Nan, Thailand

Nan, a province in Northern Thailand, was advertised by the Tourist Authority of Thailand (TAT) as the "virgin province". Nan province had tons of jungles and hilltribe villages, but not many foreigners travel to Nan. We spent six days in Nan, and we saw only a handful of foreigners. It was pleasant to spent time in a quiet and quaint town that didn't cater to foreigners. The Nan province is populated by three hilltribes not commonly found in the rest of Thailand: Thai Lu, Htin and Khamu. We decided to do a two-day trek to see some of the villages. On day one, for the first half of the day we were shuttled around by a jeep to see a stove factory and a weaving house. We then hiked for about four hours to see some villages and stayed overnight at a Hmong village. Most of the villages were devoid of people, since the villagers were probably busy working outside. It also seem to us that most villagers wore non-traditional clothes in their daily lives. The only traditional outfit we saw was a black Mien jacket with red boa hanging on a balcony of a wooden house. I was told that it was cheaper to buy and wear conventional clothes, but on special festivals the hilltribes would wear their traditional outfits and celebrate.
At the end of day one, we were handed over to our Hmong guide, who was to take us to see the Mlabri people on day two. Our Hmong guide had fled Laos after the secret American war. He was one of the Hmongs trained by the CIA. We talked quite a bit about the secret war in Laos, he was very bitter about being used by the American government, but he had settled in Thailand and seemed to have done well for himself and his family.