Thailand: Akha traders at the early morning market next to the local petrol station in Doi Mae Salong (Santikhiri), Chiang Rai Province. The Akha are a hill tribe of subsistence farmers known for their artistry. Akha people are distributed in small villages among the mountains of China, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and northern Thailand. Doi Mae Salong was once an impoverished, heavily-armed Kuomintang (KMT) outpost, it is today a tranquil oasis of tea gardens, fruit orchards and Yunnanese-style houses.