East Meets West

*Note: These entries are being posted at semi-regular intervals, days after the events in question have occurred. Be careful of getting chronologically confused.

Hey everyone, we’ve finally made it. We flew into Thailand 3 days ago, touching down in Bangkok airport at about 6 PM.

We all jammed ourselves into a souped up, cherry red taxi driven by a Mr. Ashung. He invited us to participate in a Tokyo Drift-esque race, but decided that meeting Dr. Mar Naw took priority, so we had to turn down the offer. We were dropped at the bus station, were completely lost, got persuaded into buying first class bus tickets, and on we went to Chang Rai.

The bus was probably the best possible way to introduce Thailand to us. It was luxurious. After weeks of rickshaws and A/C lacking beat-up taxis, we felt like kings. They gave us blankets and pillows, and little puff pastries filled with sweet bean paste, or at least, I think that’s what it was. As far as I can tell, Thailand is a much less English-friendly country than Nepal or India, and the bag had no English translation on it. Oh well. It was delicious. We ate our pasties, drank some interesting tea in a Juicy Juice box, and passed out.

When we woke up we were in the new Chang Rai bus station.

Not too long after we got there, a metallic sound filled the bus station, followed by a bell ringing 8 times. At which point the national anthem started playing, and they raised the flag.

Watching everyone stand up at once, recite the anthem and then continue on with their day reminded me of being back in high school. These days, I haven’t pledged allegiance to the flag in a long while, here they do it every day, according to Tim and Greg.

We were all wondering what Dr. Mar Naw would turn out to be like. We had spoken to him more than once by email, but, honestly, that doesn’t tell you what a guy is like. It took him about an hour to show up.

He was a professional, affable but serious guy, and look at his sweet ride:

I thought we were about to drive to Jurassic Park. Which, honestly, turned out not to be so far from the truth. More on that later. First we headed back to base camp, and settled in. There were 2 other students here already, Greg B. and Josh. Greg was an incoming medical student in Texas, Josh has just finished his first year as an English major in Michigan.

Dr. Mar Naw gave us an approximately 2 hour speech that covered a variety of subjects, from his personal biography, to the plight of the hill tribes, to religion and disease. It’s going to take some time to edit that one. We then head into town to buy rations, mosquito nets, and various other supplies. By the way, there’s some weird, spiny brown fruit called Sara here, which I am sure I’m spelling wrong and probably misunderstood, that are delicious.

We then head up into the hills. Dr. Mar Naw took his truck packed with supplies, we had to hoof it.

Nice scenery was a plus.

 

It took about 2 hours to reach the village. The people living there belonged to the Lisu tribe. It was a small village built onto a, yes, you guessed it, hill.

It consisted of a number of bamboo huts of various sizes, covered in roofs made of dry grass, held in place by a lattice-work of bamboo. We were greeted by Jum Tow, his wife, Limway, and their children. Please forgive the spelling, it’s probably going to be wrong, but phonetically accurate. They would be our hosts while we were there.

We met up with Dr. MN there, and were shown to our cabin. It was a larger hut, with a latched door. On the right was an elevated platform where they had assembled 3 thin mattresses, blankets, and pillows. The front of the room had a platform with one bed, and to the left were some long wooden shelves filled with lanterns and other objects. There was also a burnt out camp fire to on the floor with a metal stand for a pot or other kitchenware. We settled in, put out our mosquito nets, and were invited to dinner.

It was delicious, and extremely authentic. We were all excited to know that we would be eating like that every night, and even more so when we learned that every tribe we’d be meeting had a different style of cuisine.

We spent some time talking afterwards about tribal culture. Dr. MN told us that in the tribes, responsibilities are equally handled by men and women, that if a chore needs to be done, whoever is available will do it, and that there are few gender-specific roles. I am a bit dubious about that comment though, and am not sure I understand it in context, because all the construction work we’ve taken part in since, from collecting bamboo to building huts had involved Jum Tow, while all the cooking appeared to have been taken care of by Limway and her daughter Nuna. In addition, each village is run by a “Head Man” and each tribe, the collection of villages, is led by a “Chief Man.” In addition, Jum Tow was the assistant “Head Man” in his village. There is also a male Witch Doctor, Dr. MN’s term, that takes care of the spiritual health of the village, like chasing away evil spirits and keeping benevolent spirits happy. I haven’t had the opportunity to dig up more info about the tribal government, but, as of now, I don’t know what role women take in it.

Dating in the villages was also an interesting subject. Dr. MN explains that many people begin the process of marriage around the age of 12. All of us found this information to be shocking. Upon further investigation, he explained that in many of the families, there are a large number of children, around five or six. The families want to send their children to school, but they don’t have the money, so often they ask the eldest child to quit school and start working. They typically acquiesce, and begin to work the fields so they can pay for the younger children to go to school. Dr. MN went on to say, that without school, and working in the adult world, the children start thinking about what they’re going to do with their lives. So, they figure they should start families. The boys then form large bands, and ride from town to town on motorcycles, looking to meet girls. When a boy meets a girl, he basically moves in with her family, and assists in working the fields. If things go well, the two families meet, and discuss a dowry. A typical one would be 2 pigs. Pigs are very expensive, so the boy and his family need to work the fields for about half a year or so to afford one. The dowry gets paid, and the children, now, by many standards, adults, are married. By this time, they may be 13 or 14. In regards to extramarital relations, Dr. MN says they’re mostly non-existant. Tribal justice is mostly shame based, and if anything like that were to happen, the people involved would be ostracized.

We also talked to Dr. MN about the Lisu Witch Doctor. The Hill People, or at least the Lisu and Hmong, believe disease is caused by possession by evil spirits. However, and Dr. MN thought this was pretty funny, the Witch Doctor and his family come to visit him whenever they are ill. Reflecting on this, it seems like the people, at least in the LIsu village we had visited over the past few days, see the value of Dr. MN’s scientific medicine because it works, even if they don’t see the immediate connection between vitamins, antibiotics, and spirits.

After learning how he pumped water up hill, we went to bed. Quick comment, Malarone, the antimalarial Tim, Chris and I are on, gives you some crazy vivid dreams. We’re still trying to figure out if that’s good or bad.