Huai Hom Village

This is a lovely clean little village in the North West of Thailand. The lovely woman with the leaves in her hand is the head lady and the woman sitting on the platform is her mother. Here a lot of the coffee for Starbucks is produced and excellent coffee it is and 100% Arabic.
Many ladies in these hilltribe villages smoke pipes and they work really hard.

There's bettle nuts drying and the white beans are actually coffee.

They also work hard here at weaving and sell their scarves and produce. The name of the village comes from the Hom leaf that the lady is holding in her hand, they use that to dye the natural wool.
Nearby is a village renowned for making silver. This young man is in his workshop where he is sizing rings we bought from him.

There are nice homestays here organised by the capable lady with the leaves in hand. Her name is Malee Wan and even the King of Denmark visited here and was impressed with their products so he set up a contract to buy from them and export to Denmark.

If any of you want to visit it is not far from Mae Sariang where guesthouses include the lovely River Bank Guesthouse, price around 800 baht/room, new and very clean or
Northwest Guesthouse. price around 300-400 baht/room which is not as up market but has a lovely owner who speaks English and serves excellent food.
We intend to go and have a homestay there next time among these friendly giggling people.

Images from Mae Sam Laep

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=266717&id=732093994&l=78d0e24853

See other pictures via this link

Wandering around Mae Sariang

Spent the last week up in the north west frontier area of Thailand based in the town of Mae Sariang, between towering mountains and rivers.

Near here are many many displaced people fleeing from Burma and there are volunteers risking their lives to help them reach these shores.

The children in these pictures are from an orphanage a few hours from there. They are not all orphans but many have left their parents and families behind. In this particular safe haven there are also the children of a few widows who can not feed and raise their children so they come here and work at weaving scarves on foot looms. These are sold and the widow gets some of the money and the rest goes to keep her child/children in the orphanage. In the picture they are lining up to get milk and cookies after school but we mainly concentrate on bringing huge bags of rice for their necessary main meals. Luckily they to be nourished and happy although the whole place came down with malaria last year. Certainly they are tough and well able to stand their ground while being so polite and kind to strangers and the little ones in fact there is a hut for babies with each one cared for by an older child.

We made our way along the Salawin River, so close that we could have "thrown a biscuit on the Burmese shore" as Wolfe Tone once remarked about Bantry. We could not use a boat as planned as the area is dangerous now as the border often is. The roads are so bad it took 90 minutes to drive about 18 miles. From here the children are reminded daily of the villages that were home just across the river.

Things I will miss about Thailand

Riding my bike, a cool breeze, sunny days, the scent of flowers, birdsong and white teeth flashing smiles from strangers.

Whole families plus dog riding by on one motor bike with granny on the back calmly eating or knitting.

The bows and wai's before the spirit house each morning and presentation of fresh tea, whiskey, bananas, other fruit, flowers and water even though within minutes the birds will have had a little feast there but the main thing is the spirits will first have had their fill.

Greetings and smiles when entering any public "taxi" and the ease of just waving a hand in any place on any street to catch one. Usual price in the city is 50 cents a ride.

The tiny stands on almost every street that mend clothes, sew new clothes, repair shoes or watches for reasonable prices.

The beautiful presentation of food and the colourful interiors of good restaurants and hotels with cool water streaming down walls, orchids, cushions and serenity

The availability of cooked food priced for every pocket. People just set up a stand or a make shift grill outside their house and offer food for extra income not to mention the market stalls on most streets with grilled fresh fish, mysterious foods wrapped in banana leaves, every kind of exotic fruit soups and curries, Indian Roti's, grilled sausages and kebabs and satays on sticks.

Of course there are things not to like especially the suicidal drivers making it an act of courage to cross a road where there is no traffic light. Even when there it is red it is often not recognised so the locals scurry across to be sure. The cars and motor bikes switch lanes, drive up one way streets with a merry disregard for rules.

Thais don't like to say no so an affirmative does not mean they will actually do something. They are not paid well so think nothing of sleeping at work which rather defeats the market lady who rises VERY early and sets up her stall only to fall asleep across it within an hour.