Walking Trip to a Real Karen Village

Mae Hong Son province, one of the most popular tourist attractions in the north of Thailand, hides itself amongst high mountains and rain forest. Mae Hong Son is known for its charming scenery and culture of the hill-tribe people.

Because of the increasing number of tourists and the globalization, many facilities have been set up for the convenience of both local people and tourists. Some of the hilltribes start to adapt themselves to the growing town by changing their lifestyles or moving into cities. However, some tribes in remote villages on mountains still continue living in their conservative lifestyles.

With a special support from TN Tour, we’ve finally got tickets for a three-day trip to Karen village. Our mission is now set, we will explore the original Karen’s lifestyles. Now, get ready and go!!!

Our destinations today are “Hua Nam Village” and “Ban Huay Poh Village”. Luckily we’ve got a Karen guide to lead us through the thick forest and follow the flowing river for two and a half hours, then another two hours walk to the mountain before we reach the village. We didn’t prepare any food for this trip since we intended to live like a true hill-tribe.

Five hours pass, we finally reach our first destination named “Hua Nam Village”. Our first impression is their small and peaceful community which consists of only 20-30 families. They still live their lives in a very conservative way, mostly rely on the nature. More important, their hospitality and friendliness are so touching. The villagers earn their living by farming, fishing and hunting. Surprisingly, we learn that the villagers are restrained to go hunting only once a month in order to preserve their forest supplies for the future.

Beside the simple but distinctive way of life, another highlight of this village is their delicious and unique cuisine. Their main food is green vegetable growing in the village, fried with meat and seasoned with their famous Karen’s sauce. The rice is also cooked in a special way; the Karens cook rice in a threshing basket in order to get nice-formed rice after pounding. Now it is time for our first lunch in this village. Oh, they are so kind as to cook a very special meal to welcome us. Tasty wild boar meat, dried fish and the local fowl they raised themselves. Wow!! Yummy!!  Thank you, the generous host.

At this place, the villagers earn very little, just enough money to live on and nothing extra. Someone tells us that 2,000-3,000 baht per year is enough for his family, since they use that money to buy only salt, shrimp paste and fish sauce. He departs the village to buy these stuffs at the market every six months.  

Every family raises chicken and pigs in the space under their houses. When it comes to an important festival, The pigs will be killed and sold only to the villagers, about 3-4 kilos for each house. Other families will buy it as they consider it’s a kind of sharing and support. Other animals like cows and buffalos, the villagers let them grow naturally in the forest. When those animals are old enough, venders from outside will come to buy them. This money will be used for buying clothes and food supplies like shrimp paste or fish sauce. 

When anyone gets sick, the Karen uses herbs in the forest to cure because it is not easy to go to a hospital. The nearest one is in a distance of 5 hours walk. A chance to access to western medicine is therefore so hard.

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