Tina and I went trekking near Pai which is near the Myanmar border. Three days that included interacting with a Hill tribe, riding on an elephant and going down a river on a bamboo raft.

I'll start with the elephant riding. I don't really like the idea of animals in captivity for the entertainment of people. I felt kind of bad about the whole thing. Tina and I both road on the elephants neck. It is definitely neat that I can say I sat on an elephant.

The bamboo rafting was pretty mellow. Nice scenery. You can tell it is the dry season.

The Hill Tribes were interesting, but it was extremely obvious that they had interacted a lot with tourists. It is sad really. Tourism and the money it brings seems to turn everyone into used car salesman.

We began our trek in a tribe that immediately tried to sell us there crafts. That evening we stayed at a camp which was most noteable because there was a cat there that thought it was a dog and ate chili peppers.

The next night we stayed in a village with the Palong people who are Burmese. Our hostess' mouth was completely stained from beetlenut. They made us a great meal and then dressed in traditional clothing and did a little dance around the fire and sang songs.

Next it was our turn to participate. We all stood in a circle and played a game like hot potato with our by passing a hand slap. I was the first person to get the last hand slap so I thought I was out and went to sit down. This caused a big uproar. As it turns out, I was supposed to sing a song.

I sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. They all knew it. Obviously, they'd heard it many times before.

The next morning, they set up their wares. I bought a bracelet which I promptly lost.

The commerce aspect of things is weird. Each woman puts out her goods which are basically exactly the same as her neighbors.

It was as if every kid on your street had a lemonade stand. Sure some might be better then others and one bright kid might introduce some exotic flavors, but basically, lemonade is lemonade and all of the kids know how much they can get for it.

I asked our guide if the income generated by the craft sales went into some sort of collective pot and he said that it was every family for itself.

I couldn't help but wonder if it wouldn't be better to have some sort of a community craft store with fixed prices and a benefit for the whole community. Then I realized that would basically be communism.

I don't think communism is the answer, but the ugly side of capitalism is just so apparent when it is introduced in that type of environment.

I bought a bracelet which I promptly lost.

It was nice to get out of the city and we had a good group so I had fun. I'm not sure that I would recommend it. Not very authentic. But then, once something is easy to arrange, it does lose something.