Into the hills...Mae Salong

Our last few days in Thailand were spent further north, in the hills near the Burmese border. We took a bus to the foot of the mountain, and a truck the rest of the way and were pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the area...pictures of Asia are often of lush green hills with a mist through them, some small villages scattered throughout...that is exactly where we were!

Looking down on Mae Salong from the mountain top Wat

Mae Salong is a Thai-Chinese village. Chinese refugees settled the village, though Thai are starting to move in. The Chinese influence is strong though and the food, language, and Wats were different to what we'd seen. We also drank ALOT of tea!

Local hilltribe farms

The area has many Hilltribe villages as well. These are people that live remotely in Thailand, with their own culture, language, religion. In more recent years, Hilltribe people have lost some of their identity as they become more integrated with the rest of Thailand. One of the King's projects has been to teach the hilltribe people how to grow a variety of fruits and vegetables (intead of opium!) to be sold in markets and therefore giving them a larger income. They come into the villages daily to sell their goods to the locals, and tourists like us :-) We went for a 5 hour walk through the mountainside, passing several of these little villages and enjoyed a brief glance into the way they live.

Hilltribe village that we saw along our walk

We got up early one morning to be at the local market for 6 am to catch the action. Chinese donuts and hot soy milk for breakfast is high on the "YUMMY" list! We had some time to relax, as it was a quiet place to be and after a couple afternoons of walking, there wasn't much else to see--ok with us as it was the end of Shan's trip and nice to just hang out together. We took an overnight bus...not as lovely as the first bus ride we took...back to Bangkok for our last day there.