LIVING and working alongside the hill tribes of Thailand has given countryside planning specialist Malcolm Bell a chance to experience their way of life while sharing his knowledge with them in a bid to ensure their survival.

Dr Bell, who lives on the Teesdale border at Phoenix Row, Etherley, spent a month in the mountainous Chiang Rai region, a politically unstable area which borders Laos and Burma.

He was on a sabbatical from his company, the Newcastle-based firm of solicitors Ward Hadaway. He has worked for the firm for 13 years and specialises in agriculture, countryside planning and the environment.

He was featured in the D&S Times in February, just before setting off to join his friends, Paul Hancock and Patricia Solar, who are based in the Mae Yao district of Chiang Rai working for the Mirror Art Group.

"It is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation, set up by Thais, to try to bring education and assistance to the area," said Dr Bell, who told how his trip had not differed wildly from his expectations, although the area was more isolated and more splendidly set in the hills than he had imagined.

However, one unpredicted change was that the Thai government had declared its latest war on drugs in a three-month elimination programme, feeling most drugs came in through the hill tribe areas from Burma.

About 500 people were killed, with police accepting responsibility for about 30 of the deaths and saying the others had been killed by the drug runners for being informers.

"There is no doubt that drugs are being run through the area," said Dr Bell. "But there are postcards in the tourist areas showing old men sucking on opium pipes, so you also have the picture of drugs being painted with a nice image."

One of his main tasks was to help set up a coffee co-operative to encourage the tribes' traditional self-sufficiency methods. He caused a great stir when, not anticipating that agriculture was all women's work, he set off with a heavy-headed hoe for a day in the fields.

He worked mainly with the Akah, who are of Tibetan-Burmese origin, and described them as eager to learn and take on fresh ideas that would help them succeed and make a living.

"The women are keen because they see it can feed their children and bring a greater range of crops, while the men are keen because if they grow coffee it can make money to buy a motorbike, which is the most wonderful thing they can own," said Dr Bell. "It gives the younger men the incentive to steer away from drug running."

Just before his trip, his friends had organised the villagers, who number about 300, to build themselves a road, which saved the women a 5km walk every morning before starting work on the steep slopes.

The couple paid for food for the workers from their own pockets. Dr Bell said that, for the relatively small amount it cost in Western terms, they built the road in five days, because applying and waiting for grants would take too long.

He told how nothing edible was wasted and yet the women were unaware that feathers and bones could be used on their crops and had been throwing them away. He also showed them how to turn in top vegetation to make green manure.

"They were fascinated that bone meal could be used on the fields and that potash from their open hearths was good for fruiting crops," he added.

A micro credit scheme has been set up, giving each family 500 coffee plants. They do not have money and will pay for them when the crop is harvested.

They will also try investing in tea, as it is a continuous crop which will generate cash all year round. But the people have no ownership of land and there is constant conflict with the local forester, so there is a need to square the circle.

The Akha keep the history of spoken language and the women exercise great feats of memory, both with the language and with regard to their ancestry.

In picking up the dos and don'ts of the region, Dr Bell discovered that he must never ask a woman's name, as it was only to be spoken on formal occasions.

He also learned that he must never touch the village's huge entrance arch or a whole set of ritual cleansing would have to be gone through. Yet, passing through the gate, he must say: "Do not be afraid." Nor must he touch the village swing, except on formal occasions. It is also considered rude to point the feet.

He described village conditions as primitive, with some houses having running water in the form of a continuous hose. Toilet facilities were also of the basic Asian variety. "One had to wash with the left hand, and there was no paper because it would cause clogging," said Dr Bell.

Most of the food is very simple and consists of a pot containing glutinous mountain rice, which is made into a ball in the hand and eaten. Breakfast is rice, lunch is rice and tea is rice with noodles or an egg on top.

A dog and a water buffalo were part of a feast held after the road-building. The hide of the buffalo is smoked and put into the ashes of the fire to be eaten later. Dr Bell sponsored a feast of a duck, which lasted three days, by which time it had become boiled bone soup.

There is almost no social life in the village. The villagers work from sunrise until sunset and the lack of protein and greens in their diet means they are too exhausted at the end of the day for anything but sleep. But Dr Bell says that, although quite clearly undernourished, the residents are not starving.

The best treat is whisky rice - rice which is left damp for a few days to ferment. By day five it will have turned into a sweet mushy pudding, and when left longer will produce rice alcohol in due course.

There is a tribal hierarchy, and discussions were made with the head man because it was feared about 20 of the 65 families needed extra rice to help them make it to the next harvest, which they received along with their coffee plants.

Men take on female roles in Thailand, and it is considered quite normal for a father to carry his offspring around and show them off with pride. Men are also responsible for working together in a kind of village partnership. All the houses are made of bamboo, which is collected by the young men. Older women who cannot work in the fields knot together fibres to make waterproof roofs.

"The houses are completely built from materials from the jungle," said Dr Bell. "Men are also responsible for anything to do with machinery and electrics and will tinker with elderly vehicles to keep them going."

Dr Bell also did some teaching of English to schoolchildren further down country, some 150km away from the border area and consequently more stable.

He is looking forward to welcoming Mr Hancock and Ms Solar on their annual trip to England in July, when they plan to enjoy the Castle Players' production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Bowes museum in Barnard Castle.

l As a result of the coffee planting at Mae Yao, Dr Bell is hoping to lay his hands on a coffee roaster because the villagers can get three times more money for roasted beans.

If anyone has one, in whatever condition, Dr Bell would be delighted to arrange collection and shipping. He can be contacted on 07785 595048.