We had a group of children as our tour guides and they took us around the village but I don't think they could speak much English. They had this awesome swing/ferris wheel that they were playing on but no one went all the way around on it.
We got to walk around and see their village and see them perform a few dances for us. Honestly it was kind of depressing though because no one seemed very happy except for the little children, it was almost like a routine and not a special dance for them anymore. There were also a lot of things for sale that we have been seeing in all of the night markets, so we wondered if they there were really authentic from the hill tribe or not.
Later we realized that we had gone through a different village first and then we headed to the Karen Long Neck tribe. We got to hold one of the coils that women wear on their necks and it was so much heavier than I thought it would be! Legend has it that women started wearing these coils to protect them from tiger bites.
The scarves here were definitely authentic though. We saw many women hand weaving them, like in this picture to the right.
Going to this hill tribe felt a bit too much like a tourist attraction, especially with this other group there who were talking an excessive amount of pictures of the hill tribe people and posing and pointing at them as if they were on display. However, it was definitely interesting to see these Karen Long Neck women in real life and I know it was something that I will probably never have the opportunity to see again so I'm glad that I went. Bye for now!
Michelle <3
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