CHIANG RAI, THAILAND
Yesterday Chris, Kyle and I flew from Bangkok to Chiang Rai, the northernmost city in Thailand. It's a nice enough town, not much of a spectacular destination in itself, but it does make a convenient base for exploring the surrounding area, which includes the famous "Golden Triangle," the border between Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Laos.
On arrival, we were picked up by "Tom" (his farang name), who along with his wife runs the Mae Hong Son guesthouse where we're staying. They're some really nice folks, very friendly and personable. And as it happens, Tom also conducts sightseeing tours of the area, so today we piled into his little Mitsubishi compact and headed north for an all-day tour.
Our first stop was the Union of Hilltribe Villages, a sort of mini-EPCOT of northern Thailand's hill tribes (Akha, Hmong, Karen, Lisu, Lahu-muser, Palong, and Lu Mien-Yao). Actually, it's a little more authentic than EPCOT--these are actual villages with people living and working in them; they're just all conveniently located next to one another, which is great for lazy tourists who don't want to hike up into the hills for days! It was interesting to see each tribe's traditional dress and dwellings and to hear a little about their customs. In one of the villages we were treated to a music and dance performance, and in the others we saw women creating handicrafts, many featuring incredibly intricate weaving. Perhaps the most fascinating thing for me to see were the women of the Long-Necked Karen tribe, who wear dozens of brass rings that elongate their necks like giraffes.* It doesn't look very comfortable to me, but they were all smiling and laughing, so I guess it's fine for them.
After that whirlwind village tour, we made a stop at the Monkey Cave and Temple, a cliffside spot that's home to dozens of (what else) monkeys, and also features a stream with scores of huge koi and catfish. The monkeys were a different kind than I've seen before--they looked like macaques, but had red faces and shorter tails than the ones we saw in Bali and Malaysia. Of course, there were vendors there selling bananas, peanuts, and fish food pellets for the tourists to feed the critters, resulting in the usual amount of monkey madness and mayhem. I noticed that the staff also carried slingshots, in case the monkeys got a little out of hand. Luckily, today they were relatively well-behaved, and we were able to feed the monkeys and leave with all of our extremities intact.
Our next stop was Mae Sai, the northernmost point of Thailand, where we stopped at a nice overlook across the border into Myanmar (Burma). There's also a giant sculpture of a scorpion here, which although I forget its significance is pretty cool, regardless.
We then headed east to the famed Golden Triangle, and paid a visit to the "House of Opium," which sounds a lot more decadent than it really is! It's actually a museum about the opium trade, which for hundreds of years (until only about 50 years ago) gave this region worldwide infamy. As museums go, it was only so-so (apparently there's a much more flash opium museum down the road--with a much higher admission fee), but it was still interesting to see all the centuries of drug paraphernalia: Lots of elaborate pipes, scales, and intricately carved weights used in the trade.
After the museum, Tom led us down to the Mekong River, where we boarded a longtail boat that took us on a short tour of the Triangle--at one point, Thailand was the left bank of the river, there was a wedge of Myanmar in front of us, and Laos was on the right bank--pretty cool. We were actually able to stop for a bit on the Laos side, where there was a little "village" of vendor stalls selling Laotian souvenirs; the most popular being bottles of whiskey with poisonous snakes, scorpions, geckoes, and ginseng preserved in them. According to one of the vendors, drinking this brew "make you strong, like Viagra!" Chris actually tried a shot, but I prefer my whiskey straight, thanks.
The final stop on our tour of the far north was the town of Chiang Saen, which features crumbling ancient ruins in the midst of a modern Thai city. We saw a number of temples, pagodas, and Buddha statues at the temple complex of Wat Phra Dhat Pha Ngao, none of which I can tell you much about except that they are quite beautiful, and some are over 700 years old. Tom is a bit of an expert on the various styles of Buddhist temples, and gave a lot of details about their construction, but of course I immediately forgot it all. Anyway, we saw an awful lot today; my brain can't process every detail!
*Technically speaking, the rings don't stretch their necks at all; they just push down the shoulders and ribcage.
