The dawn came, tantalisingly splendorous, and the sun lifted itself out of a soft bed of clouds on the horizon, stretched out it’s weary arms and yawned, sending shafts of sunlight that awoke the surrounding Thai countryside. Some friends and I had made our way by river to a small village near Chiang Rai in the northern interior, set amongst dense hills that were the eastern edge of the Himalayan belt. From these lofty heights, we now looked down on the little hamlet and watched how the sunlight danced on a local child, possibly only eight or nine, who was up early and already demanding money from some tourists. It was sad to see how he ran beside them and tapped the pockets of their imitation khaki clothes as they started their elephant trek into the jungle to meet the supposedly isolated Lahu hill tribes. This part of Thailand seemed to attract that brand of foreigner who regarded challenge as an inherent part of life, and I knew that many ventured further north to the opium villages of the Golden Triangle near the town of Mae Sai on the border with Burma.

The mornings in this part of the world were seldom silent, often an entire orchestra of monkeys and macaos took turns to play the dawn chorus, but today the silence was broken by a strange melodic chant coming from the surrounding hillsides. In the distance above us, we could see a group of saffron-clad monks marching in single file down the hill from their monastery. My eyes focused on the strange procession and I noticed how  some were carrying aluminium begging bowls, others small birdcages and the remainder were clapping their hands to rythymical beat of the melodic mantra they were humming. The hill tribe explorers descended from their elephants and gathered together in a bewildered group to watch the proceedings in awe. The sound of the chanting appeared in total harmony with the surroundings and it gained momentum as the monks came closer along the pathway. Their leader moved with a self-assured dignity and his young countenance bestowed the feeling of an inner sense of peace. The monks represented another world and were probably the only part of the surroundings that had not been sold out to the tourist industry. They stopped near our party, happy to accept some rice and a jar of curried mangoes from our supplies. Their leader, Praydoor sat beside me and explained that the simplistic mantra was meant to thank the earth for all its wonderful gifts and to wish for peace and harmony to be bestowed upon us. He was happy to converse in English and we started chatting about how long he had been a monk in Chang Rai.

"Only for six months!" he said, explaining that a lot of younger men serve only for short periods, in order to abstain from worldly desires and gain some spiritual enlightenment. A bond of companionship quickly developed between us and I was tempted to ask,

"Why do your friends carry about small finches in those cages!"

He looked at me with uncomfortable eyes and replied,

"Because for a few baht, tourists can open the doors of the cages and let the birds fly to freedom!"

I looked at him, as some of his supposed righteousness appeared to drain from his halo.

"But your desire to have money is causing these little birds to endure suffering!"  I scowled.

"No! we have raised the birds from birth" "They are now old enough to survive on their own and we allow  them to fly away and have their freedom!" he said, eager to justify the basis of his Buddhist beliefs.

"But if you didn’t desire to make money from them, they would have grown up with no cages!""And really, isn’t this an anology of what is happening everywhere in Thailand, the desire for more money in putting all your people in some sort of cages!"

"What do you mean?" he irritably replied.

"Well, the people of Bangkok are caged in pollution, the prostitues of Patpong are caged in diseases and the young hill tribesmen here are caged in drug manufacture!".

He looked again at me, his dark brown eyes slowly measured me up and he said,

"Yes, some of our people are indeed like the birds in the cage, but they wouldn't have survived without having the desire for the same money that you say also causes their sufferings"

"So, what exactly will your people have eventually gained from it all!" I queried!

"Freedom"  he said,

"The freedom to become somebody like you and be able to fly away to another land and bother the people there with your questions!"

Like that he left me, leaving only the memory of our conversation to melt way into the mists of time.