Sundar Narayanan

July 26, 2026

adventure, all part of life, jr., landscapes, photoblog, photography, portrait, rivers, travel, videoblog

Oshino Village, Nigori-ike pond and the Shinnasho-gawa river

Sundar Narayanan

July 26, 2026

adventure, all part of life, jr., landscapes, photoblog, photography, portrait, rivers, travel, videoblog

The previous post in this series is here..

After coming back from the shrine, we got back to the van and drove to teh Oshino Village.

It is a village that is preserved in its original state. This place reminded us of Ballarat in Australia for many reasons.

The ponds, the huts, the little details all transported us to a different place and time. Then we walked behind the village along bamboo fences to the river banks lined with Cherry trees. The blossoms were just amazing!

The river was flowing gently and the flower petals were everywhere on the gently flowing water. It was an amazing experience.. We also got to eat large Fuji apples.. the original! They were delicious! The rest of the group had a peach tea also which they loved.

Here are the photos from this leg of the trip..

and a video highlights reel..

Our driver said there was one more stop before lunch and we had to rush a bit if we wanted to get back to Tokyo before getting stuck in traffic. So off we went to the next stop.

Sundar Narayanan

December 21, 2025

adventure, all part of life, hiking, landscapes, national park, photoblog, photography, portrait, rivers, Thailand, travel, videoblog, waterfalls

Doi Inthanon National park - Pha Dok Sieo trail

Sundar Narayanan

December 21, 2025

adventure, all part of life, hiking, landscapes, national park, photoblog, photography, portrait, rivers, Thailand, travel, videoblog, waterfalls

The previous post in this series is here..

We drove to the Doi Inthanon Park sign where we had to pay token money to the local village people. They usually have a village lady accompany tourists on the walk to the village. We spent an hour walking through the forest on the Pha Dok Sieo trail crossing multiple waterfalls on the way and learning a lot of things about the forest and the village we were visiting.

The village was again inhabited by folks who originally came from Burma. They cultivated coffee (originally Heroin which was discontinued by government and switched to coffee) and rice.

Our guide was a lady from the village. She explained everything on the long hike and Joy translated where reqiured. It was a pleasant day and we thoroughly enjoyed the hike. It ended in the village where we met a very old lady operating a loom to make scarves. We sat at a cafe and had bananas and San managed to get a coffee (made from local beans) and it was time to walk to the car and drive to our next stop.

While we walked to the car, we met a 106 year old grandma who was so sweet. She could not hear at all, but she asked San to sit next to her to take photos and spread the tarp for her. We were truly touched by this grandma. She had three kids, the oldest son was 86 and the youngest daughter was 66. We met the daughter. Apparently grandma had a tough life in Burma.

Here are the pictures..

Landscape mode photos.. we learned about stingless bees, plants that can confuse fish and make them drunk, jumping snakes, and a lot of forest facts..

and a video highlights reel..

We said bye to the village and moved to stop 3 for the day..

Sundar Narayanan

December 20, 2025

adventure, all part of life, creeks, landscapes, photoblog, photography, portrait, rivers, social study, Thailand, travel, videoblog, waterfalls

Meeting the Long Neck tribe people in Chiang Mai

Sundar Narayanan

December 20, 2025

adventure, all part of life, creeks, landscapes, photoblog, photography, portrait, rivers, social study, Thailand, travel, videoblog, waterfalls

The previous post in this series is here..

Joy showed up in the morning to pick us up at 7AM sharp. We had received the breakfast and they gave what they could. San was covered. I was not. Luckily I still had some energy bars left for the day. We also wanted to stop by a pharmacy to get some throat lozenges. Joy helped San buy stuff. It was good we had a translator!

With a quick pharmacy stop, we were on our way to our first stop on a very packed day. Joy was surprised that we wanted to see all that in one day, but we promised him we will step up and we will be done before 6PM for sure. He simply smiled. As we drove out of the busy area of Chiang Mai, he showed us the old houses in the area made of Teak wood on one street where the trees were also old and lined the street on both sides. It was going to be an almost 100km drive. Gave us some rest. We saw an airplane that was converted to a restaurant on the way as well.

Our first stop was to visit the Long neck tribe who are originally from Burma but have been given refuge in Thailand. They can sell trinkets to tourists and have some land to cultivate crops for themselves, but are restricted to that area. The women have long necks and wear a heavy set of rings from the time they are children. Originally only women born on a full moon Wednesday had to wear it. Now all girls are wearing it here. Learning about their history and way of life was interesting. We took some photos with the women and children, bought some souvenirs and walked back to the car. The river that ran through their area was key to their survival and there were beautiful waterfalls right near the houses of the tribe.