Vasta poissa olen viimein perillä: Kengtung’s hill tribes

Shan State lies in the east of Myanmar bordering China and Thailand. This long closed part of the country has opened up a bit more to tourism but still has its limitations. I’ll come back to those later. The state has its own language among of course the multiple languages of the various tribes. It is a host also to many other nationalities though probably most of the influences to this mishmash of cultures come from China. Hilly farmlands and small villages dominate the landscape and the air gets slightly cooler.

Our hunch was confirmed in Tachileik that indeed it’s not possible to continue by land from Kengtung to Inle. This also meant that Kengtung is off the main tourist trail and sees a lot less crowds than Mandalay, Inle and Bagan. One could tell: the cute town of Kengtung had only a handful of guest houses and hardly any restaurants with English menus nor souvenir shops of any kind. Great! Despite this it still had quite a developed tourism scene when it came to trekking around the hill tribes. Only day treks are allowed though or for over night stay one needs some special permits.

We had one full day and two nights to spend so on arrival we directly booked a trek for the next day to visit three different tribal villages with a (mandatory) guide. And what a guide it was! Sainoot came to pick us up in the morning and we were immediately impressed: his English was excellent and you could tell he really enjoyed his job! Apparently this trek is the most popular in case one only has a day to spare. If one has more time, there are even more isolated and pristine village to check out.

Kengtung's lake

Sunset Buddha

Hahah what now!?! Btw this magazine had no content in English whatsoeva.

Oh those city lights

Evening food

Tiniest chairs and tables and communal telly

Before heading out with the motorbikes to the hills we went to pick up lunch from the central market. I had heard of the market before but wow did it exceed my expectations! It was definitely one of the most beautiful markets I’ve ever seen. It was full of fresh fruits, the weirdest looking pastries, fish in all forms, gorgeous flowers and of course the most curious looking food stalls. Sainoot helped us to pick some things and we ended up with multiple little bags with veggies, chicken curry, pork, deep fried bamboo wrappings, chili, eggs and two packages of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. And all this cost about 1 euro. Incredible. We decided to come and inspect the market more closely next day!

Sainoot and the market

Making them meatballs

Gun powder and ammunition :D

So with our backpacks full of food and little gifts we headed to the villages. It’s a custom to bring something as a thank you to the tribes since they invite us to their homes. We decided to bring a football for the school, seeds for the farmers to grow and some corn biscuits for the locals to try out. My initial thought was not to bring anything sweet because it’s extremely bad for the teeth but Sainoot suggested to buy some of the less sugar containing biscuits so we went with that.

We drove through some beautiful views and slightly scary dirt roads for 1,5 hours before reaching a small villag where we left the bikes. There we were greeted by some Akha people and Ann people - both have their distinguishable clothes, head decorations or silver belts and one tribe who make their teeth black! These ladies were of course trying to sell us some handicrafts which we kindly declined.

harvesting

Chris and the stylish pink helmet

Buffaloes

The richer village

Black teeth tribe

They forced me. Seriously.

While hiking up the sunny hill slopes Sainoot told us the stories and beliefs of these tribes: why the Ann have black teeth, why do they wear heavy silver head wear or decorative belts and scarves and special colored clothes. After hearing the stories it felt that most of them had a common nominator: the tricky women who had to be held captive by belts or diminishing magical powers by the head decorations. Somehow women were being blamed for something bad :D

Sainoot also told us how things are changing. Young people do not want to blacken their teeth or wear heavy things on their heads. As elsewhere in the world the old traditions and beliefs are slowly dying. Not all of this is bad, definitely not. The animistic religions can be quite cruel and superstitions rule out common sense. Many tribes have abandoned their religions and turned into christians. An example that was stuck in my head was the one of twins: if twin babies are born, they are killed immediately and the parents are exiled to the jungle, to live out of the community for a year because they are thought to be somehow bad!? Craziness. Back home I think it’s the opposite since only the strong, healthy women can have twins. I’m not christian or a big fan of religions in general but surely in this case it’s the better option. Still these days many dogs and other animals are being sacrificed to the gods every year, women are having babies when they're still really just girls and education is a privilege of just a few.

