Yesterday morning we were picked up in the border town of Chiang Kong and transferred to Chiang Saen, a small town in Northern Thailand. The town is 1,000 years old, has an old ruined city wall and lots of old ruined temples, and sits on the banks of the Mekong.
We’re staying in the Viang Yonok hotel which consists of 7 bungalows on the banks of Chiang Saen lake. The hotel is owned by a guy called Ian from Birmingham (who used to be in a ‘new wave heavy metal’ band) and his Thai wife Vassana, who is known as Jim (meaning ‘lovely’ in Thai). Ian is away so Jim is our host. I don’t ordinarily mention hotel staff, but this place is very different to anywhere we’ve stayed before, Jim has made us feel so welcome that it’s like we’re old mates. Jim's mother, whom we refer to as ‘Mum’ cooks all of our meals and they are truly excellent – amongst the best food we’ve ever had (sorry to our Mums, but you’ve got stiff competition here!).
In the afternoon we chilled on our terrace, swam in the pool and sat in the steam room, then sat on the decking watching the sun set over the lake having wine and vodka with Jim. She’s a very cool lady – from Bangkok originally but very well travelled, with excellent English, and a wicked sense of humour – she looks a lot younger than her 50 years and we’ve discovered she’s a bit of a party animal!
This area is known as the Golden Triangle as it’s where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet. Until recent years it was the center of the international opium industry, with opium poppies grown for many miles around in all three countries. They’ve managed to completely stamp it out of Thailand now. Today the hotel driver took us to The Hall of Opium, one of the main attractions of the area. It tells the story of the opium trade, from Ancient Egypt, through the 19th century, to the modern heroin addicts. It really is one of the best exhibitions we’ve ever seen, very enlightening and excellently presented.
After that we visited the ‘golden triangle’ site - once the opium trade had been stamped out of the area lots of the locals were without work, so the government decided to make a tourist attraction out of the fact that three countries meet here. They spent a fortune building gaudy monuments and it is truly strange. Matt and I were just mystified. We wandered around thinking it was completely insane and pointless - but there were many coaches about, so I guess it’s fulfilled its purpose of pulling in the tourist buck.
On the way back we stopped to have a look at one of Chiang Saen’s oldest temples – dating back to the 12th century, when Chiang Saen was capital of a very wealthy Kingdom, but now in ruins.
Today is the King’s birthday, which means party time in town and all over Thailand. The Thai really are crazy about King Bhumibol. Even Jim, who is a very cool cookie raves about how wonderful he is and how he’s done so much for the country. It’s really very touching, if slightly OTT. In the evening Jim took us into town to see the festivities. Outside the town hall they’d erected a huge alter to the King, complete with a 30 foot portrait, fairy lights and glitter. People lit candles and incense at the feet of the portrait and said prayers for the King’s long life. He’s 82 today and has ruled for 63 years, making him the longest standing head of state in the world (narrowly beating Castro and our Queen). All along the river people were lighting lanterns which they set off to fly away in the sky, very pretty.
To celebrate the birthday the locals thought a good fight was in order, so a boxing ring was erected. Matt and I aren’t keen on boxing – we both think it’s a tad immoral, but we thought Thai Kick boxing would be good to watch…when in Rome! We were both a bit shocked when the first contestants turned out to be small boys, aged about 8 or 9. They kicked and hit each other and we had to stop watching after a couple of minutes. It just wasn’t right - this is one instance where I think a kid would have been better off playing on their playstation! The rest of the contestants were older high school kids. After one was knocked out and rushed off in an ambulance we decided we’d seen enough!
Altogether a very interesting and varied day!
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