2008.07 Cover Story

I had a chance to travel to Satul, a small province in Southern Thailand. Satul gains a reputation about their beautiful islands. But the place I visited was in a forest area of Banthad Mountain rather than seaside. This area is known very rich of natural resources.

During a ride to destination, I caught a glance of Mani women walking on a road side (Some people called Sakai or Ngor rather than Mani). Then I stopped a car and walked back to take them photos.  Unfortunately they has gone already. I asked my guide where they would go. He said Manis walked into the forest and would get through a stream to their living place called Thub.

I was hurry up to get through the forest and went straight to that stream. I found 7-8 Manis that mostly were female, were going ahead to pass the stream. I was imagining that it wouldn’t be that easy for those women when they had to hold their kids while carrying a lot of stuff and walk through that stream.

I got into the stream and walked carefully. Water was getting deep and swift. Group of Manis were getting into water. I tried to notice their activities and admired them. They should be very brave and responsible. They had to hold their child while the right hand holding another child, left hand carrying some stuff. It wouldn’t be easy at all for average women can do. I was taking them photo very carefully. With a difficulty of carrying camera bag, I needed to beware of dropping all of my stuff into the water. For a little while all of Manis had got through the stream and went straight to their living place.