Heroin, Opium, Burma, and Laos

Waking Up

I got up around 6:30, expecting the tour bus to arrive somewhere between 7-7:30am. The tour today would be a bit longer than the one from the previous day. This trip involved heading to a town further north called Chiang Rai and continued further to the border of Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), and Laos.

Pickup

Around 7:15am a van similar to the one I rode on the day before arrived. This time there was both a driver and tour guide. The driver went by the name #1 and spoke little if any English. The guide went by Max. Max is the only person from Thailand I've met to date that is similar to Mr. Chow from The Hangover. That said, Max sounds exactly like Mr. Chow from the hangover. His laugh is even identical.  Max spoke English pretty well, but the way he would phrase sentances was definitely foreign.

Max was pretty awesome and had a great sense of humor. I was one of the first stops, the next stop we picked up Adrian...than a few more stops until the bus was full with about 12 people. Max went over the itinerary, suggesting at first (and scaring some people who thought he was serious) we were going to an Elephant Camp. After his overview of the itinerary everyone went to sleep. It was early and the bus was full of tired people - most of whom were in their 20s. 

Max explaining the Golden Triangle

Hot Springs

The first stop was the Hot Springs. I think this was more a fuel stop than anything. In any case we were given time to check out the natural hot springs and surrounding shops. We had been on the road for about an hour so getting food was on the top of the priority list. 

Of the many vendors I found one that appeared to be selling crepes. She was actually selling Roti. She spoke no English, but I was able to communicate simple butter. The thing was pretty delicious and set me back about 30 cents. I picked up some water and a couple of packages of Oreo cookies for a further 60 cents and we were back on the road. 

Me at the Hot Springs - yes the water was very hot

Local making my Roti

Chiang Rai - Wat Rong Khun

After a further 2 hour drive we eventually reached the White Temple (Wat Rong Khun) in the town of Chiang Rai. Max woke everyone up and gave us some history about the temple. Apparently monks do not live on the temple premises and it was constructed mostly for show. The temple was built in 1997 and is still undergoing construction. Construction is expected to go another 70 years or so and another 6 or 7 temples will be built on the property to compliment the one that is already finished. The temple we saw and entered was nearly complete. The temple was spectacular and ranks up there with the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Sagrada Família in Barcelona or the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. 

The interior was very, very strange. Wallpaper lines the wall of the entrance and contains a very, very strange mural. I'm not exactly certain what the mural means, but it has various figures taken from pop culture. Photos are prohibited, but this traveler decided to break the rules and took a few pictures that details what I saw. Most disturbing was an image of the world trade center disaster. Less disturbing was Spiderman, Batman, Hello Kitty, Kung Fu Panda, Harry Potter and Angry Birds. 

Max gave us about an hour to walk around the temple. He also asked if we wanted to take a cruise once at the Golden Triangle to the island of Don Sao, in Laos. There was and extra fee of about $10, so we'd need to pay up now if we wanted to go. Everyone on the bus opted in.

Incredible detail...kinda reminds me of the statue outside Dachau

Golden Triangle

Next on the itinerary was the Golden Triangle. We'd head to the very north of Thailand, where the country meets Burma and Laos. Further up the river is China. All countries are accessible, and we'd take a ferry ride to the island of Don Sao in Laos. 

Max explained that the name Golden Triangle came from a US government memo decades ago that detailed the opium and heroin trade. In this area was a particular tract of land that was considered no mans land. Because of the lack of legal jurisdiction, drugs would be dropped on the land.

We took a cruise out to Don Sao island in Laos. The cruise boat fit maybe a hundred people (more than our simple group) and Max gave a tour to everyone as we cruised along. 

Once on the island Max mentioned one of the shops was giving free Scorpion Whiskey tastings. Max recommended against it, because apparently the stuff is really intoxicating. I figured I should send some postcards home so I head for a shop to pickup postcards and stamps. I sent a few postcards and walked around, noticing the island was a total tourist trap. It was small and simply had huts full of shops.  I noticed a bottle with what appeared to be a rattlesnake and a scorpion - I think it contained whiskey. Adrian warned me that one of the travelers he met packed such a bottle and it broke in his suitcase. The odor he said, was completely noxious.

We're a long way from Bangkok

The buddha greats us outside the ferry

Don Sao Island

Welcome to Laos...kinda

Handbags for sale

Adrian and me on the boat

Laos immigration building

Intersection of three countries and a track of no man's land

Scorpion Whiskey

A rattlesnakes and scorpion is within

Mailbox in Laos

Our ferry

Temple of the Mountain of Scorpions

After departing the Golden Triangle we drove about 10 minutes to a spot for lunch. The arrangement was similar to the day before. Traditional Thai food and some chicken wings.  After lunch we head to a temple directly adjacent to the Burmese border. We wouldn't cross over to Burma, but the temple had a nice scenic overlook into the border city.

