Hmong Village, Doi Pui, High Above Chiang Mai

Our team returned to Eau Claire on Friday afternoon, so we've been recovering from jet lag and enjoying time with family and friends.

As we look back on our two-week adventure, we're trying to decide how to best document what we did and what we learned. If there's a common theme to how our days unfolded, it's unexpected opportunities and beautiful surprises. Kou Moua spent a lot of time before we left arranging school visits with his brother, Nu. The five visits ended up representing a diverse cross section of education in Thailand:

1. Chai Thong, a K-6 Hmong elementary school in the mountain village where Nu and his family live
2. Chiang Rai Technical School, where teenagers pursue training in tourism and study English 
3. Chiang Rai University, with a beautiful, sprawling campus, has a Hmong student population of approximately 300, most of whom come from mountain villages. Many of these students are involved in a Hmong student organization that provides support to each other and raises money to help future Hmong students pursue higher education.
4. Chiang Mai Adventist Academy is a privately-run boarding school with predominantly Hmong students, some of whom travel as far as 1,000 kilometers from home to attend.
5. Sanpatong Wittayakom, a 7-12 secondary school, is a large campus with 2700 students. Class sizes often push 40-50 students.

But what will probably stick in our brains more than anything, are the completely unanticipated turns of events. For example, we had a great time shopping at stores along the winding road in the Hmong village of Doi Pui, and then we visited their Hmong museum and gardens. The village is located near the top of the mountain, high above Chiang Mai. The whole time we were there clouds hung on the mountain's peak just above the village. In this picture of Kou and Nu in the museum gardens, you can see the clouds behind them:

At the end of our visit, we headed to our rental car. Kou turned to Joel and said, "Would you like to visit a Hmong house? It's just down this road." We walked about a half block and soon discovered this was not just any Hmong house, but Kou had spent time here in the early 1980s.

In the picture at the top of the page, the Moua brothers are standing next to the very truck Kou rode in 30 years ago. Kou was given permission to leave the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp and rode by bus to Doi Pui. At night he and up to a dozen others would sit in the back of the truck and drive all the way down the mountain dirt roads to sell story cloths in the Chiang Mai night markets.

We enjoyed our visit with the family. It's hard to believe, but 50 people live in the house we visited. It was new when Kou spent time there in the 80s.

The whole time we were there grandma held the baby and did work in front of the house. In the back of the house, grandpa watched over his granddaughter as she enjoyed her corn. Inside the house it was dark, just a couple florescent lights on the ceiling. Kou told us the planks of the house were cut with hand tools. The surface of the wood is covered with the concave marks of the adze used to shape it.

Adze

A young woman worked in the kitchen where hot embers filled a pot next to a huge wok. Kou talked about how cold it was when they'd get home late at night and bathe by pouring pans of cold water over their heads. But then, he said, they'd warm up in the house with hot chicken and rice.

Nu and Kou looked at the wall with pictures and story cloths. Kou pointed out some of the family members and their relation to him.

Looking over the top of a home, it is easy to see the sunset in the distant mountains.

When we bought story cloths and other Hmong textiles from relatives of Kou, we didn't know we would visit their home later that evening.

In the next two pictures you get an idea of how narrow the lane is with shops on both sides. Sometimes it felt like we walked through a tunnel because awnings covered the entire lane.

By the end of our trip, Nu was an expert photographer. Between Nu and Joel we sometimes had over 500 pictures by the end of a day.

It was hard to not stop at each little shop. Many had similar items, but there was always something unique that would draw us in.

This smaller Hmong house sat above the Hill Tribe Museum.

Many Hmong people worked on their various crafts as they tended their shops. In this picture the mom works on an embroidery as the dad keeps an eye on the baby.

The Hmong Hill Tribe Museum had a textile display that showed the process of making material, from hemp yarn on the left to finished clothes on the right. In the video below, Kou summarizes the process for us. At one point three Hmong boys who live in the village ran through the museum.

We began driving down the mountain, thinking we were headed back to the hotel after a day packed with surprises. And then Nu pulled over at the entrance to a temple, Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, about three-fourths of the way up the mountain. We began climbing the huge staircase with dragons on each side lining the whole way. On the way down, Jean counted 308 steps.

The temple visit at night was beautiful and quiet, everything covered with gold reflected light.

Before we left the temple and headed back to the hotel, we enjoyed the nighttime view of Chiang Mai below the mountain.