A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
Mae Hong Son, Thailand

One thing I did not do while in Mae Hong Son was to visit the "Long-Neck Villages", villages of Karen Paduang refugees from burma who, as you may have seen in National Geographic or the like, wear gold rings (or actually one very long coil) around their necks. In actuality their necks do not lengthen, but since the rings depress their shoulders, collarbone and ribcage it looks that way.

Though these villages are quite a tourist attraction around here for both foreigners and Thais, I avoided it. The long-neck tradition was one which, no doubt thankfully for the health and daily comfort of these women, was dying out somewhat during the 20th century. It has been revived for tourism purposes and these villages come across as human zoos -- there are large walls surrounding them, you pay your $8 (foreigners pay only) to enter, and you can take photos of any and all exhibits, AKA women.

The issue is not black and white, of course. While in Thailand I read an article in the Bangkok Post in which some of these women convincingly assert that their life is better than when they were poor farmers fighting against the Burmese government. Getting your picture taken and selling souvenirs all day is certainly a less strenuous life than working in the rice paddies. On the other hand, there have been cases of Thais entering Burma to kidnap long-neck women from the interior in order to showcase them here in the border villages. For me, the whole thing just drew a big red line under my qualms about tribal tourism, and I don't need to promote this most egregious example.

Hmm, I see that I just wrote three paragraphs on something I didn't see while traveling in Asia. Really, I probably could have written a whole travel book from the comfort of my apartment in Seattle.

Copyright 2003 Katy Warren
posted by Katy at 10:18 PM