Yesterday Chris, Kyle and I flew from Bangkok to Chiang Rai, the northernmost city in Thailand. It's a nice enough town, not much of a spectacular destination in itself, but it does make a convenient base for exploring the surrounding area, which includes the famous "Golden Triangle," the border between Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Laos.
On arrival, we were picked up by "Tom" (his farang name), who along with his wife runs the Mae Hong Son guesthouse where we're staying. They're some really nice folks, very friendly and personable. And as it happens, Tom also conducts sightseeing tours of the area, so today we piled into his little Mitsubishi compact and headed north for an all-day tour.
Our first stop was the Union of Hilltribe Villages, a sort of mini-EPCOT of northern Thailand's hill tribes (Akha, Hmong, Karen, Lisu, Lahu-muser, Palong, and Lu Mien-Yao). Actually, it's a little more authentic than EPCOT--these are actual villages with people living and working in them; they're just all conveniently located next to one another, which is great for lazy tourists who don't want to hike up into the hills for days! It was interesting to see each tribe's traditional dress and dwellings and to hear a little about their customs. In one of the villages we were treated to a music and dance performance, and in the others we saw women creating handicrafts, many featuring incredibly intricate weaving. Perhaps the most fascinating thing for me to see were the women of the Long-Necked Karen tribe, who wear dozens of brass rings that elongate their necks like giraffes.* It doesn't look very comfortable to me, but they were all smiling and laughing, so I guess it's fine for them.
After that whirlwind village tour, we made a stop at the Monkey Cave and Temple, a cliffside spot that's home to dozens of (what else) monkeys, and also features a stream with scores of huge koi and catfish. The monkeys were a different kind than I've seen before--they looked like macaques, but had red faces and shorter tails than the ones we saw in Bali and Malaysia. Of course, there were vendors there selling bananas, peanuts, and fish food pellets for the tourists to feed the critters, resulting in the usual amount of monkey madness and mayhem. I noticed that the staff also carried slingshots, in case the monkeys got a little out of hand. Luckily, today they were relatively well-behaved, and we were able to feed the monkeys and leave with all of our extremities intact.
Our next stop was Mae Sai, the northernmost point of Thailand, where we stopped at a nice overlook across the border into Myanmar (Burma). There's also a giant sculpture of a scorpion here, which although I forget its significance is pretty cool, regardless.
We then headed east to the famed Golden Triangle, and paid a visit to the "House of Opium," which sounds a lot more decadent than it really is! It's actually a museum about the opium trade, which for hundreds of years (until only about 50 years ago) gave this region worldwide infamy. As museums go, it was only so-so (apparently there's a much more flash opium museum down the road--with a much higher admission fee), but it was still interesting to see all the centuries of drug paraphernalia: Lots of elaborate pipes, scales, and intricately carved weights used in the trade.
After the museum, Tom led us down to the Mekong River, where we boarded a longtail boat that took us on a short tour of the Triangle--at one point, Thailand was the left bank of the river, there was a wedge of Myanmar in front of us, and Laos was on the right bank--pretty cool. We were actually able to stop for a bit on the Laos side, where there was a little "village" of vendor stalls selling Laotian souvenirs; the most popular being bottles of whiskey with poisonous snakes, scorpions, geckoes, and ginseng preserved in them. According to one of the vendors, drinking this brew "make you strong, like Viagra!" Chris actually tried a shot, but I prefer my whiskey straight, thanks.
The final stop on our tour of the far north was the town of Chiang Saen, which features crumbling ancient ruins in the midst of a modern Thai city. We saw a number of temples, pagodas, and Buddha statues at the temple complex of Wat Phra Dhat Pha Ngao, none of which I can tell you much about except that they are quite beautiful, and some are over 700 years old. Tom is a bit of an expert on the various styles of Buddhist temples, and gave a lot of details about their construction, but of course I immediately forgot it all. Anyway, we saw an awful lot today; my brain can't process every detail!
*Technically speaking, the rings don't stretch their necks at all; they just push down the shoulders and ribcage.
posted by John Kuge at 11:19 PM
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