Hooked On Asia

I wrote recently about my experience of discovering northern Thailand by car (Part 1 and Part 2).

Together with a colleague I visited Doi Angkhang, north of Chiang Mai, close to the border with Myanmar: Doi is the local word for mountain and Angkhang stands at about 1300 metres.

On this trip I saw (mostly by design but partly by accident!) areas of Thailand most tourists on mainstream holidays would not get to see.

In my opinion it is important, both for me personally and for local communities, that the positive benefits of tourism are spread to more remote parts of the country. Personally I enjoy seeing a destination behind the tourist façade and I am sure I am not alone: I get a lot more from the experience knowing that what I am seeing and experiencing is genuine, even though that experience might not always be a pleasant one. Local markets often fall into the latter category!

I do not subscribe to the notion that the flip side for my, sometimes unwitting, hosts is that they get to see glimpses of a life beyond their own, current reality. And I don’t mean me personally of course but rather what I represent.

No, for me the flip side is that tourism (when operated responsibly) is both bringing an income to the community and, potentially, the means to increase the well-being of its members.

I want to be absolutely clear here that I am not advocating the type of tourism where a tour bus turns up, disgorges its camera-clicking contents, money is deposited into a pot, bus sucks back contents and departs. No one is enriched by such an experience.

The type of tourism I am referring to is the type that Amari Hotels & Resorts, a major hotel company in Thailand, is engaging in at Doi Angkhang.

More and more hotels around the world are embracing sustainable, responsible or ‘green’ travel principles but here is a hotel group that has been doing so long before it became de rigeur. It was in 1995 that the group started the Baht for a Better Life Foundation: “Small change, contributed by guests to our hotels and donations from our staff, are used to further the education of children in Thailand. There are no administrative costs in running the Baht for a Better Life Foundation. Therefore, every dollar, pound and euro given to the fund is used for educational projects.” To date, among other things, Baht for a Better Life have rebuilt a dilapidated school in Udon Thani, north-east Thailand, and built ten new schools in underprivileged areas throughout the country.

At Doi Angkhang the Amari-managed hotel is the Ankhgang Nature Resort : a 3-star, 72-room property nestling in the mountains and developed as part of the Royal Angkhang Research Station, under the auspices of the Royal Project Foundation.

During my visit I only had time for a one-night stay but, on a whistle-stop tour of the area, I was able to visit the Royal Angkhang Station Project which “provides agricultural support to neighbouring hilltribes and develops non-indigenous crops for them to grow” as an alternative to the opium poppy which used to be their staple cash-crop. I also stopped at a remote point along the Thai/Myanmar border which was little more than a fence set within a beautiful mountain vista. Other activities in the area include trekking, mountain biking, bird watching; and sightseeing, taking in local hilltribe villages.

Image courtesy of Tourism Authority of Thailand News Room

On this occasion the visits that I made to local hilltribe villages were not of the type I am advocating here because, of necessity, they were brief: they were merely intended to equip me with the information to promote the overall Doi Angkhang experience, just as I am doing now.

There are 7 major hilltribes in northern Thailand but there are many smaller groups and sub groups such that I don’t believe anyone has a definitive count: estimates have put the number at around 20 with a total population of about 500,000.

There are many social and political issues surrounding the hilltribes, but the key point to mention in this article is that, by definition, the villages are remote with limited access to education.

There are four villages in the area surrounding Doi Angkhang, which are home to communities from a number of different hilltribes. Through its foundation, Amari Hotels and Resorts supports a primary school in Baan Khob Dong which provides education for the children of the Black and Red Muser tribes.

In a recently held painting competition with the theme ‘My Dream’, 7 winning students of Baan Kob Dong received scholarships presented by Mr. Wim Fagel, General Manager, Amari Rincome Hotel, as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the hotel. (See headline picture above).

As well as general educational support, the Anghang Nature Resort has helped introduce the school children to the concept of tourism. Together with the local education authorities, the resort has implemented a “Junior Guide Program”, where children from the Baan Khob Dong school are trained to show visitors around their village. The Junior Guide Program has become part of the school curriculum.

According to Amari: “The guides are encouraged to take pride in their heritage and the surrounding natural environment and communicate this to the visitors. It also gives an opportunity to take a position of responsibility in the community. Guides who complete the program are awarded a certificate and a guide badge.

The Junior Guide Program enables tourists to have interaction with the local community and receive correct information about the hill tribes and the surrounding area. It also ensures any donations which are given to the villages by visitors are put into projects to benefit the community. Visitors are also taken to a co-operative shop, which sells handicrafts produced in the local villages. In addition, a ‘show house’ has been built so that guests can get an impression of the hilltribe way of life.”

For me it is this type of interaction that is enriching for all parties and it represents what I believe tourism should be about i.e sharing.

Doi Angkhang is just 3 hours north of Chiang Mai and a world away from mass tourism. To book your stay at the Ankhgang Nature Resort visit the Amari website . This is not an affiliate link and I receive no financial benefit.