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Thailand Day 5
So Day 5…here we are in Chiang Mai and we have a 7 am pick-up to take us to the “Golden Triangle.” What is the Golden Triangle you ask? Where Thailand, Burma, and Laos all meet! It’s a tourist attraction…but we thought it was not something to pass up. So…we hopped on a bus with 7 other people and started our drive. We really had no idea what to expect…but we’re always looking for a new adventure! Our tour guide took informed us that we would be in the van for an hour before our first stop which was at Thai hot springs. When we got there, we realized that it was a tourist stop. One hot spring (too hot to touch) surrounded by a bunch of markets. Anyway, it was a nice place to get a Thai iced coffee and stop at the “happy room” which our tour guide informed us is the “bathroom.”
Our next stop was in Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai was the old capital of Northern Thailand, before Chiang Mai became capital. It is filled with lots of ruins…although, the only thing we saw was a new, modern temple. This is a
temple that was designed by a very famous Thai artist. Its intention is to be built over 100 years. Currently they are in year 11 of building it. It's got crazy murals in the temple and beautiful glass mirrored mosaic built into the outside.
After this temple, we headed to another temple that was outdoors. It was another ruin. We didn’t stay here long because we encountered a HUGE downpour. It was beautiful, and one of the oldest temples in the north of Thailand.
Our next stop took us to across the river from Laos. We saw the actual “Golden Triangle” which was a small piece of land in between Thailand, Laos and Burma, where in years past illicit products were sold on this land because nobody “governed” it.
We hopped in a long neck boat which took us on a tour of the river, and we ended up in Laos. We didn’t have to get a visa or anything to go for the day- we just had to pay 20 Baht (about $.80). We didn’t see much of Laos at all- except for a small market place. Everywhere you go here they try to get you
to buy things…and you always have to bargain for it. When we got on land, they offered us a shot of “cobra whiskey.” I guess this is the tradition here. It is a bottle of whiskey that has a dead cobra in it. Jeff tried it….I just tried the whiskey with ginseng in it. Both were QUITE strong.
We wandered around the market for a while before heading back to the long neck boat. Of course, when we got to the other side, they had taken our picture and put it on a plate that said “golden triangle” on it. It was only 100 Baht ($3.50) so we bought it!.
Our van next took us to a restaurant. It was a “Tourist Buffet” restaurant to be exact. The food was pretty average…but it was nice to sit and talk to the people on our tour. We had a newly wed couple from Holland (although the husband was originally from Spain), a couple from Slovenia, a couple from Germany, and a man from Australia.
It seems that everywhere we go there are Australians here. It seems to be a pretty popular place for them to come. Especially since
now is their winter season.
After lunch we headed to the Thailand/Burma border. This place is a great place for shopping- or so we were told. They have many small markets (kind of like Chinatown in NYC) where you can bargain for knock off products. I bought a few pair of sunglasses, and at the last minute, Jeff bought 2 watches. We almost left without him- as he was still bargaining on the street. I made the joke in the van “at least now he’ll be on time for pick up.” Anyway…his watches became the joke of the bus! He kept asking the guy next to him to ask him what time it was (every two minutes or so). Jeff was so proud of his watches!
We then headed to the “long-neck” village. This was an amazing experience. Although- it’s a bit sad because this village is basically a living museum. When you arrive the kids all have to go to their little huts and pose so we can see them. This village is a village where the women wear heavy rings around their necks in order to stretch them. This starts at age 6. The village also
believes in polygamy. The specific one we visited had 2 men and 20 women. It was quite interesting. Another type of women also lived in this village. Their “specialty” is black teeth. They eat these special berries and such to stain their teeth black. The women with the blackest teeth are considered the most beautiful. I’ve enclosed a few pictures from this experience. It really was life changing.
So after the visit to this village, we headed back to Chiang Mai. It was a 3 ½ hour drive in an incredibly bumpy van on an extremely windy road. An hour or so into the drive, I asked Jeff what time it was- noticing that he had been very quiet in the back. We found out that his imitation watch that he was “oh so proud” of had died only 40 minutes after he had bought it….and he had been sitting there thinking “don’t ask me what time it is…don’t ask me what time it is!” Anyway, this then became our joke! It made for a very fun evening in the bus.
When we returned to our hotel, it was about 9:30. We saw that the spa in our
hotel was still open, and we asked if we could get a massage. This time we asked for an “oil massage” which is similar to the massages we get in North America. It was quite fancy at our hotel. We were put in separate rooms, which had actual massage beds. We were instructed to take showers before our massages….and it was SO relaxing that I actually fell asleep…which is rare for me!
Anyway…it was a wonderful end to our very exciting day.
Hope you’re enjoying reading about it all!
Love,
Nina (and Jeff)
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Mom Diane
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Yes!
Hi, Yes, we ARE enjoying your nightly (morning for us!) travelogs! Thanks Nina and Jeff. Wanting a Big Mac yet????