Karen hill tribes, longnecks and Elephants

A day without the bikes, we took a trip with a man in a van to the hills near the Burma border to see the Karen people, they were persecuted by the Burmese so make their home here as refugees. Because of that they can't work here so they rely on tourists paying them and buying their trinkets. On the way we passed some Elephants which was cool but they aren't free which isn't so good, they appear to be well treated and fed though, the one Fiona fed was 40 years old and seemed happy enough. The long necks have metal hoops put around their necks to make them longer, it doesn't actually make their necks longer but compresses their collar bones making the neck look longer. Some pics which I hope you'll enjoy include the elephants and the long necks plus some Karen men bringing rice to the village Last night we were at the Loi Krathong festival which involves floating candles in the river , ours went out, and setting off lanterns in the sky, ours almost hit 3 girls and then got stuck on the temple gate, oops div class="mobile-photo">

The view over the lake

Thai Boxing, not my thing

Fi with her new pal, amazing animals, I was concerned about the chains, these animals should be totally free

At the Karen Hill tribe village, a guard elephant

This girl explained the customs, she spoke good enough English, well better than mine anyway

The men carrying rice, hard work!