Thoughts on a 90km stretch of road...

Maehongson, the most Northwestern province in Thailand, bordering Burma.

It was here (in four villages) on a 90 kilometer stretch of road that I was raised, from age 3-18, and it is this stretch of road that feels so much like home today. When my family arrived here in 1976 the main road wasn’t even paved all the way. Bridges were rough hewn logs anchored together by large metal spikes.

Much has changed. No wood bridges these days and now even most of the villages off the main road are paved with concrete. The buffalo that were used to plow the fields are gone in most villages (fortunately not all!) In Dorpae, the second of the four villages we lived in, the village didn’t get electricity until I was in 5th grade. Now everyone has a cell phone – even internet in some village homes! Globalization has changed the landscape and the culture dramatically in the last 15 years.

When I graduated from high school 18 years ago and returned to the US, most people – men and women, still worked the land in some agrarian form – farming, gardening, cutting timber. Now many work in some sort of service industry – hotel housekeepers, the Toyota dealership, 7-11’s, this past month the first KFC opened up in Maehongson. (Photo to left, the view from our back porch in DorPae during my elementary school years. Below - Grandpa Thii keeps memories and traditions alive.)

Money flows. All those who work now get a monthly salary –three, four, or five thousand Baht a month. Is this better? Most of those who owned rice fields and land, still own their property and still count on the all important rice crop and secondary garlic, soy and sesame – but who will they pass these fields on to? Many of the older generation now have to or choose to hire laborers to do the field work. Agriculture knowledge is not being passed on to their children. Once this generation is gone who will care for the land and the fields?

School and education is continually emphasized with more and more able to attend college. This is a good thing as agriculture cannot provide work for everyone. But it is still eye opening and somewhat startling to have witnessed this transition from agrarian to service employment so rapidly. Something that took several generations in the US has happened overnight here. Kids who go off to school here in Maehongson (which now includes a university) riding off on their motorcycles, plugged into their cell phones and TV dramas are no different than their peers 1000 kilometers away in Bangkok. They know the same styles, news, and celebrities.

Many things have changed, yet some things don’t change – the rolling hills, the flowing rivers, the simmering heat, the cool shady valleys. Riding our borrowed motorcycle one day as we drove those 90 kilometers is something I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Duncan