The children of the Long Neck Tribe and the Palong Women....

Signs so you can find each of the tribes that live in this area.  Can you see them?  the English is below the Thai.

Some girls.  One of the them is from the Palong tribe so she is awaiting huge earrings, no coils for her.  I think the paste on their faces might be sunscreen.  Not sure.  No one spoke English so I have to make stuff up.

Now that is the largest earring I have ever seen.  the back is wildly thick.  I couldn't believe her ear could hold it up.  She let me examine it.  She thought my excitement over her fabulous earrings was funny.

Visiting the Long Neck Tribe and shopping.....

The girls in the Long Neck Tribes first start to get their copper wrapped around their necks at age 5.  By the time they are adults they have almost 5 kilos of copper coiled around their neck.  I don't know how much is on their ankles or wrists.  that is a lot to carry around!

She is actually from the Akha Tribe.  I visited them on the way to the Long Neck Tribe.  What a face, huh?

A fascinating yet ordinary  coffee place I stopped at along the road there....the coffee around these parts is fantastic!

This, my friends, is a pineapple.  some very special pineapple that happens in the field every once in a while.  It looks like the truffle of pineapples.  I was afraid to buy it and eat it.  I couldn't imagine how to eat it.  

More Baby pictures....

I am feeding mom peanuts and sunflower seeds that I bought at the market yesterday and the baby wants to get them from his mom....

Aaaaaand there was a cute water buffalo giving some guy a lift....

come on, give me a peanut!!

pleaaaaase!

Give me some more sunflower seeds!

I am going to get them myself!

It had been 2 days since my last purchase....

The baby's name is Phil.  Here he is with his toy tire.

This is the Anatara lobby.  The best part about the hotel.  I got the room half off for $500 a night and the room and service sucked.  I hope the elephants get most of that dough!

Momma and baby Phil or Am in Thai

Me and Am

He got my hair pretty good.  Get a load of the hair on his head!

Spending all that time with the elephants really put me behind in my retail explorations but I fixed all that yesterday when I went to Mae Sai at the Burmese border to troll for antiques and boy did I find them.  Well, actually, I have no idea what I found but I bought it anyway.  No one spoke English so they couldn't explain to me what I was looking at, whether it was new or old or very old  or pure mass produced crap but I liked it and bought it and will research it all later.  Anyone know anything about Buddhist bibles or Burmese statues or opium weights?  Now I have SO MUCH STUFF I have to figure out how to ship it home before leaving for Bangkok in 24 hours!!  Aaaaaah.  Wish me luck.  ANYWAY, I have had a lot of fun playing with the elephants.  After leaving the lush, cozy wonder of my Four Season tent camp for Anatara Hotel, a hotel across the mountain from the Four Seasons I figured out that this is where all the elephants live and when you ask someone, anyone to take you to them they put me in a tuk tuk and took, took me there!  I was the only one asking because I was all alone with 10 elephants and one, very cute baby elephant 9 months old, still nursing with it's mother.  here are some of my highlights......

All right, now I am a Mahout with a certificate to prove it!

Trying to climb aboard this poor elephant.  Her name is Thok Kam and she is 54 years old.  She was very patient with me.  The Mahouts were also very patient with me helping me every step of the way-without laughing!  I was scared out of my mind.  I almost said "forget it. I can't do this" but they were so nice I kept trying to get over my fear....

When going up hills you have to hold on to her ears or else you may not stay on.  It doesn't hurt her.

Trying to get used to the feel of everything.  no seat belts here.  The Mahouts were trying to show me how to place my feet behind her ears

Going downhill you have to do the lean back and grab onto the rope around her "waist" .  Or else.

If you don't keep kicking her behind her ears yelling "Pai!" she will assume the walk is for her to eat and to an elephant everything green is food.

We went for a swim.  I was scared shitless.  And wet.

I got over it and actually enjoyed myself AAaaaand, I didn't fall off!  I am holding on to her ears...can you see her hair?  isn't it funny?

From street urchin to hiding out in the jungle, Four Seasons Style

Darn, I wish I could put these pictures in the order I wanted to!  Before you get here with the suede trunk across your king sized bed in the jungle you drive for an hour and a half north of Chiang Rai to get to  the border town of Sop Ruak which basically means the fork in the river where the Ruak river meets the Mekong at the Laos and Burma borders.  But on the way you pass....

Pineapple Village where all they sell is stand after stand of these small pineapples which are very crispy when you eat them.  early in the day they are all on the left hand side of the road and then in the afternoon they are on the right.  dunno why.  I guess they just share.

This is actually a variety of these small, crispy pineapples that they grow in Pineapple Village.  Cool, huh?

Here is the stand from a step back.  I understand they have a special use for the tops or  tips from the fields but I couldn't understand what they were trying to tell me.  look how pretty they spiral the fruit to see them ready to eat.

They you pass this weird Homage to Cocks.  I thought it was a temple but apparently somebody died here who loved cock fighting so they have this crazy place where there are hundreds of roosters places all over this place to pay homage to their love of cock fighting mostly.  check out these shots....

Cocks in front of the alter

Super giant human sized roosters watch over the alter

fields of cocks surround the grounds

More of them and you can even buy one to place there yourself!

You arrive by small boat the their camp, walk up a hundred stairs and then breathlessly bang the gong 3 times to represent good luck, health, wealth and wisdom I think it was.  I think I need one of these.

After another thousand or so steps you reach your tent.  Mine is called the Botanists tent.  There is a Culinary Arts Tent too which I need to see before I leave.

One more view....there is a huge patio too with massage tables ready  in case you dont' want to walk to the spa.  After walking to the "spa" today which was about a mile away uphill I think I would have them come to me next time.  The spa is actually 2 massage beds, a tub and an interesting toilet on a very edge of a hillside open on three sides.  one false lazy move and you are history.  you listen to birds while you get your massage.  pretty nice.