In 1974, Mechai Viravaidya founded an organization to promote family planning, the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), Thailiand's largest private-voluntary organization. Viravaidya recognized that, unless radical steps were taken to contain Thailand's rapid population growth, the government's efforts to promote development would be fruitless. Using a new approach, PDA established community-based distribution networks throughout the country, providing villagers access to pills and condoms. Village volunteers were recruited from each village to be responsible for promoting and providing birth control. As part of the program, a chain of restaurants named Cabbages and Condoms, provides a visable promotion of the idea of family planning. Viravaidya believed that, for any program to be successful, birth control should be as accessible and easy to buy as vegetables in the market.

The Cabbages and Condoms restaurant in Bangkok has a handicrafts store next to it, featuring some very nice crafts, the results of cottage industries. Some of the items are quite amusing: colorful flowers made out of rolled-up condoms, a t-shirt with a comic condom saying "A condom a day keeps pregnancy away," postcards with more cartoon condoms and condom jokes.

PDA is also involved in developement activities such as water resource development, environmental conservation, environmental sanitation, and AIDS education and prevention, all as part of local, integrated programs.

The population of Thailand is 60,609,000. The annual growth rate is down to 1.6%. The average fertility rate is only 1.8 children. However, Thailand lost a third of its forests in the 1980's.

It is smokey this time of year in Northern Thailand, for the most part a result of agricultural burning. Mountain people plant on hillsides in the territories where they have been assigned. They grow dry rice (un-terraced) and corn on the hills. After one planting, the ground must lay fallow for many years. Poor tribespeople cannot afford fertilizers. There are no tall trees left on the mountainsides. The teak trees have been taken for lumber, and Thailand no longer exports quality teak.

Changmai - Northern Thailand

In travelling to the north, I expected to see less and less of civilization. Instead we found sprawling cities and expensive mountain homes, even an hour away from the tribespeople.

Last year in Northern Thailand was one of the coldest in recent history - several people died because homes have no heat.

The royal family sponsors reforestation, health care and education for tribal peoples, agricultural improvements, and cottage industry for tribespeople. The late princess mother's palace and surrounding land north of Chang Rai has been planted with teak as an example of reforestation.

The tribespeople, the Yeo, the Meo, the Karen, the Akha, and others, practice Buddhism, animism, or Catholicism - there are Christian missionaries in the area. I learn that the hillspeople sometimes practice polygamy.

All Thai are offered free schooling up to high school, but many children of tribespeople leave school before entering high school. Their families need them to help grow and harvest crops and to hunt and see to other tasks. While the rest of Thailand has it's population under control, the tribespeople practise few limitations on family size. Animism rejects modern medicine, including reproductive health care and contraceptives. And, of course, Catholism rejects contraception and sex education.

Many young people leave the rural areas for the cities. The remaining people in mountain areas and country side are mainly the old and children.

Handicrafts among tribespeople are encouraged by the government. Many Thai houses are built on stilts, and underneath many of them you will find a loom. Markets abound with weavings, embroidery work, carvings, jewelry, and so on. Thailand has a thriving tourist industry. A sizable portion of organized tour activities consists or 'shopping'. This I found to be a rather enjoyable task - the goods were indeed works of art and inexpensive. All open markets seem to have handicrafts aplenty, with tribes women dressed in native costume selling their handiwork. One would only hope that such endeavors would bring in enough money to make a woman feel empowered enough to think about a smaller, healthier, more economically successful family.

Bangkok

Bangkok is a great example of urban sprawl: settlements of single family bungalows with roosters crowing sit next to 15 story hotels. Traffic on weekdays is horrendous, despite a large bus system and now the sky train. Pollution control is limited and exhaust fumes fill the air. Fortunately, shops, markets, and temples are within close walking distance - for most needs. An article in the paper tells how parts of Bangkok are sinking because the water levels are dropping.

Thailand is know for it's high volume of sex trade. Men from many countries come to find Thai ladies, and sometimes Thai boys. Often Thai women are promised jobs overseas that don't materialze, but the women are forced into virtual slavery (prostitution) to pay the fees for bringing them to the new country. HIV/AIDS is rising alarmingly fast in Thailand.

Journal

April 1, 2000 - Journey to Aythuya - south of Bangkok. Ancient Kyhmer ruins.

April 2, 2000 - We take a tour of the klongs (canals) and the snake farm. After the boat ride, we take tuk-tuk (motorcycle rickshaw) on a tour of Golden Mount, Standing Buddha, and places we didn't ask to go, such as 'shopping'. We have dinner at the Cabbages and Condoms restuarant - it is Greg's birthday, and my 'treat'.

April 3, 2000 - We investigate getting visas from the Indian embassy and the Bangladesh embassy. The Indian visas will take four days. We go to the Presidential Palace and Wat Pho, where we see the Emerald Buddha and the great Reclining Buddha.

April 4, 2000 - In the afternoon we take a flight to Changmai. Greg and I explore the city on our own and take a tuk-tuk tour of the town temples.

April 5, 2000 - Our guide meets us in the morning, and loads us into a minivan with a driver. We drive 3 hours to Changrai. We get on a boat and travel up a river in a boat with a motor at the end of a long pole; then come upon the elephant camp, where we go on an hour long elephant ride. We catch a song-lon (pickup with benches in the back bed) to a near-by village where we visit the Akha tribe. We travel some more to see another tribe. Of course we can't resist buying handcrafts - souvenirs. Then we drive to our hotel for the night. In the evening we go to a dinner and culture show, where we see native dancers and hear strange musical instruments being played.

April 6, 2000 -

Greg was sick during the night, but he has no choice but to come along. We travel to the Mae Fang Luang - Princess Mother's (mother of the king - she died several years ago) Palace, where re-forestation of the teak trees is occuring. On the grounds is a museum, a huge chalet, and a beautiful garden. The chalet is made of re-used teak wood - very beautiful. We learn that the Princess was a nurse and looked out after the health care of the tribespeople.

Then we travel to the northern area and the town of Mae Sai, where we look across the border to a town in Burma. Locals can cross the border freely, but us foreigners cannot. We drive to the Golden Triangle - where Burma (Myanmar), Laos, and Thailand meet at the Mekong river and junction of two other rivers. This is where opium was exchanged for gold.

At 7pm we return to Bangkok by air.

April 7, 2000 - We go to the Indian embassy and get our visas. We go to the Bangladesh embassy and I get my visa. We rest. At 7:50pm we fly to Delhi, India. Upon arrival in the airport at 10:30pm, we make arrangements to drive the Agra the next day.