I met this woman (a long neck Karen) from The Kayan Tribe at The Burma Border

A Kayan woman in North Thailand by the Burma border

I was in Chang Mai staying at The Travelers Inn.  I spoke with the concierge about taking an exotic tour.  He suggested Padaung.  I bit.

We drove through the forest and high into the mountains.  When we came to the border I saw soldiers with what I would call machine guns (I know nothing of guns but these looked like the same guns I saw in the hands of soldiers in Guatemala years prior).  The land is tropical and mountainous.  We were taken to the camp and met the woman you see above.  There were chickens and children running around.  Women sold textiles and crafts.  I saw no men.  On the way back to Chang Mai we stopped in a WWII cave where over 600 soldiers had lived.  Buddhist shrines adorned the walls.  The cave next to this one had been covered with an enormous rock, a monk had gone in it to pray and was killed by a cobra.  We were told the caves house 7 types of snakes.