Tuesday 24th Feb - Pai road trip day 2 (Long neck hill tribe)

Tuesday 24th Feb - Road trip day 2 (Long neck hill tribe)

Today we woke up to the sound of the annoying announcements (what is it with Thai people dont they ever want a lie in?!). I slept really well until I got cold then was tossing and turning. The bed was huge though (one of the great things about Thailand huge beds come as standard) and also firm mattress which I like. It was a fair drive to the hill tribe village - Karen, long necks near Mae Hong Song west of Pia towards the Burmese border) and we didnt set off until after breakfast at 10.30. Couldnt really be bothered to get up and neither of us had a clock or alarm which didnt make life easy! It's weird here with food - basically if you order together, the food never arrives at the same time and they may even make another meal inbetween! I had pancakes with syrup which were delicious! Max is ovbiouslt bad influence on me I think I am now hooked on pancakes. The little town had a thriving market and I briefly took the opportunity to walk around while we fuelled up, once again the only westerner. I read in teh bar menu that only about 2 tourists come through every month which I find hard to believe in one way but I suppose most tourists would fly to Mae Hong Song or get the bus over the mountains or even bike it in one day so that's maybe why.

Once we had set off, (Max driving to begin with) after a while we passed a sign saying 'mud springs' so we took a 5 k detour so I could check out what I hoped to be a mud bath! Unfortunately it wasn't - so I had a mud face mask instead which was absolutely gorgeous and cost 60 baht. My skin feels so smoooooth!
Driving onto the village, despite a few guessed turns - road signs in Thailand are rather sparce or non-existent! - we arrived about 2pm later than planned. It was well worth the visit though - one lady truly had a very long giraffe like (although I think she would prefer the word swan-like) neck. We first saw only her face and elongated neck gentyl rocking and visible over the top of a wash screen - upon later inspection (slightly cautiously as one couldn't really tell if she was dressed or not) she was scrubbing her brass coils around her neck and calf muscles (which were very tight and looked very painful) - and I noticed with all the women they sort of had dry skin or scabs around this part of their legs. They were so tight I can't imagine any air getting to them. This lady was stunning however and since visiting this village other places I have visited use her as 'the face' of Paduang long necks - she certainly had the longest one there. Another 86 year old lady was very short but more than happy to have her photo taken and expressed an interest in seeing the pictures. We chatted to another kindly 24 year old lady, keen to practice her english who was also happy to have photos taken. There is mixed felings about visiting hill tribes here. One doesnt want to play voyeur but equally it is seen as a source of income for the villagers who apparantly originally came from Myanmar but are not recognised by the Thai government. However I also heard from Max that the 250 baht entrance fee was largely for the government who capitlised upon the potential market of long necks. The people we taked to all obviously wanted us to buy from their stalls, which I felt bad about but we had already paid the relatively expensive fee of a fiver to get in to the village and we were only there an hour. The dress is very colourful and they wear ribbons in their hair also. I was told one neck coil weighed 5 kilos and putting it on was quite uncomfortable, it sat awkwardly on the collar bone and made turning your head difficult. Obviously it doesnt stretch the neck, rather it discourages the collar bones to grow propery, supressing it with the weight of the coils. They claimed to never take these coils off even to sleep but I have heard otherwise. Wandering around, we for a while took over a class of village children who actually spoke quite good english. I taught them a hand clapping game and we were exchanging questions and banter. I also bought a braclet off a women with dangly ear lobes - she let me touch them it was very bizarre!! I noticed bible versus in one of the classrooms and was quite suprised - I later learned that they converted to christianity through the American Baptist Mission. The down side of it is that mch of their traditional songs have been forgotten and lost being replaced by hymns.

We left again at 3, eager to get back before it got dark partly for safety but also the annoying flies and insects plaguing the roads. Yes I was hungry but I draw the line a little black things. We kept going fairly consistently only stopping to switch drivers or get petrol (whole trip there and back cost 200 baht which was about 6/7 hours worth of driving - we must have used a lot of fuel on the copious uphills and also using the breaks a lot on the many bends.
By this point I was getting a bit tired and grumpy and had a bit of a headache and just wanted to get home! The novelty had kinda worn off and it was intense driving safely. We got back about 6.15 - so 3 hours 15 with gas breaks not bad then we grabbed a shower and went out to eat, sorted out the money we owed each other and grabbed some food. I was in a pretty foul mood by this point when Im that tired I dont have patience with anything or anyone. I ate the first fish since my trip here, and the fish itself was fine but the garlic it came with were literally cloves you munched whole and the sauce was really hot too so I really skipped the veg and had only fish and rice! You win some, you lose some!
Stayed at Max's we didnt got out for drinks just chilled in the hut writing blogs etc and him cleaning his eyebrow ring...!

Money spent: Breakfast and accomodation 135 baht, water 6 baht, water 12 baht, bag 139 baht, accomodation 75 baht, food 185 baht, bike 50 baht, hill tribe 250 baht, bracelet 100 baht, mud mask 60 baht. evening meal 180 baht. TOTAL: 1192 baht / 23.84 pounds.

Best thing: Long necks
Worst thing: Hours of driving, sore bum, tired and grumpy by end of day!