We’re just back from two amazing spots in Northern Thailand: Huay Cha Ka which is a King’s Royal Project and Lisu village, and Doi Mae Salong @ 1,800 meters above sea level where the finest oolong teas in the country are grown, another royal project that was established in the seventies to replace opium crops with tea…

The whole family piled in the truck: Aloma, Cha and myself at the wheel. The objective was to take a small vacation to one of my favorite places in the North of Thailand: Doi Mae Salong, and purchase some teas to stock my inventory (The new batch is available! contact me for shipment options) and to check out the Lisu village silver smiths to see what kind of creative juices they got going, and if anything was worth purchasing. Here are some shots from our travels….Peace.

My buddies wife just had a baby girl last night 3.2 kg, name: Pema. This is the third 1/2 Lisu 1/2 Western baby born unto my crew. Welcome to the world you little half-breed super races! The future is crossbreeding, in the next 1000 years it will be impossible to distinguish between am Asian and Caucasian, a Hispanic and a Black person because the gap is getting smaller and smaller. The breeding between westerners and Lisu is quite amazing, we are not the only three in the town of Pai to have 1/2 breed kids, there are others mostly Thai, a few Lisu families that extend up to the Soppong (AKA Pang Mapha) area, between Pai and Mae Hong Son.

What will the future of these children be? Stay tuned, it will be interesting no doubt. One topic that keeps coming up is education, the school choices around here are strictly village, and marshal. There are a few international schools in the Chiang Mai area, but isn’t the point of having kids so that you can grow up together, and have a part in raising them? It is important for this next generation to hold onto their heritage: ie. music, song, dance, traditional clothes, nature wisdom, etc. The old ways are sinking fast, nowadays most Lisu are pressured to keep up with the ‘modern world’ and one of the only options aside from agriculture is prostitution and drug dealing. I have confidence that this will change, maybe it is our part to help accelerate this change, maybe that’s why we’re here married to these Lisu women: to exchange knowledge, create a super race, and help to bridge the ever shrinking gap between East and West.

This year’s Chinese New Year falls on the new moon of February 7th, 2008. Ending the year of the Fire Pig and entering the year of the Earth Rat. As always the hill tribes in northern Thailand will be celebrating by wearing their finest garments with silver adornments, dancing through the night, and lots of feasting and drinking.

One special tradition related to the new year is that everyone usually gets “new” clothes during this time of year. Being that I am married into the Lisu clan, that means new dresses for ladies, and new pants for men. As we speak there is a tailor putting together two lovely new dresses for my wife, and if I’m lucky, a couple pairs of pants for myself. I want to talk about the style of the Lisu pants, they are very unique in that the crotch hangs very low, followed by an elastic waste which makes wearing them extremely comfortable and versatile. The Lisu are very particular about their color schemes. Women’s trousers are the same design as men, except they are always black in color, there is no exception. Men’s trousers are always colorful, particularly some variation of either blue or green. Although over the years we are beginning to see more variations of blues and greens hitting the fabric market.