THAILAND-LAOS : THE MOUNTAIN PEOPLE | France 5 | Les Routes de l'Impossible

The trails of Tak province soon make you forget the softness of Thailand’s beaches. During the rainy season, Anuwat always travels with chains to equip the wheels of his 4×4 in the most perilous passages. Life is harsh in the mountains, the Karen people live mainly from growing rice and corn, and the resources of the forest still fill the shelves of the shamans.

Others have to sink to the bottom of huge caves to earn a living, under the beating wings of thousands of bats. Refugees from the fighting raging in neighboring Burma, the giraffe-women try to survive as best they can, even if it means dressing up in fake costumes to please tourists. In some elephant parks, they have become an economic attraction in their own right.

In Laos, Ham has a hard time hoisting his old military truck onto the hellish tracks of the Kasi region. They lead to cornfields overlooked by astonishing limestone peaks. Goods and passengers pile into his trailer. Peasants here are struggling to recover from the ban on poppy cultivation, and now earn far less than before. To treat or feed themselves, they have to go for the simplest and cheapest.

Medicinal plants, field rats and wood-grilled insects keep them going.

At first glance, the Mekong River, “the mother of all waters”, still displays all its superb beauty. But its ecosystem is being disrupted by the many dams that impede its flow. In Laos, the water tables in the village of Huay Pong are dry. To make up for the lack of water, Tham and his son have become water carriers. They travel the trails with dozens of water bottles, balancing precariously on their small machine.