23.4.11: Karen Long Neck Village

At around 5 pm, we arrived at the Karen Long Neck Village. This is a tribe (Padaung) from Myanmar who wore brass bands around their necks. It isn't that their necks were long, but rather the gold bands had pushed their shoulders downwards, so it looked as if they had long necks. There was entrance fee to be paid and our tour guide paid the entrance fee for us. There were many huts made from bamboo and wood where the villagers would sit and do their work or sell their wares.

The boys were rather tentative about these "strange looking" people with rings around their neck and wanted to get out of there. Some children gave us (or rather pushed into our hands) stalks of tiny flowers, plucked from the ground and asked us for donation in return. 

Stalls selling handicrafts

The children in the village.

The rickety bridge leading to the village

Then, we got into the van and went off again. It was quite a tiring journey and would have been less hectic had we stayed a night in Chiang Rai. We had dinner at 7.30 pm a a restaurant on the way back. Hubby found stuck under his plate some tiny small balls, with a diameter of 3mm. They look suspiciously like eggs. I found out 2 days later when we visited the silk factory that the eggs were silk worm eggs. Why were they stuck there?

We arrived at the hotel at 9.15 am. The night was still young. I put the boys to sleep, then went out to the night market at 10.00 pm with my parents and found it crowded with people. It closes every night at 12 am.