Tathon - Two villages either side of a river

The overnight bus journey from Bangkok to Tathon was a tolerable experience taking just over 13 hours. I was staying at the Mae Kok River Resort is the second tourism property of Irish born Shane K Beary former private soldier and deep sea diver. He has successfully brought some of his military training into his tourism venture and has very positive thoughts about tourism development, on which he is more than keen to articulate." It's worrying that both the private and public sectors involved in the Tourism Industry in Thailand see mass tourism as a viable proposition. The only winners are the tour companies with little or no benefit being passed onto the local communities" he comments " What I have tried to do is to give the Hill Tribe folk the opportunity to have a sustainable lifestyle that will not their natural way of life."

When on the subject of Eco-tourism, "It's just a trendy pre-fix, what is Eco-friendly about a show with an elephant playing a harmonica?" he scoffs "We want to show tourist the genuine lifestyles of Northern folk rather than tramp them around a human zoo."

I was to spend a couple of nights at the resort in one of their two bedroom villas and explore Tathon under Shane's guidance an sample a half day cookery class at their Krua Maekok Thai Cooking School. The resort currently has seven villas each with a mosquito proofed veranda leading to a large suite with garden bathroom and a second bedroom attached, ideal for a family of four or two couples travelling together.

Having checked in to my villa I was given an hour to shower and change before being taken upstream by motorised barge to see if I could tell where the boarder between Thailand and Myanmar might be. Tathon is the closest town to the boarder with Myanmar but exactly where that dividing line is still remains a matter of dispute between the neighbouring countries. The Thais have it on their map as being at one point on the river and the Myanmar authorities using maps drawn by the British in the colonial era have it some 6kms further down stream.

The journey upriver took about 20 minutes and when we reached the Thai Army Camp I was introduced the commander General Somchai. He pointed out the Myanmar troops in the neighbouring hill and although his troops were well tooled up with a Howitzer in a dug-out a single shot has not been fired in over six years. He explained that whereas it is possible for Thais and Myanmarese to cross the boarder Westerners are not legally allowed to cross he could not guarantee their safety beyond his camp. The underlying message was clear don't go further.

Although the two governments may be in conflict the relationships between the front line troops either side of the boarder is cordial. The commanders of each side meet weekly, usually on the Thai side to maintain the friendship. The highest-ranking Myanmar soldier earns a salary equal to about that of a Thai Army Sargent and their cash strapped troops can only afford twice a day. So when the Myanmar General makes his weekly visit, his Thai hosts ensure that he is well feed and watered. Relationship as so good that the Myanmar Army football team cross the boarder for a game with Gen. Somcahi's men.

The Kok River was once the boarder between the two countries. The name Tathon is Burmese Shan means 'on the north bank' and Ban Tha Ton in Northern Thai means 'on the south bank'.

On my return to Mae Kok River Resort I was told that I had to cook my own lunch. But to make matters easier I was to join a half-day cookery class under the watchful eye of Senior Chef Bon. Today we were being shown how to prepare and cook Kaen Khiaw Waan Nua (Green Beef Curry). The courses are conducted in a specially built teaching kitchen with 12 indivual and fully equipped cooking bays and one Chef's station. It was here that I gathered around with my fellow students to watch our instructor show use the steps in preparing the dish. Empowered with knowledge, Chef Bon commanded students to your woks and we started cooking. It was made fairly easy with the helpful kitchen helpers (one for every four students) who made sure we added ingredients at the right time in the correct quantity, I had to do little more than stir and smile. And if I didn't like my lunch I only had myself to blame. The cookery course whose full programme takes six days was recently feature on Granada Televisions daytime TV show Good Monrning.

While wandering around Tathon during my stay I saw the Poi Sang Long ceremony with two highly decorated boys being paraded around the town on their uncles shoulders before their entry into the monkshood. The ceremony is more usually associated with Mae Hong Song but as it is a Shan ritual in can be seen in any of the northern town's bordering Myanmar.

Mae Kok River Resort, PO Box 3 Mae Ai, Chiang Mai 50280, (66-53-459328, 66-53-459329, tiger@loxinfo.co.th)