The villages of Mae Usu, Tak Thailand
Tak is one of the most western provinces in Thailand, Bordering with Myanmar (Burma) as shown below.
Within Tak lies a small district named Mae Usu, just above this lies an unnamed mountainous area/place on earth which contain five small villages, named or at least pronounced;
- tee-kor-ko
- mo-ko-p0-kee
- na-na-ja-kee
- mo ko kee
- se-nar-der-lu
The people of the five villages, originally Myanmar refugees. Were given permission to live in Thailand by king Rama 9 allowing them to live freely and farm relieving them from hunger.
Now besides farming the people create their own homes, clothing, bags etc.
The population of each village is roughly between 50 - 100 people.
all five villages are spread out among these hills.
They live so remotely, that a lot of the people can not speak Thai, and use their own language, they rarely use money but trade food for food or clothing however each village has a small school!
Each year the group of volunteers rotate from school to school, meaning that people from the four other villages commute to the chosen village.
Accurate distance between villages are unknown, Instead they use a word translated to kilomael. Kilomael = roughly.
It can take 2 days and 1 night to commute between villages, maybe 40 Kilomael (up and down the hills)
Photos taken on a yearly visit to the area, where a group of roughly 20 volunteers take the journey to the region for a weekend to donate clothes, education and fun and games for the children!
Future makeup artist.
Basket ball.
To conclude, the people of the villages are living a simple but seemingly happy life, education is being delivered
nobody is going hungry, healthcare can be obtained below the mountains at Mae Usu.
Below are more photos If you would like to look.
Any questions please ask!
Delighted by the icecream.
A village elder smokes Kratom
smiles for miles.