Golden Triangle

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Yes, I know. It's been awhile since last I wrote. If I had anything to write, I really would.

I never wrote about my Golden Triangle Day. That was fun. When we were still up North in Chiang Mai we had to do a border run, so we decided to take the full day Chiang Rai tour that included the Golden Triangle and the Burmese border.

We were picked up really early and we met a good group of people on the bus. 3 Canadians (2 from Surrey and one from Quebec) and a Dutch girl. All very nice people. We all had a good time together.

We went to a temple in Chiang Rai. For the life of me, (I feel really bad about this now, actually) I can't remember what it's called, and I totally forget the significance of it. It was very calm and serene though. We didn't stay there long. Mostly a pee stop and to take a few pics.

From there we headed to the Golden Triangle. They call it this for 2 reasons. First is that it's a triangle at the northern tip of Thailand that touches both Laos and Burma. Second is that they used to do trade there with the other countries. There was 2 types of gold. Gold gold and Black gold. The black gold was Opium. One brick of Gold was traded equally for one brick of Opium. Pretty precious stuff. Unfortunately we didn't stop at any opium plants or anything. Oh well. Maybe next time. 😊

At the Golden triangle we took a longtail boat up the river to where two separate rivers meet and they both have 2 distinct colours, one flowing into the other. There were a few neat things to take pictures of (unfortunately I don't have my camera with me) then we headed back down the other side of the river which was Laos. We went to a small market there and I bought a carton of cigarettes for 200b. That's 1b / Cig. Ya. They were crappy cigs, and I"m JUST finishing them now... Actually, that was 2 weeks ago tomorrow. So I went through 200 cigs in 2 weeks. Not as bad as I had thought really. At least that's not a full pack a day! lol I know, it's still pretty bad. I don't know what I'm gonna do when I get home and smokes are $10/ pack! Brutal. I need a sugar daddy. lol

After we did our little boat tour, we went up to the burmese border after a chinese lunch. They had frenchfries, so I was alright. lol. I ate the rice too... dont' worry bout me. I"m not wasting away to nothing yet. At the burmese border, 4 of us had to get our passports stamped for our extension. This all went without a hitch. It was fairly straightforward. Got my picture taken and my passport stamped. I can now say that I've been to Burma. I've got the passport to prove it. lol

Then we made a quick stop at a hilltribe village. To be honest, it wasn't what I thought it was gonna be. These people come down to the major cities and sell their wares, so you see them all over BKK and all other major tourist places.

Back to the B&B after that and then we flew down to Phuket the next day. In Phuket we met up with one of Jamie's Girlfriends friends from back home in Langley. Her name is Jamie too. So don't get them confused. Jamie is probably the funnest person I've met in a long long time and we've all become fast friends. I feel like I've known her forever. I thank Ashley for introducing us through email. When we were first talking to eachother, neither of us knew whether the other was male or female. It made for an interesting first phone call when we finally touched down in Phuket. After we both got off the phone, we reassured our friends that the other was a girl and that all was well. Jamie was worried about meeting 2 guys, and we ... well, we weren't really worried at all. We were just happy to have someone else to chill with. haha.

Jamie has been a great time over the past week and a half. Her and her friend that teaches English in Phuket from back home, Candice, have been a load of fun and we're going to be sad to leave them.

Good think Jamie lives 45 mins away in Langley and Candice is coming home in April after 2 years here. Jamie comes home less than a week after us so we've already made plans to get together and exchange photos from our weeks together.

We're now on Phi Phi after staying in Phuket (Kata beach) for 3 nights. We've been here for a week now. Phi Phi beautiful, but I'm sick of the small atmosphere. I'm ready to head out. Tomorrow is supposed to be the day, but today was also supposed to be the day, as was Wednesday. haha... so I guess we'll see how it all goes. If it continues as such, I might be in phi Phi till I come home next week.

I guess we'll see.

No pics this time... I'll update those when I get home.

Kisses.

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