Friday, March 29, 2013

Long Neck Women, Chiang Mai

She's beautiful huh?

JS promised a day full of adventure for Monkey. I think he felt guilty that he went to play golf everyday in Chiang Mai for that one week. HoHoHoHoHo :P
So in the morning we had elephant ride, bullcart ride and my first adventure on a raft...and then followed up a visit to the hill tribe of long neck ladies :)))


They are actually pretty petite
or maybe I am just FAT

Long Neck Women also known as Kayan are actually not natives of Thai. They are from Burma, so technically they are Burmese. But due to the endless military regime in Buma/Myanmar, many of the Kayan people were displaced and many fled over to the Thai border. Oh yes Chiang Mai is pretty far up north in Thailand.


Their village has now become a tourist spot
what I admired about this village is....it has got no financial assistance and the tribe is self sufficient through incomes from tourism.

Both I Ching and Prince C were so intrigued bcoz it was a surprise visit
not knowing they will be meeting these long neck beauties, when they first saw the Kayans walking around.....both of their eyes almost popped out and asked whats' that???? why is that??? how come???


the very same beautiful Kayan then lead us to her mother I presume??
they are really colorful people with skills on handicrafts and lots of smiles actually :))))))))))


Through language barrier, we interacted with sign languages hahahahaha and visited their simple homes. The roof were made from dried  palm leaves and they have to change it every 6 months due to wear and tear. See the stacks of firewood lying neatly underneath their home? Yeah they still use wood fire instead of gas.

at the top of the hill is a small lil church
most of Kayan people are roman catholic


They are really good with weaving coz I saw so many young ladies were bz at work.


plenty of shawls on sale
they are really really colorful people :)))))))


Lil gals started wearing these brass coils around the age of 5 years old
don't u think they are so cute and adorable???

JS u fancy getting a new wife? kekekekekekekke
I am sure she can yarn golf shirts and pants for u :P
anyway both of u looked so alike that's why I must must must snap this pic...hahahaha


Monkey took a stroll at their paddy field
it has dried up after the harvest

those are not cows but oxens. They can really work hard bcoz its such a tough animal.


Finally Monkey tried it on.....OUCHHHH. U like my LONG neck??? more like long face coz it was really heavy and painful and I was only wearing the "frontal" section of the coil.

so why do they suffered through all these? there were many theories but I guess it's for beauty?? :)))) yea humans are very vain.

technically their necks are not elongated, but the heavy brass coil pushed their collar bones down and further compressed their ribs. OUCHHHHHHHH.
this gave the illusion of a longer neck.

After the visit to the tribal village, our driver drove us down the hill to an orchid farm :))))))
Orchid farming is a huge industry here in Thailand.


They are as big as my cheek!!!!
of coz no plucking and I had a difficult time controlling my itchy hands
wuahahahahah

Thank you Mr. JS for this wonderful excursion
and the following day, I flew to Bangkok solo to meet up with my friends so that JS can continue to play golf till his arms fall off :P
hehehehehehehe


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting!
The village look so peaceful too.

CHER-RY said...

Yup Melissa...very quiet and quaint lil village.

Chasing Food Dreams said...

lots of nice pics... of pretty ladies, beautiful orchids and serene village.... love the last photo as the orchids matches yr specs! ;)

CHER-RY said...

hahaha yea....just so ngaam it matches :P

La mia ana~rchia said...

-"So why do they suffered through all these?"-
The answer is: they make easy money from the tourist who pay them for pictures of their tortured body.
That little girls don't deserve that weapon in their necks (if they take the coils off of their neck it will fall and they will stop breathing)
They should learn to love their bodies, not preserving such a horrible "tradition".
(sorry for the mistakes, English isn't my native lenguage)
Anyway... I hope that Human Zoo disappear someday.