Holidaying with Thailand's ethnic people

Commune authorities and special organisations that promote sustainable tourism are in charge of placing foreigners in the homes of Thailand's ethnic peoples. Children will enjoy living with ethnic families and can even visit kindergartens and schools in the host villages.

The village of Mae Klang Luang village is still clothed in darkness as, just before four in the morning, domesticated pigs that spent the night lounging beneath the stilts of the neighbouring house begin to grunt and roosters make their presence felt.

Just after five Kalayanee begins using a wooden rice husker to remove the seed from the chaff to prepare her family's daily ration of rice. Her father opens the door to the bathroom where he splashes cold water on his face to wake up. At six o'clock the sun begins to rise.

Smoke rises slowly from the kitchen stove of the Pongtwo family. Woman of the house Sangworn places dishes containing rice, bell pepper, pork, fish and fried eggs with vegetables on basmati mats. The village of Mae Klang Luang village is in Doi Inthanon National Park, a 90-minute drive from the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

"Mae Klang Luang is among the 20 best places in Thailand that supply accommodation, guest houses, a varied country lifestyle and sustainable tourism to foreign families," says Potjana Suansri from the Community Based Tourism Institute (CBTI) in Chiang Mai. About 20 families in the village of 300 people provide homes to foreign visitors.

(...) The people of Mae Klang Luang are friendly and everyone greets everyone else. Most guests are delighted by the peaceful and safe atmosphere. Locals grow coffee, flowers, breed fish and crabs -- "all projects that were initiated by the Thai royal family."

The view across the village's paddy fields and palm trees to the next mountain is spectacular. No-one is very poor in the village as nature and the Karen's farming way of life mean there is enough to eat. The Pongtwos have three mopeds and a satellite dish that supplies 50 TV channels stands in the backyard with the ducks and chickens. Their living room is simply furnished with a television, lots of mats and three plastic baskets of laundry.


Read more...