The Longnecks

Posted under Southeast Asia 2009

Uneventful flight from Singapore to Bangkok and the same on to Chiang Mai. The flight from Singapore was international so we had to clear customs at Bangkok. Arrived at Chiang Mai in the late evening, so off to our hotel to call it a day. We could have called it several things, as the room was not what we expected. Bonnie wore her cranky face and had a discussion or two with the desk people, but accomplished nothing but frustration—hers that is.

Now let me describe our room. It was clean. So much for the good points, it kind of went down from there. It appeared as though the building was originally constructed as small apartments and then at some point someone decided that hotels were more lucrative. Now this apartment was comprised just about two and a half rooms. One of these rooms was a bedroom. This was fairly easy to discern, as there was a bed in there. The other two rooms were a little more difficult to name as the first room entered was sort of like a sitting room, as it had a chesterfield and a chair. It also had a coffee maker and so appeared perfect for entertaining. It also had a Jacuzzi bathtub, which left some question as to what type of entertaining was expected. The half room was the “shitter”, and appeared to be an afterthought as you stepped down into it. As it appeared as though they had pirated this area from the broom closet, the doorway was only about five and one-half feet tall. Bonnie was fine with that, but I can assure you that it can come as a complete surprise in the middle of the night. Can give you such a smack on the old pumpkin that you could very nearly forget what you were doing in the first place. Now after a sound sleep, Bonnie was rejuvenated and prepared to do battle over our digs, so she arranged an appointment with the manager. I believe that she offered to change his gender for him, which is not such a threat around here as there are many who do this by choice, but in the end the manager offered us an upgrade. It seems as though the hotel was built in stages, and by moving to the new building we got bright clean rooms and a real bathroom—of its own.

Took a tuk-tuk out to the manufacturing area just to see some of the artisans at work. They manufacture some incredible product, in what we would classify as rather primitive conditions. Didn’t even buy a lot, at least we were able to cart what little we had, with us. Our tuk-tuk driver waited patiently for us, as the 40 baht return trip was apparently well worth the wait. This converts to about a buck and a quarter, but it seems that the tourist traffic is down this year. On the way back to town, our driver offered his driving expertise, and a car for the following day. Car and driver for 600 baht, (about twenty bucks) so we of course bartered him down to 500 baht. Now there was a method in our madness, with this high price taxi rental, as Bonnie had read of a tribe of mountain peoples called the “long-necks”, and wanted to check this out. It seems as if possibly the women of the tribe were somewhat short in stature and inasmuch as a giraffe has seven vertebrae, just like a human, that possibly their height could be improved by stretching the ladies necks. This was done by means of brass rings stacked around the neck. As additional height was wanted, additional rings were added.  They tried a similar thing in the old west, by using a hemp rope and an available tree, but the action was too sudden and the mortality rate was high. The peoples were actually from the Padong tribe, but were called longnecks for obvious reasons.

The following morning arrived and so did our driver. Well not the same driver, but his friend, and not the described air-conditioned car. This car was like a pick-up truck with bench seats in the box, and a canopy. In fact it was a pick-up with bench seat and a canopy. We of course immediately bartered him down to 400 baht, and off we went to see the longnecks. This little village was about 35 miles away, and high in the mountains, quite a picturesque drive and a very pretty spot when we actually got there. The village is really comprised of families of eight different mountain tribes, most of whom came from the golden triangle area. Now it seem that the mountain people really didn’t give a fat rat about borders, as they had been traveling this area for generations. The Thai government looks upon them as illegal’s, much like the Mexicans and the U.S., but this village exists under an agricultural permit. While the men fiddle about in the fields, the women tend to the menial stuff at home, such as tending to the children, cleaning house, making meals, raising chickens and in their spare time they grind rice, weave, embroider elaborate patterns on home made cloth, and as well make jewelry. All this they then try to sell to the tourists. And we thought we could improve on a system like this. It was all most interesting at any rate. The longnecks were particularly interesting, and the brass rings that they have as an adult must amount to some ten pounds or so. They start this ritual when the girls are quite young. I would think that this would be most uncomfortable, but for eons women have been subjecting themselves to all sorts of torture —all in the name of beauty.

As we still had some day left on our daylong rental, we went back to Chiang Mai, to a furniture plant. Some experience. All their furniture is manufactured on sight, from teak or rosewood. The rosewood is all imported from Burma (Myanmar), and is harder than teak. Makes most impressive furniture. In addition, this factory is noted for their carvings and inlays. They were in the process of carving a custom door on both sides. It will take the carver about a year to finish the three dimensional carvings and oh yes, the door is about ten feet by four feet, solid teak. We also say them doing some mother of pearl inlays in some rosewood cabinets. One could never afford to have this type of craftsmanship done in North America. It is far too labour intensive. Hell, I couldn’t even afford to have it done in Thailand.

Finally got our driver to take us back by our hotel. He had been most patient. Actually gave him the 500 baht that we had intended. He thought Christmas had landed—we didn’t keep him all day, and we gave a tip. All that good will for about sixteen bucks. Who’d a thunk it??

Tomorrow we are off to Chiang Rai—north and in the mountains. Should be interesting, will let you know. TTFN

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