Something of an epic day yesterday. I decided to book a group excursion to the so-called Golden Triangle - where Thailand meets Burma and Laos, and which was once the centre of the opium business. My plan was to get off at Chiang Rai on the way back rather than return to Chiang Mai.
It worked out well in the end, but only after a rather bad start.
I was up at 5:45 for breakfast before departure at 7:00 - but the minibus didn't show up. As I was becoming more frantic I was being given promises that the bus was just a few minutes away. The fact is that it had gone without coming by my hotel and was well out of town. Needless to say I was kinda unhappy with this and my feelings were made abundantly clear. Anyway, they came back for me and we finally set off again at 8:00. The others on the bus had been allowed to vote on the matter; so I'm grateful to them - a fine bunch of 9 in total (from all corners of the world, and Belgium) + courier and driver.
One thing that had not helped my general demeanour whilst waiting, by the way, is that the hotel's poodle decided to cock its leg and pee against my rucksack - which was waiting by the door. With the assistance of the kitchen staff , I made an effort to clean it up, but I fear that it will never be quite the same again. At this time I thought the puddle on the floor was the only golden triangle I was going to see today.
It was a long drive to the border town of Mae Sai: after 2 pm when we got there. We had a couple of stops on the way to visit some hill-tribe people - the kinds with elongated necks or ears and the like. I found that a bit distasteful and counted myself out.
Undoubtedly the highlight for me was my 1/2 hour crossing on foot into Burma. It is difficult to summarise even that short visit, but it was a mix of army border guards and local people trying to sell counterfeit copies of everything that you can imagine - from Scotch Whisky, cigarettes, watches to Viagra. One fella was genuinely friendly and took my picture by a roundabout. When I offered him a small tip he became very nervous and wouldn't accept it because the army would be watching. I'm pleased that I managed to have a laugh with some local women - just making fun of mutual inability to communicate in any other way. BTW none of the others chose to cross the border and I think they all regretted it.
It hadn't been part of my original plan, but I decided to go along with most of the others on a speedboat trip on the Mekong River - a gigantic piece of water even this far from the ocean. This included a 1/2 hour stop on the Laos side of the river - again with shopping opportunities of course. I bought a map I wanted, and which I had failed to find in Chiang Mai.
I was dropped of in Chiang Rai (at a guest house suggested by one of the others) at 7 pm - pretty tired after a long day. I felt sorry for the others who still had the best part of a 3 hour trip to get back to Chiang Mai).
I've done a postscript edit to add some photos: a picture of a bit of Burma (left) and Laos (right) from Thailand, me at a Burmese roundabout - and Gee a Korean New Yorker from our team, who decided to copy my pose at the Golden tri
angle monument (but looks far better)! 
It worked out well in the end, but only after a rather bad start.
I was up at 5:45 for breakfast before departure at 7:00 - but the minibus didn't show up. As I was becoming more frantic I was being given promises that the bus was just a few minutes away. The fact is that it had gone without coming by my hotel and was well out of town. Needless to say I was kinda unhappy with this and my feelings were made abundantly clear. Anyway, they came back for me and we finally set off again at 8:00. The others on the bus had been allowed to vote on the matter; so I'm grateful to them - a fine bunch of 9 in total (from all corners of the world, and Belgium) + courier and driver.
One thing that had not helped my general demeanour whilst waiting, by the way, is that the hotel's poodle decided to cock its leg and pee against my rucksack - which was waiting by the door. With the assistance of the kitchen staff , I made an effort to clean it up, but I fear that it will never be quite the same again. At this time I thought the puddle on the floor was the only golden triangle I was going to see today.
It was a long drive to the border town of Mae Sai: after 2 pm when we got there. We had a couple of stops on the way to visit some hill-tribe people - the kinds with elongated necks or ears and the like. I found that a bit distasteful and counted myself out.
Undoubtedly the highlight for me was my 1/2 hour crossing on foot into Burma. It is difficult to summarise even that short visit, but it was a mix of army border guards and local people trying to sell counterfeit copies of everything that you can imagine - from Scotch Whisky, cigarettes, watches to Viagra. One fella was genuinely friendly and took my picture by a roundabout. When I offered him a small tip he became very nervous and wouldn't accept it because the army would be watching. I'm pleased that I managed to have a laugh with some local women - just making fun of mutual inability to communicate in any other way. BTW none of the others chose to cross the border and I think they all regretted it.
It hadn't been part of my original plan, but I decided to go along with most of the others on a speedboat trip on the Mekong River - a gigantic piece of water even this far from the ocean. This included a 1/2 hour stop on the Laos side of the river - again with shopping opportunities of course. I bought a map I wanted, and which I had failed to find in Chiang Mai.
I was dropped of in Chiang Rai (at a guest house suggested by one of the others) at 7 pm - pretty tired after a long day. I felt sorry for the others who still had the best part of a 3 hour trip to get back to Chiang Mai).
I've done a postscript edit to add some photos: a picture of a bit of Burma (left) and Laos (right) from Thailand, me at a Burmese roundabout - and Gee a Korean New Yorker from our team, who decided to copy my pose at the Golden tri
angle monument (but looks far better)! 
No comments:
Post a Comment