Little piggies

Kiddoes

Water source

Handing out gifts

Spirit drum

Kitchen

Pants - optional

Such impressive looking people

Weaving

Village

During the day we walked from village to village, we were invited to the peoples’ homes and offered tea and small snacks. We learned about the farming, met the cutest kids and saw all the possible farm animals from water buffaloes to little black piggies and chicken. We would always go to the chair man's house first and by the end of our visit the house would be full of curious faces. We handed out our little gifts that were received well. The ladies would always show their handicrafts which felt a bit awkward but then again its the name of the game. Sainoot explained to us that they don’t mind if you don’t buy anything, for them it’s little extra income but not the main source. Apparently before the villagers had been quite hesitant about the tourists but the guides had encouraged them to communicate with them (us). By offering their tribal handicrafts the ice was broken.

But yeah, this is just the beginning. If the road opens, more tourists come and the more the souvenir selling commercializes...I can already foresee a quite horrifying result. Other problems are the influences tourists have on the villages. We hardly met any other tourists on the trek but already one group of some silly young tourists were there wearing tiny tank tops and mini shorts. Geez was I pissed off. In Myanmar shoulders and knees should always be covered, especially there in the tribal villages and of course in the temples. But these idiots either didn’t know (which means they had no idea in which country they actually were in plus their guide was also somewhat of an imbecile) or they didn’t care (in which case they should just stick to Khao San road or Vang Vieng or whichever party place is now hot and not come ruin other places). Okay, sorry, this just kind of made me angry.

Nice views

And pretty flowers

Lunch break made of treasures from the central market

If not kittens or puppies then piggies

Farmers having lunch

Worrisome fellow

Edible flower

Baby that looked like a little buddha

Rice fields

Winner is the puppy, no question about it

Teasing

Other good things to remember when bringing things to villages is:

No sweet stuff (because dental care is, well, nonexistent)
Not giving things directly to kids (or even adults) to not to teach begging
Handing out gifts first to the village leader (for respect) and he can handle the further distribution (hopefully fairly)
Or distributing fairly to everyone in front of the village chairman.

The day was hot and long but very interesting and our packed lunch was so yummy. We also visited a village where they make rice whiskey (hardcore stuff). Chris bought a small bottle (who’s gonna drink it..I do not know :’) )

Rice whiskey in the making

Boiling it up

Tasting time

Peaceful slow sunset

One last village to visit

We came back home in the evening and thanked Sainoot heartily for the excellent day. If you ever head to Kengtung and need a guide, you should contact him (sainoot15@gmail.com)! Sainoot also told us that there was a festival in town, starting around 19.00. So there we went in the hopes of finding some dinner and checking out the party. The whole town was completely dead and when we arrived to the party place we knew why. Everyone was there! There was also music, entertainment for kids and countless food stalls with savory and sweet things.

We didn’t party too long but went home instead to catch some sleep before going to the central market again the next day. It was just as great as the day before and we bought more little bags for lunch as well as fresh fruit to take to the plane. We were at the airport way too early but gladly the flight was short. We had to pay a horrible amount of money to get from Heho to Kalaw since there was no others to share the taxi with but in the end we made it to this cold town. Really, it was cold. Like socks and shoes and hoodies kinda cold.

Yet again we didn’t really plan to stay in Kalaw but to do a short trek to the famous Inle lake starting the next day. So directly after checking in we went to a recommended tour operator and booked a two day-one night trekking trip. The other option was a 3 day - 2 night trek but we were a bit short on time so little less had to do. Well we had done quite some trekking already, we thought. And yeah, I’m very happy we chose only the two days, it was definitely enough. But more on that later.