Thread: Mathos' trip from Chiang Mai to Laos

"What about the pig flu mister"

Jock was grinning from ear to ear.

These poor souls if you want to look at them like that, have more chance of being hacked to death with a Burmese machete than getting a course of Tamiflu mister."



Walking in it, talking in it, sleeping in it, eating in it, and washing in the same ******* water the ******* pigs use and not a tablet in sight.

Unless it's a ******* copy at 100 baht for 10.





Pigs seem to be getting bigger as well.





You know mister.

There's big.



And there's ******* bigger.

"Hey mister. Them MP's fiddling the cash.

Stick 'em out with me for a few weeks.

I'd like to watch 'em cry.!"

"Bit o' rice, bit o'rat, a lot of pig and a bit o'veg straight off the counter."



"Bit o'fish and chicken too."



"Not from Tesco though."

Originally Posted by peston

the photographs really looks cool and very nice. that very nice to share with all of us, By this pics, it seems that the life over there is too difficult, is'nt it

Depends how you are interpreting difficult and to whom
you are referring to peston.

If you mean to the Mountain Folk, (Hill Tribes) then you
need to realise and take stock of the environment they
are raised in.

The fact they have no running water, electricity, ambulance service,
qualified Doctors or similar, simply relates to their particular
mode of evolution.


You certainly can’t miss, what you haven’t had.

Their lives are quite simple, and they have what they need
to survive. The years alone have taught them how, and where,
to set up their villages.

If ever you are able to explore the mountain regions of
The Shan States, The Yunnan Territories, Mountainous
regions of Laos, Burma, Thailand, The Eastern Mountain regions
of Cambodia for example you will see folk living an almost stone-age
existence.


There are those (and there are many of them) who are
oppressed, their homes burned to the ground, women raped,
children murdered, and men taken away as slaves.



The above photograph, (not taken by myself) shows a
home reportedly burned to the ground by Troops in Burma.


Yes, life can be very difficult.

There are millions of them living in the locations mentioned.

They mainly adopt a slash and burn policy.


Animism is a general term used to describe the simple religious
beliefs that these people all appear to adopt throughout the world.

Such widespread habits and customs in so many different
places, lead me to believe that sea travel was conquered
far earlier than most consider.

The Bering Straits could also be the key to most passages
of migration.
　
Now, if we have a spell amongst them, using their facilities which
are basically zilch, then yes we have a hard time being there.


Their stamina and strength has always amazed me.

As an example, the Sherpa’s of Tibet can carry crates
of equipment for use by occidental mountaineers making
their way to the base camps especially in The Himalayas.


Mount Everest, or as they refer to the same as Jomolangma,
because a goddess, one of the five sisters of long life,
resides there, according to their beliefs.


It helps to know that these folk hold all the records for Everest.
　
Including most times climbed, fastest climbed, fastest descent,
most time spent on top.


The records apply to men and women along with the youngest ever to
climb to the summit. No oxygen bottles in their kit.

They get little if any praise or titles either.

I can remember many years ago, climbing a mountain area in
the northwest of Thailand, I was knackered, virtually crawling up.

An elderly lady, legs like match-sticks, carrying a massive heap of
firewood on her head, steadying the load with one hand, passed me by
like she was having a Sunday afternoon stroll.







It's their way of life.

The cold climate applicable to our part of the planet,
enforced a totally different method of evolution on to us.

I'm sure Plato was responsible for making the statement;-

'That Necessity was the mother of invention.'

So when wifey was telling us to get out there
in the middle of winter, find a big woolly Mammoth
to kill because we needed another blanket, food and a
couple of ivory tusks to decorate the cave with.

We soon got round to devising, inventing, creating
and using all sorts of gadgets, to get where we are now.

The lads on the Pacific Islands and lying in a hammock
by the gulf of Siam etc. simply sent the kids out to pick
him some fruit, make sure them bananas are yellow too,
get fresh water and tell wifey to rustle up some of that
lobster, which she could boil to perfection along with the
chicken eggs in one of those hot springs.

So in reality, they still keep to the basics of life in those regions.



The Boat People as well.

Nothing is really forcing them to change their mode of existence.


Hope that lot wasn't boring.