White Temple, Golden Triangle
After a relatively simple 3 hour trip to Chiang Rai we arrived at
night and booked in - moving room a few times because of invading ant
colonies we settled in and went out for dinner. It's an interesting
place historically but now seems to have the feel of a post goldrush
ghost.. This improved in the day time but overall it wasn't our kind
of place. We visited a hilltribe museum which made for some
interesting reading having met the Kayans before. We visited Suriwun
tea shop to and sampled a few varieties and learnt a fair bit thanks
to Meow - it was all grown at their farm only a few km away so we
asked if she could help sort out our transfer to Chang Khong, visiting
the farm, the White Temple and the so called Golden Triangle.
Next morning we set off from Chiang Rai with our driver Chai. First
the White Temple - Wat Rong Khun - the Thai equivalent of the Segrada
de Familia.. Aiming to be finished by 2070 it's an incredible
building, eventually 9, and is very different from others around. With
artistry put into every inch of the place and the artwork inside
drawing on classic as well as very modern imagery (Harry Potter,
mobile phones, Neo spacecraft, the WTC) it was beautiful whilst
bizarre.. Moving on to the Suriwun tea farm, it was pretty cool to
see. We were taken round the fields by Ning - Meows sister - where
Akha tribesfolk did the picking, and then around the processing
factory. Taking from 1-3 days to process after around 60 days growing
this place puts out a fair bit. If you ever wondered about some of the
process i've put a short video up, link at the bottom..
Next we headed way North to the 'Golden Triangle' so called as it was
the heroine growing empire before the rises of Afghanistan and Mexico
- and the US 'war on drugs' took its focus to the area it had helped
create. The region is a crossroads between Laos, Burma / Myanmar and
Thailand. It has since dramatically changed its agricultural outlook
with government assistance - instead tobacco has taken the drugs place
as a cash crop. We visited the Opium Museum there, taking in over 2000
years of trade routes, wars and troubles.. Fascinating stuff but it
felt strange for a tourist area to have been made of what caused the
focus on the land in the first place..
Around 6 or so months ago a 7.9 richter earthquake hit the area and
its effects can be seen at the museum and especially at the next stop
Wat Phrasing where the main Pacoda had lost its top 7m and was coated
in scaffolding instead of grass.. It was interesting as in this town
there were so many broken and worn old Wats that it seemed like a
fairly natural process being undertaken.
After a long day travelling we arrived in Chiang Khong feeling much
more at home than in Chiang Rai. After a small bit of confusion about
which hotel we were staying at on the one street there, we settled and
finally had a day to do nothing before catching the boat into Laos and
down to Luang Prabang.. An early start friday was our only chance and
even then we would be riding our luck..
Www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=en_US&client=mv-google&v=qjwnSaxztpU