The Golden Triangle

Chiang Rai, Thailand, 26-28 & May 2008

After the bed bug incident Claire always does a thorough "clinical"examination of all new rooms. Once bitten, twice shy. In Chiang Rai she spotted one bb, we checked out in the morning into a business style hotel. There was a sign in the lobby stating "No Durian". Durian is a fleshy fruit with a rather pungent smell. We tasted it when we did the cookery course, but we had to spit it out. the locals love it though! You cannot come this far north in Thailand without visiting the Golden Triangle. This is an area where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet and it is synonymous with poppy fields and consequently the opium trade.

We hired a private guide/driver for the day so that we could take in the local sights. First stop was the Union of Tribal Villages. This was clearly the brainchild of some shrewd businessman, previously if you wanted to see 5 different hilltribes you would have to spend several days trekking in the local hills. Now you can simply visit this completely manufactured hilltribe compound. Well, perhaps that is being a little harsh. They are real tribal families that live here. They each have their own distinctive clothing, religions and build their own distinctive huts. We deliberated at length over whether we should visit or not because we had read reports of how this was nothing more than human exploitation used to line the pockets of some greedy entrepreneur. Our guide however told a different story, he told of how these tribes were protected here, given education and how all their medical needs were met. Swaying between what to believe we decided to go in and make up our own minds. Once inside it didn't take us long to realise this place was nothing more than a human zoo. Because it was low season there were very few tourists around. As we entered the 1st village (Akha tribe) we saw the members coming from all around until they were all lines up inn front of us. They then performed their tribal dance but each of them looked as though the life force had been sucked out of them, there was no joy on their part and consequently no enjoyment on our part. We moved onto the next village (Yao tribe) and the process started all over again. The tribal members went through the motions and we moved on quickly, we felt sick. There were only two of us and as we left the village we saw a group of 3 tourists enter and heard the tribal dance start all over again. Thankfully the other tribes were not required to perform a dance so we could enter their villages and well.... look at them.

What really sells this place to tourists is the presence of one specific tribe, the Long Neck Karen. The females of the tribe wear heavy brass rings around their necks, the addition of new rings eventually pushes the clavicle and rib cage down giving the women the appearance of having unusually long necks. Rings worn on the arms and legs may way a woman down with an additional 30 lbs in brass. Since leg coils hamper walking the women waddle. Constrained from drinking in the usual head back position a ring wearer leans forward to sip through a straw. They may look well in a photograph but watching them walk around, hunched forward under the weight, it is not an existence I would wish on anyone. Apparently the women in the Long Neck Karen tribe had started to abandon the wearing of the debilitating rings but in touristville they are obliged to give punters their full moneys worth. We really wouldn't recommend a visit here because by doing every paying tourist supports human exploitation. Hopefully or visit is not in vain and we will encourage any friends/acquaintances. Instead don a pair of hiking boots and get out into the hills and see these people in their truly natural environment.

From here we continued north, stopping off briefly at the monkey cave before arriving at Thailand's most northerly town Mae Sai. After taking the obligatory "most north point of Thailand" photograph (they really should get a native English speaker to proof read before they spend thousands of $ on these monuments) we contemplated crossing the border in Myanmar. For $10 you can enter the country but are only permitted to travel 1km inland. We decided to give it a skip, we didn't want to give our money to a military junta that continues to deny aid to the cyclone stricken areas. We wandered the many markets before jumping back into our air con taxi and heading on to the Golden Triangle. It felt good to be our own bosses with regards to how long we wanted to stay in a place.

The Golden Triangle is a tri border area: Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. If you didn't know any better you might be forgiven for thinking it is just a bit of land with two rivers flowing through it but because everyone does know better the tourist buses line up & photos are taken based on the size of you memory card rather than the quality of your composition.

We visited the Opium museum which was very interesting- high praise from non-museum goers.