A Day of Adventure

Today (July 8th) was our day to tour much of North Thailand. We first set out for BaanDam, or the Black House. This set of houses was built by the artist Thawan Duchanee and varies from black wat-style houses to white stupa-like houses, and the houses included artwork and collections by Duchanee.

Photo Credit: Becca

Photo Credit: Becca

Photo Credit: Mark

Photo Credit: Becca

We then moved on to visit a Chinese tea plantation, where we learned how tea leaves were grown, picked, dried and readied for drinking. We also got to sample different types of green tea and enjoy the hills of Chiang Rai.

The tea plantations, with rows of tea being grown behind the sign (Photo Credit: Becca)

After visiting the tea plantation, we traveled to Me Sai, where there is a legal border crossing into Myanmar (Burma). Here we perused markets and saw people from both Thailand and Myanmar each cross into the other country.

The customs gate through which people must pas through in order to reach Myanmar. (Photo Credit: Becca)

Next, we drove to the area near the Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle is where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos come together in a triangle shape area along the Mekong and Ruak rivers meet. This geographical area, although pretty, has a more ominous history. Nicknamed as such, the Golden Triangle was one to the highest producing opium areas in the world. With hill tribes in all three nations producing opium, much of the product (raw opium) is turned into morphine or heroin and transported around the world. We then walked down the hill from the viewpoint to visit the Hall of Opium to learn more about the history of the drug. Afterwards, we took a boat tour along the Mekong and visited an small island off of Laos. Here, they sold mainly fake handbags and snake whiskey (yes, that's bottles of whisky with preserved snakes inside). Returning to shore, we set out for our last destination.

A map explaining the geography of the area. (Photo Credit: Becca)

The Golden Triangle, with the confluence of the two rivers being in the bottom right of the photo. (Photo Credit: Becca)

Finally, we drove to Chiang Saen, and saw many old ruins of wats. We also witnessed the carving of candles for Buddhist Lent. Marking the start of the rainy season, Buddhist Lent is a time for harvesting rice. Monks also have a special rule that they cannot travel outside their town and, if they do so, must return within the same day. Heading to the fruit market, we unfortunately witnessed an accident where a truck hit a moped. This is one of the many dangers of living in Southeast Asia, where mopeds and motorcycles are one of the major modes of transportation.

Intricate carving of a naga (mythical dragon) from a candle (Photo Credit: Becca)

Ancient ruins of wats (temples) in Chiang Saen (Photo Credit: Becca)

All in all, this was an exciting day where we got to see many sites that we could not have found on our own without the help of a guide!

-Becca