Golden Triangle

Trip Start Sep 28, 2005
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Trip End Jun 24, 2006


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Flag of Thailand  ,
Sunday, April 30, 2006

Chiang Rai, April 29

Miles travelled: 70230

We're in the northern tip of Thailand now, and the weather is much cooler and wetter. Also, a tropical cyclone has gone through neighboring Burma and brushed the northern part of Thailand, so we're getting a large dose of rain from that. As we left Chiang Mai, we went to an elephant camp where we got to ride an elephant and see a show where the elephants danced, played soccer, and painted! Then on into the mountains, climbing winding roads to visit hilltribe villages. These are traditional tribes (though modernity has definitely encroached), living on hillsides with terraced fields. This is a beautiful highland area.

We then went on to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle. We took a couple of neat boat rides down the rivers to see the beautiful scenery and the riverside villages along the way. Especially interesting was the way that the locals fish using nets from either the shore or small wooden boats. The Golden Triangle is the northernmost tip of Thailand, where Laos, Burma, and Thailand meet at the Mekong River. It was (and maybe still is) the center of opium growing and processing/smuggling of high-grade heroin from Burma into Thailand and the West. We saw police at several checkpoints as well as inspecting containers at a store.
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