Ron came up from Chiang Mai on his Triumph Scrambler and Richard came up from Chiang Rai. I took the KLX and the 3 of us headed to the village of Huay Nam Yen, Dtumbon Bahn Saeo, just about 30 minutes out of Chiang Saen. What a wonderful evening at the Mahagum Gao Chonpao. There must have been about 1000 people there and just us 3 farangs. This is a yearly festival at a permanent showground and it was a full moon, as many of the hill tribe festivals happen on the full moon. Along one side of the showground are 9 different style traditional houses for the nine different ethnic groups that all live within the dtumbon of Bahn Saeo. The groups represented were; Isarn, Lisu, Chinese, Shan, Akha, Lahu, IuMien(Yao), Tai Lue and Thai. There were also some Hmong people who had been invited to mix in with the Thai group.
Things kicked off at 17:00 with a parade from the main road up into the village and onto the showground.
After introductions, a firework on a wire shot around to the front of each house in turn, causing a curtain to drop revealing the name of the ethnic group represented, the firework then ended burning a string which dropped a hammer onto a gong. Various speeches by local dignitaries were then followed by a lot of presentations of bouquets of roses. As usual everyone was super friendly and many wanted to talk to us and have their photos taken with us. I also noticed a Yao lady who got a friend to take a photo of her in front of the Isarn people. Kamnan Pia from Chiang Saen was there among the VIPs and a very friendly malaria doctor from Mae Hong Son explained a lot of what was going on and later asked for my email address. Each of the groups houses were offering tasting of their traditional foods, tea and laokao. Some interesting tastes indeed and I was quite taken by some of the very spicy tastes at the Chinese house.
It was fun to mingle with the locals and of course the girls all dressed up were looking beautiful. There were several soldiers there wandering around with their M16s loosely slung. Over beside the stage were several food and drink stalls, then a table with several policeman sitting around drinking beer next to a large group of people at tables gambling. Only in Thailand.... After more speeches, each group did a dance routine on the stage and this was followed by a beauty contest. It was a privilege indeed to be present at this completely non-touristy event. It was smaller than the Mexican Sunflower Festival at Hua Mae Kham and it seemed there were very few outsiders there. It is great to see the people here having these wonderful events because they want to do it for themselves. What a wonderful and fascinating country this is.
Ian
Things kicked off at 17:00 with a parade from the main road up into the village and onto the showground.
After introductions, a firework on a wire shot around to the front of each house in turn, causing a curtain to drop revealing the name of the ethnic group represented, the firework then ended burning a string which dropped a hammer onto a gong. Various speeches by local dignitaries were then followed by a lot of presentations of bouquets of roses. As usual everyone was super friendly and many wanted to talk to us and have their photos taken with us. I also noticed a Yao lady who got a friend to take a photo of her in front of the Isarn people. Kamnan Pia from Chiang Saen was there among the VIPs and a very friendly malaria doctor from Mae Hong Son explained a lot of what was going on and later asked for my email address. Each of the groups houses were offering tasting of their traditional foods, tea and laokao. Some interesting tastes indeed and I was quite taken by some of the very spicy tastes at the Chinese house.
It was fun to mingle with the locals and of course the girls all dressed up were looking beautiful. There were several soldiers there wandering around with their M16s loosely slung. Over beside the stage were several food and drink stalls, then a table with several policeman sitting around drinking beer next to a large group of people at tables gambling. Only in Thailand.... After more speeches, each group did a dance routine on the stage and this was followed by a beauty contest. It was a privilege indeed to be present at this completely non-touristy event. It was smaller than the Mexican Sunflower Festival at Hua Mae Kham and it seemed there were very few outsiders there. It is great to see the people here having these wonderful events because they want to do it for themselves. What a wonderful and fascinating country this is.
Ian