To reach the temple we drove through a market. People were everywhere. These were locals, not tourists. We had to drive slow as Max scattered them like cattle.  Than we approached a vehicle going the wrong way blocking us. Getting to the temple was an adventure itself.

Chaos

I considered playing the U2 song "Walk On", a song banned in Burma about a Burmese political prisoner...but didn't. After walking around for 15 minutes we regrouped. Max was eating some coconut ice cream from a vendor and suggested we do the same. It was 10 baht, or about 30 cents, and delicious. 

Burma

Long Neck Village

The last stop before our 3 hour journey home would be to the Long Neck Village. From the tour description, this was an authentic tribal village filled with tribal folks. The woman of the village wore long rings on their neck, adding more and more as they got older. As we walked into the village it did seem authentic and rather convincing. We entered the market, but further back appeared to be huts were people might have lived. Adrian noticed there were woman and children only, no men. We'd later learn from Max that the men of the village mostly work at the nearby Elephant Camps. We walked down a long row of shops and watched as the woman with long neck ware weaved fabric scarves. The woman did not speak Thai or English. Max said they liked tourists and photos were okay. I felt it was like a human zoo. Some of the people in our bus ventured into the village and started playing with the children. The kids didn't know English, but they still had fun.

Apple shirt?

Afterwards, I talked with Max and he confirmed the whole thing was a giant scam. Apparently, some entrepreneur thought he could make some money moving villagers and setting up a faux village. The people are largely uneducated, I'm guessing the children are as well. The whole thing is completely awful. It's kinda sad how much discussion there is surrounding animal rights and the elephant camps and Tiger Kingdom...yet little is said about these camps. And we're talking about people here...including children.

I noticed a girl wearing an Apple t-shirt commemorating Steve Jobs. At first I thought it was a true sign the world is flat (economically speaking). Than I remembered what I learned in Jordan - I saw a man wearing a University of Illinois hat. I thought he might have a friend back home, but likely he didn't. My friend Ibrahim, who was showing me around Jordan, mentioned that overproduced goods in the states get dumped to these parts of the world. These people aren't high enough up Maslow's hierarchy of needs triangle to care about fashion. A simple shirt, regardless of design, fills their needs just fine. This particular girl probably has no idea what the shirt she's wearing even says...especially since she lives in a village without running water or electricity. 

Returning Home

We stopped at a gas station before heading back. The vehicle takes some form of natural gas, I think CNG. Max said the law stated everyone had to get out of the vehicle when it was getting filled up with fuel - only CNG though, if it took regular gas/petrol it wouldn't apply.

Premium breaks down to $4.83/gallon. 

About half the price as Hong Kong

The journey back home was about 3 hours...painful. It would be around 8:30pm when we returned. Before we began the marathon drive Max passed around a clipboard with surveys. He insisted we be honest, but also said those who said bad things  to say about him would be walking back to their hotel. I'm not sure if he was joking, but there really wasn't anything bad I could say about Max. He was an excellent tour guide...and hilarious. I chatted with him a bit and let him know I really enjoyed the tour and he told me he really enjoyed his job. It's easy to tell he enjoys it. 

If you have anything bad to say on survey...

...I hope you enjoy the walk to your hotel

He offered to drop anyone off who was interested over to the Sunday Market Walking Street, an enormous market in the old city. This particular market was on my hit list, as it's considered one of the best markets in the world by Lonely Planet.

Sunday Market Walking Street

The Sunday Market Walking Street was by the far the best market in all of Chiang Mai. I actually liked this market more than the Chatuchuck Market in Bangkok, which is considered the largest open air weekend market in the world. Streets normally open to traffic are closed on Sunday night and merchants setup shop throughout miles of roads.  What makes this particular market different than the rest is the merchandise. Instead of seeing the same booths repeated 30 times, much of the merchandise is original. You still see a bit of repetition, but you also see original art, clothing, and other merchandise you won't see elsewhere. There are a number of massage providers along the roads. Since we had a long walking day we got foot massages, an hour foot massage was the equivalent of $5 US. There were also many entertaining street performers, mostly singing or playing an instrument.

Original shirts!

3 story Starbucks

Endless art vendors

Hoards of people

Street performers

Man playing guitar

Tomorrow

We walked around the market for a couple of hours. Close to midnight it was time to go home, we were both exhausted. We had a tuk-tuk drop us off at a spot equidistant to both our residences. Adrian suggested getting breakfast in the morning -that sounded great.  We'd meet at 8:30am where the tuk-tuk dropped us of.