Thread: Hillbilly's xmas vacation in Northern Thailand...

Our first sight was more northern potatos for sale.


Various shawls being made by hand.


The owner of one such weaving shop.

Various Kayan ladies.

The local townhall.


The community bathrooms.

Here you can see some ladies have the neck coils while some do not. Still no answers as to why.


Ladies at work.


Cooking a bite to eat.

A young girl hoping for some customers.


A discussion of some sort.

Notice the solar panel on top of the roof. I can't even afford one.


These leg coils eventually tend to mishape the legs.

A look at the school.


What they learn.

Hard to tell, but these men are building an extension to that house.


A view of the village from up above.

An older man cutting the wood in order to make a guitar. I bought one for only B200, but don't know how to play it.


A villager crossing their main bridge.

A family doing the weekly washing.


After leaving the village I was determined to go to Burma the backway. My friends and family thought it was crazy, but I drove on. The road was not a good one.

Eventually, the road did play out and we had to go back a little bit to cross this river bridge. At this point the locals were saying we were about 6 kilometers from Burma.


Still in Thailand but on the other side of the river and not a person in site. You can see our van in the background. I had to push on!

Eventually we began to see civilization.


Uh, oh, we were in somone's backyard.


Finally, we find the owners of the land we were cutting through.

They said head down this path to get to Burma. Maybe 4 kilometers away!

Then only 2 kilometers from the border this guy stopped us! He said that 'uneducated soldiers' might kidnap one of us and he didn't want to involved in an international incident.


We were in the 'Nampeungdin' area. Here is the police outpost.


This area has a big problem with fake cigarettes. The sign basically says if the Thais buy Krong Thip 90 smokes and resell them, then they can be fined up to B5332 and face up to 10 years in the monkey house.

However, while I was there I needed to use the restroom.


Solar power seems to be popular in this area.

On the way to Mae Hong Son we saw several elephants.

We then decided to take a tour of the big town of Mae Hong Son!


A look at the temple inside the town.


A lot of vendors were selling their wares.

This sign might help you to find the temple and the market.


One of the many young ladies starting to setup a stall of some sort.


This lady happen to be coming buy the 'soi' with a pickup filled with goods. She wanted what was going on when a 'falang' stuck his head in the window!

However, some of the Thai vendors were doing what many of them do. Eating...


Many of the local people dressed in a very colorful way. This is not for any festival but just how they do things.

Everyone was going somewhere.


I don't think this was a kind warm grandmother look!

There always seems to be a Harley Davidson stall.


I thought the Northern sausage was a bit greasy for my tastes.

The next day we left Fern Resort and headed out.


I decided against an early morning swim!