Trek Bivouac and elephants 2d / 1n

The Karens

In 2003 there were 438,131 Karen people in Thailand in 2003, divided into 1912 villages.

The Pwo live in the Irrawaddy delta (western Pwo) and in the same border areas as the Sgaw (eastern Pwo), about one million in Burma and fifty thousand in Thailand.

**** Elephants

Elephants are national royal and religious icons in Thailand. Their survival in the wild is, however, threatened. Less than 2,000 wild elephants have survived, half of them in forest areas in Kanchanaburi region.
Thailand’s proactive policy has halted the decline of many wild elephants, but conflicts between humans and elephants are appearing in areas at the edge of their habitat.
There are approximately 3,000 domestic elephants in Thailand today. Domesticized 8,000 years ago, they were used for transport, handling, traction before the appearance of mechanized means.
Researchers at the University of Turku have studied a semi-captive population of wood elephants in Burma and found that Asian elephants have three different personality factors: attention, sociability and aggression. The researchers also identified that male and female elephants do not differ in these three personality factors.
Note: Safarine only works with ethical camps that do not walk on pods, offer no trained elephant numbers, do not separate babies from their mothers.

The Doi Suthep and the Doi Pui

The Doi Suthep is sixteen kilometers northwest of Chiang Mai and is 1676 meters high. Thai visitors are numerous and like to enjoy the cooler air of the mountain.
Doi Suthep offers panoramic views of the entire valley and the city of Chiang Mai.
The Wat Phra That Doi Suthep was built in 1383, according to legend, on a site designated by the death of a white elephant, carrying on its back a relic of Buddha, entrusted to the king of the Lanna kingdom by a monk from Sukhothai. To access it, you can either climb the three hundred and six steps, lined by a mythical snake, or take the funicular. Stalls down the stairs and along the way will allow you to taste some local specialties and to make some purchases of handicrafts.
Four kilometers up the Royal Buphing Winter Palace offers beautifully flowered gardens all year round. a good hour is needed to go around, between giant bamboo, terraces of flowers, old trees and fruit trees.
There are several discrete cascades on its slopes.
The Doi Pui rises to 1685 meters (nine meters higher than the Doi Suthep) Hmong tribes, live in a luxuriant nature with especially sakura, ornamental cherry trees whose blooming dyes and January is spectacular. The sakura are Japanese ornamental cherry trees, the most famous of which is the Prunus serrulata called in France: Japanese cherry tree, Japanese cherry tree, cherry tree, cherry tree The flowers are also called by this name.

The Hmong of Chiang Mai

The origin of Hmong has been scientifically determined by mitochondrial DNA analysis. The legendary Hmong, which can be traced to the legend of the central region of the Yellow River, actually originated in the far south of China, which they had occupied for at least two thousand years. This origin is confirmed by linguistic studies. The first Hmong migrants arrived in Thailand at the beginning of the Laotian war. At the end of the conflict and following the victory of the Pathet Lao, the pro-American Hmong found refuge in Thailand, including the famous Wat Tham Krabok. Some settled in mountainous areas in the north of the country.
Although they had a common language in the eighteenth century, the Hmong communicate today through local vernacular languages, such as Thai North. There is no alphabet or phonetic system to convey the Hmong language.
In Thailand, the government is encouraging young people to go to school and to insert themselves, sounding the death knell of the Hmong language and many aspects of the traditions of this hill people. Tourism, however, both to preserve other aspects, often superficial. The traditional dress of men is characterized by a shirt made of light felt, whose sleeves exceed the wrists a few centimeters. The body of the shirt falls below the waist and is overhung by two cloth tabs that intersect. The back of the shirt is most of the time embellished with elaborate embroidery. Women have a style of dress comparable to that of men. As a hairstyle they wrap their hair in a bun