Back in the 1980s I helped to run a guest house in the Karen village of Muang Ngaam on the north side of the Kok River east of Thaton. David suggested I post some of these old scanned slide pics here for posterity sake. Muang Ngaam is a Karen village but nearby are Akha, Lahu, and Lisu villages. The young Akha lad with the guitar, named Ako, and I still maintain a close friendship to this day as does Panga, my dear friend who established the guesthouse on a hill overlooking the village which was called the Karen Coffee Shop back in the days when the only coffee in Thailand was either Nescafe or coffee boraan. Panga can be seen as the good looking young man on the blue Honda and, like myself, now a much older man in the last pic. Panga and Ako are about the only two people in Thailand that I have been close friends with longer than our fearless leader David. I have some more pics that I will post as time permits, including some great pics of a Lisu New Year in the village of another old acquaintance, the deservedly notorious Laota, who is now permanently incarcerated in Bangkok.
