"hill tribe" trekking from chiang mai

forgive a non-food digression

"hello, welcome to chiang mai. would you like to do trekking? we do treks, pai, non-tourist area, very good trek. we can do 1 day 2 day 3 day, whatever you want."

every morning, a minibus arrives with a fresh load of tourists, every morning the exact same pitch. never mind that every single guesthouse in the city has the same pitch, and don't really think about the fact that if they give this pitch every day the track must be very well beaten down indeed.

this is the trek i went on, very much on the well beaten track. it was a trek to inspire mixed feelings, on one hand i had a really great time because i lucked out and went with a very good group of people, on the other hand... is it responsible tourism? the question gnaws

the villages were definitely benefiting monetarily, i've heard stories of some tour operators who don't give a cut of the money to the villages they visit, i'm certain this wasn't the case for our tour. but what about the non money effects of us just being there? tourists are big money makers for these villages now, and so they change how they organize themselves to cater to westerners. not to mention the environmental issues (part of the reason i went with a mainstream trek, staying on the beaten track is, i hope, less damaging than going with a tour operator that really goes into untouched places)

i guess i'm just handwringing over the predictable results of open economies in the global context. thai's open their economy to tourism, westerners with comparatively lots of money arrive, find a beautiful country with wonderful people. more and more westerners arrive. repeat for 10 years and the country is still beautiful but nothing like it was before the tourism boom. i can't blame them for milking the money cows that tourists represent

nothing original in this post, i'm sure there are book, phd thesis's, and expose documentaries on the subject from every possible angle out there. still, it's interesting to experience the phenomena first hand

i do have pictures, however i have forgotten to bring my usb cable so nothing to upload today.