Into the HILLS

Community-based tourism has become one of travel’s buzzwords. Northern Thailand’s lush hills and diverse ethnic people seem like the perfect place to experience how it works

- MARTIN SYMINGTON

The stilt-raised hut was dark and smelled of smoke and chillis. Underneath, a grey sow suckled her dozen or more snuffling piglets. A notched trunk ladder led to the bamboo-walled room where four of us would sleep on coconut-fibre mattresses draped with mosquito netting. Our hostess, Na-Ma, was hunched over a fire-throwing quizzical smile at her guests as she sliced vegetables and boiled pots of rice for the meal we would share later.

This was Pha Mon, a village of the Red Lahu people. It was the first overnight stop on a rugged three-night trek through the forested mountains and tribal settlements of Thailand’s far north-west, the centrepiece of our stay in the area.

Our group were assigned to a scattering of homestays around the settlement, in an agreement made between the trekking company and our hosts. The idea was that our visit to Pha Mon would be environmentally sustainable and generate income for the community in a spirit of mutually respectful cultural exchange: Community Based Tourism (CBT) in a nutshell.

The concept of CBT is seductive: we can slake our thirst for thrilling travels, with scruples eased by the knowledge that our far-flung ventures to poorer parts of the world benefit our hosts as much as ourselves. But how do these projects actually work in action? I had come to Northern Thailand to see for myself.

Community service