We left Chaingmai early one day for a place in the mountains near the Burmese border called Thaton. We’ve been there before but it’s a stopping point to Mae Salong. The road between Yhaton and Mae Salong is one of the prettiest drives in Thailand. Winding roads over the ridges of lush mountains layered against the sky. The bus journey ends in Thaton and you take sawngthaew's from there.
The sawngthaew (song tao) is a small truck. It has a compartment over the cab which lets air into the back and can probably be used to stuff things in. The interior has buttons to push to indicate when you want out although the driver always asks before you get on where you’re going. It has sliding windows along the sides and front of the passenger compartment with a padded bench down each side. There is a roof rack over the whole thing with a small ladder on either side of a short platform on the back. They come in varying degrees of degeneration from sparkling new to on their last legs.
We got up early in the morning and waited for a one. It would be about a three hour drive. There were three well dressed urban type Thais, a monk and us. The driver wanted us to put our big bags inside instead of on the roof. The Thais had hard luggage which also went inside. With the five of us and the all the luggage we were already nearly full.
Philip and I sat near the end of the bench so that we could see out the back. It was foggy and sooo cold. I did have shoes and socks but I could have used a hat, scarf and a windbreaker. Next person we picked up was a young mother with an infant about a year old tied on her side and a couple of bundles for luggage. The baby was shy for about two minutes and then he was playing with anyone and anything. He was dressed in western clothes but had a seed pod and charms sewn to the top of his hat. he had a lot of fun tugging at Philip's clothes.
Next in was a couple. They looked like peasants and reeked of rice whiskey. He sat beside me but edged me so close to the end that only half of my butt was on the seat and I was quite twisted. His wife stood on the back. After a few minutes Philip gave me his seat by the baby and he stood on the back. I then scooted over and gave the woman standing outside the end of the seat. Now I’m squashed between the woman with the baby and the woman who reeked. Next came a beautiful older man who looked like he could have been from the Andes. He was really dark skinned and had an over sized wool blazer over his clothes like they wear in South America. He also had a hat lined with fur with ear flaps pulled and tied down. He had a killer smile!
Then a young guy dressed in army fatigues with some large bundles got on the back. Everyone’s bundles and bags were piled on to of us all. Next came four monks all about 10 years old. Two stood on back and two got in front with the driver.
We bumped and grinded our way up and down mountain roadsometimes passing on hairpin bends. We came to to a checkpoint and everyone except us had to show their papers to policemen with trousers pressed to razor sharpness. It's always scary when you see teenagers with semi automatic weapons. People had various kinds of papers from plastic identity cards to what looked like authorized letters and little books something like passports. After we got going again there was quite a buzz in the truck and I think one man was quite overjoyed that they didn’t scrutinize his much folded paper.
We arrived at our destination, a Yuannese community on a mountain ridge. We moved on the next day by truck again. We were dropped at a checkpoint in a village where not a soul spoke English. We had no idea when the next truck would come so we hunkered down to wait for awhile. I crossed the road and sat with some Akkha women who were embroidering cloth and after sitting awhile and sharing some oranges I had I asked if I could take the oldest woman's picture because she was so lovely.
After several hours we were still without any idea if there was another truck even going in the direction we wanted to go. We asked but seemed to be getting the answer 'tomorrow'. Just when we were about to give up and go in the other direction out truck came. Oh happy day!!!
We arrived without any further hitches and spent an interesting evening in a place that we were the only foreigners. The only restaurant open was next door to our charming guesthouse. It was an all you could eat family run Shan style BBQ. There was no English spoken so the lady of the house took us under here wing to show us how it was done, taking her role very seriously.
A clay pot with coals from the fire was put in the center of the table. Next came a low round pot with a doughnut rim and a humped middle with slits in it. Sitting proud in the middle of the hump was a huge piece of pig fat. There was a kettle of broth on the table and the doughnut ring was filled from the kettle. Next she visited the 'buffet' which was a long table covered with pans of different foods all diced and sliced. Chicken, pork ,organs, tongues, skin, tofu, fake crab, tiny egg shaped dumplings,uncooked rice stick, something white sliced into rounds that were colored to look like panda bears and packagies of egg. I think the egg was whisked and cooked in the plastic packages ready to be sliced into perfect yellow rounds.
Our hostess brought us a platter of stuff from the buffet and began laying pieces on the hump of the pot. We realized that the pot had raised slits to prevent the fats from falling on the coals but this also meant all the fat rolled into the broth. She also brought a basket of greens like cress and a water grass and some cabbage, some of which she put into the broth along with the panda bears, tofu and egg slices. We were given small bowls to put the broth and such in as well as plates for the meats. you cooked the noodles in small batches as you were ready for them. The broth was getting more and more fatty as time went on.The thing that was awkward was that she made choices for us, probably the best for the foreigners but I was getting queasier and queasier as I 'm not that much of a meat eater and I never eat the fat or skin. Lucky for me that at times like this Philip sucks it up and eats whatever he's presented with. She kept it comiing hard and fast so that we were barely able to keep up with her. Eventually I indicated that we could take over and she could attend to her other customers. At one point the coals were too hot and ash was taken from the fire to smother them a bit.
While this whole performance was going on the man of the house, who was well in his cups kept coming over and talking loudly and smiling at us and pushing his little grandaughter at us so that she could say the few english words she knew. He didn't relent throughout the whole meal and when we were done he tried his darndest to get us to drink with him. We didn't take him up on it as we thought it would turn into an all night affair and rice whiskey is a killer.
We stumbled home to our beds with full bellies and lots to talk about!
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