Trekking, Inthanon area, Northern Thailand

Trekking, Doi Inthanon National Park, Thailand
Originally uploaded by JonathanTheMan.

Visiting the villages in this area is like taking a trip back in time. Each village and its rice paddies and fields is cut out of the dense jungle and irrigated with ingenious terracing and minature canals to divert water from nearby rivers. The villages are almost completely self sufficient, growing their own rice & corn, raising buffalo, pigs, chickens etc for food and for sale, and sharing use of the village elephants to do the heavy work. As each family's rice paddy is ready for harvest, the whole village chips in to bring in the rice; if a family has a bad season the village "rice bank" can be borrowed from and repaid the following year.