Northern Thailand Oct.-Nov. 2005

Here's a few shots from my Oct-Nov 05 trip to N. Thailand. I spent the month setting up small experiments with some difficult to propagate tree species, as well as just learning about the area and people.

Zanthoxylum in N. Thailand

Looking for Zanthoxylum seed in Burma

Typical lowland rice paddies

Dispersed trees with annual crops

Non-timber forest products: bamboo mats and fan palm roofing

iced coffee

hot peppers in the Fang market

transport on the Mae Kohk river

tree believed to be inhabited by a spirit, marked and protected




Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai

v2#11

Sometimes you feel a little isolated up here in Northern Thailand, sitting in the jungle, staring across the Mae Kohk River at a Burmese army outpost perched on top of a distant hill. This feeling of isolation can become even stronger when your ice coffee runs out and you can't see the waiter anywhere. Not that I spend every day at nice resorts on the Burmese border, but that particular day I was acting as driver for one of the student interns who was giving a talk to some tourists on organic gardening. The organization we are collaborating with here (the Uplands Holistic Development Project or UHDP) promotes organic farming, agroforestry, and forest management all with the aim of helping hilltribes of northern Thailand make a living in ways that are good for them and good for the forest. The hilltribe people are in many cases refugees from Burma, escaping war and persecution, and find themselves in a new country, Thailand where things are better, but they are still given a hard time by local people and often are living without any legal status.

My role here for the past month (in addition to acting as temporary driver) has been to help find ways to propagate a couple of plant species used in agroforestry systems here that are difficult to grow. This has involved travelling around the area a bit, even one day into Burma to look for seed of one species, and also talking with several farmers who are knowledgable about propagation, as well as working in the UHDP's tree nursery. It's been a good month, made even better by iced coffee and copious bowls of Thai noodles.

Bob

looking across the Mae Kohk River into Burma