere...and I haven't even gotten to all of the other adventures since! Look for a sunken temple, Chinese New Year, breakfast in Cambodia, and more in the next post! Take care, or, in Mon, a ko ko!