Hill tribe village people

 Yesterday we did the tourist thing and booked a day trip to the hill tribe villages as not easily accessible and we wanted someone English speaking. We set off about in a mini bus 8.30 for the 1 1/2 hour trip, the first village we saw local  people going about their daily lives


Their homes

 

This guy was drying out monkey nuts and will then sell them



This girl was sorting through monkey nuts and taking them from their stalks



This old boy was looking on from his balcony, the red lips (and black teeth are from chewing a nut that is addictive)



This lady was burning the dry remains (am loving her beads)

This lady was busy weaving cotton to make one of her many bags



The bags are so beautiful, I would love to bring lots home with me

 

  One of the stilted houses


These ladies are in their traditional costume and were trying to sell their wares

I did buy a colourful water carrier

 

This lady was really funny and insisted on putting one of her hand made hats on me, she also has the black teeth



Onto the long neck hill tribe, these women wear these uncomfortable neck rings all the time as a sign of beauty, legend has it that they are so a tiger cannot bite their neck, I guess their husband cant get too near either



They spend their days making beautiful cotton scarves to sell




They start when young



The scarves they weave by hand

 

This lady had big ears with rings in




And get new recruits, if i don't come back, you know where to find me



Quite amazing








On the way back from the villages we stopped off at the Tiger kingdom
What a handsome beast

After that we went to the butterfly and Orchid farm (cue Mother!)



I am very proud of this photo (as would Mother be)



Impressed with this one too



This one is for you Mum, and my darling Grandma who loved Orchids



This lady was trying to sell me a cream to make my boobs bigger, I told her crisps and chocolate have already done that!



Today I went on  a Thai cookery course and learnt 5 dishes..

3 of my dishes, Spicy Papaya salad, seafood Tom Yum soup and thai green curry. we had to make the curry paste first, a lot of bashing of ingredients with a mortar and pestle

It was a really interesting day, see you again soon...