Lahu Village

My next adventure began in the higher than you can imagine, mountains of northern Thailand. To my surprise, I learned that a good majority of kids from the different Thai Happy Homes often come from the hilltribes all over Thailand. Many of the tribes are notoriously stricken with disease and poverty, which explains the rescue story of a lot of these kids. This is just like the Thoeng Home that I was at previously; pretty much every single one of those kids came from the Hmong Tribe. There are so many different tribes that I haven’t been able to keep track of them all let alone get the names and pronunciation straight.

Welcome to the Lahu Village

One of the Happy Home graduates, Sadudee, from the Chiang Rai location is originally from the Lahu Tribe and was excited to show me her village and home. Two other “farangs,” (Foreigners/Westerners) as we’re called, would be meeting us in Chiang Rai and then we’d take off to begin our trek. I was so very hyped about this once in a lifetime chance to see rural Thailand and stay in an actual village! We took a 3-hour bus ride to the bottom of the mountain and then Sadudee’s brother met us at the bus station to take us the rest of the way up the mountain. The drive up the mountain took around two-hours and extremely bumpy would be an understatement. Now I wouldn’t say I have the strongest stomach when it comes to motion sickness, but now reminiscing I can laugh and equally compare the car ride up the mountain to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland gone very wrong. Boy oh boy this ride literally kept me on the edge of my seat! I have to say it might be an exaggeration to suggest that the hill was even a 25 percent grade. The rode was typically only wide enough for one car and you’re usually bumping right along close to the edge. During rainy season, it is impossible to drive up and down this mountain because either the car will become stuck or would slide right off the edge.

We finally made it to the top and all in one piece! The Lahu village was nestled so comfortably into the side of the mountain. The scene was almost dreamlike and felt as if I had just gone back in time. Everything about the location, sights, and smells was majestic; it felt as if we were standing above the rest of the world.  Life was undoubtedly primitive, but yet so beautifully simple. There were currently around 14 families that lived in this little village all sharing every aspect of their lives together. All families shared in the rice crop and worked to support one another, young taking care of the old and handicapped. We came to find out that Sadudee’s brother was essentially head of the little village and owned the only car, which everyone in the village shared. A truck is necessary to transport rice and other agricultural goods to be sold in the market at the bottom of the mountain.

Sadudee’s house was also one of the only two that was partly made of cement and not just the usual bamboo, wood, and straw materials. From this picture you can see that the bottom is made of cement and the second story is made out of wood. Much more “advanced” than I had originally expected!

This is the kitchen

All the homes separate the kitchen from sleeping area, so each family has built a separate “house” solely for storage, preparation, cooking, and eating. I was shocked to find that the family had two spickets with running water and utilized solar panels. The bathroom was a little outhouse kind of near the kitchen. I was excited that the bathroom was in an enclosed area and that they had a squatter toilet; it’s funny the little things I get very excited about and am extremely grateful for now. Although, that bathroom had some of the biggest spiders I have ever seen in my life—big, thick, and juicy white/grayish spiders! The bathroom wasn’t exactly made for someone my size so I always had to duck. I came to realize that the ceiling is also where all the spiders liked to hang out so I was very happy that I started off ducking because I was too tall. The solar panels were used for a total of two lights, one light in the kitchen and one in the upstairs of the house. One thing that always catches me off guard here in Asia is that despite a family’s living condition, whether it’s a tribe living in the middle of nowhere or in the slums, there’s always a TV to be found! It still cracks me up how TV is such a necessity for people over here. So the solar power of course is also used to fuel up the TV at night. The government installed the solar panels about five years ago, so having any sort of lighting is a fairly recent development.

Cooking/watching Sadudee cook was one of the best experiences. It was like camping, but cooking gourmet style. Everything was cooked using only the little fire, but we had amazing Thai dishes that were all cooked from scratch. There was no refrigerator so it was extremely interesting to see how they just make do and work around needing to refrigerate items. The meat part seemed a little iffy to me, but no one got sick! My favorite meal was the one we prepared beforehand and took to go for our adventurous day out. We took everything in little baggies and hiked it down the mountain for the long day ahead of us. Later in the day we got to eat our little meal off of banana leaves that we picked off a tree—so fun!

The Canadian girls and I got to thresh rice with Sadudee’s family and pick tea tree leaves. It’s that time for harvesting rice everywhere in Thailand and the rice that we got to help thresh is a vital part of the village’s livelihood. The rice they get from the harvest helps not only to feed the village for a year, but the extra is sold at the market. The family was out there from sunrise to sunset and let me emphasize that rice threshing is not easy work. It was truly incredible to see the old working right alongside the young performing this backbreaking work. They had already cut and gathered the rice so now all that was left was to thresh the rice to obtain the individual kernels. This means taking a handful of the rice grain and beating it against a wooden board until all the little kernels have fallen off. These people worked so incredibly hard and it was eye opening to realize that it’s all in an effort to have enough to eat for the year. Experiencing their work ethic firsthand for such an essential need, like food, really struck me with a newfound appreciation for always having plenty to eat and never being worried about going hungry. The rice crop is completely dependent on the weather pattern and if it provides too much rain or too little will dictate how much they have to eat for that year. It really is crazy as I stop and pause to think about living like that; your life source is conditional and you never know what each year will be like. Picking tea tree leaves was a process as well because you only wanted to pick the very bright green leaves. Of course the bright green leaves were often times only at the very top of the tree. I have no idea how the family ever managed to reach them, since I myself found it a challenge to reach for those leaves.

Picking tea tree leaves

Eating our delicious lunch off banana leaves

So proud of the tea tree leaves we collected!

Threshing rice- just another day on the job

My time up in the mountains at the Lahu village was absolutely incredible! I had so much fun and will probably never get a chance to do anything like that ever again. So sorry I haven’t been able to update the blog more often, but time has been short and not usually able to make it into an internet café. I can’t wait to write more and tell you all about my experience in Poipet. It’s Christmas Eve day here and I’m thinking about you all and missing home. Merry Christmas love you all!