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Published: August 8th 2012
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Wat Doi Saket
After a chat with the monks About a week ago I packed up all my things and left them with a friend to keep for me with the rest going with me on my bike. My goal is to explore parts of Northern Thailand and Northern Laos over the next month or two with a plan to enterinng Northeastern Thailand and then Cambodia following that. I would like to do so by motorbike. More than anything it is a chance for me to explore the uses of my camera in order to create images that are meaningful.
If any good stories rise on the way I hope I will recognize them and be able to tell them. I have been on the road for six days now with tomorrow being a week. I spent one day-and-a-half in the mountains around Chiang Mai city particularly in the districts adjoining Doi Saket. Following that I spend two days in Chiang Rai in order to get a two week extension on my visa by driving up to Mae Sai at the Thai-Burmese border. There are so many interesting places around this part of Thailand that, at times, I feel I might get lost......which is often fun! I
Assam Tea Leaf
They make a salad from this tea leaf in Mae Kamphong Village if you ask for it. spent one afternoon at a cashew orchard to learn about the fruit, like an apple, and the production of the seed-which most of us are amply familiar. Unfortunately, I just missed the fruiting season so I didn't get to taste any fresh juice of the cashew apple or chomp on the fruit.
The last three days I stayed at the Shin Shane Guesthouse in Mae Salong which is settled by former Kuomintang soldiers and was once an opium production/marketing zone. Shin Shane has been running for over 40 years now and is an institution that is showing its age. But for me it was perfect. I doubt it will survive the next generation.
These days Mae Salong it is a great place to sip tea and enjoy nice views of the surrounding hills and mountains. Many Akha hill tribe villages are near and so is the Burmese border. It is definitely a Thai town but Chinese is the primary language spoken here and Akha hill tribesman the most numerous (Many of them seem to speak fluent Chinese).
I hiked around the Mae Hua Kham National Park in and might stop by
again to camp there. It is in the Mae Faa Luang National Park about 50km from Mae Salong. In between Mae Hua Kham and Mae Salong is Baan Thoed Thai, once known as Baan Hin Taek, where famous druglord Khun Sa once had camp. An engaging local boy took me to a waterfall just behind the camp the day before his exams. A couple of beautiful trees from the Leguminosa family-Mimosoideae (tamarind is the most famous) sit over Khum Sa's old camp. Not sure if it was a Calliandra tree
( Calliandra callothyrsus) or a
Delonix regia-Leguminosa-Caesalpinioideae but my local guide recognized the flower of the Calliandra tree from my field guide.
There are some nice local sites to get a sense of the history of Mae Salong and Northern Thailand's border provinces especially the fight against Communism. The story needs some fine tuning as it is quite dry and told from the winner's perspective not to mention the dearth of English translations. But the museums and mauselum of the village founder General Duan are surrounded by picturesque beauty and cool mountain air.
The best part of my visit was a stop at in
a local hill tribe village just near the border where Muang Yong sits in Burma-famous now for meta-amphetamine production. Surprisingly, Mae Salong seems quite unaffected by the drugs but surrounding towns and much of Thailand offer a different story. Locals credit former prime minister Thaksin Shinwatra's crackdown about ten years ago (in brutal fashion) as providing a solution. The town shuts down quite early so youth must go to neighboring towns or into Chiang Rai city (more likely) for fun. Local men probably escape to nearby villages where the flashing neon lights of karaoke bars were evident when I passed through.
There is a lot more to say but I will let some pictures tell the rest of the story. In short, if you are in for a little bit of adventure (not too much) or just want to relax, Mae Salong is a nice cool place especially if you are on a budget. I spent less than $15 USD per day on my visit and I was quite busy.
I expect to be in Laos sometime in the next two to three weeks.
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