Gardens, Opium, Tiger penis and the Long Neck tribe

Doi Tung mountain was our first destination today. This is the area where the King’s mother used to live. She was born in Switzerland and loved gardening so the house, although done in the Northern Thai style, has Swiss influences and the gardens are absolutely beautiful. 

Everyone loved the queen mother, as they do the king, because she helped revitalize the area and was a strong advocate in improving the lives of the Thai people. Much of the mountain had been deforested and when the royal villa was built she created the Mae Fah Luang gardens to reclaim some of the mountain.  If you love flowers, this is place. Various varieties of flowers in all colors, shapes and sizes cover the ~25 hectare grounds.  

We moved on to Mae Sai, a border town between Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma). Not much to see, but here you can cross a short bridge into Myanmar.   It’s a little sneaky, but well within the law.

Bridge to Myanmar

Many Burmese cross daily to work on the Thai side. If I remember correctly our guide said they can cross starting 6:00am but must return by 6:00pm. Others cross to extend their visas. If your visa is expiring, you go into Burma and then on your return to Thailand you can get a 15 day extension on your visa.

Opium scale and weight sets

Certification of a quality product

Opium was a major commodity in this area known as the “Golden Triangle”, named for the convergence of the three countries (Thailand, Myanmar and Laos) at the confluence of the Ruk and Mekong rivers.  There is a very small opium museum telling the history of the opium trade with a collection of artifacts used in the opium business: Scales and weight sets, opium pipes and pillows, and instruments used for the collection of opium. The story was very interesting as opium was a huge business in its day. Nowadays it is illegal although up in the mountains, deep in the forest, some poppy growers may be found.  

After lunch we boarded a small boat for a short ride on the Mekong river to view the actual piece of triangular land that represents the Golden Triangle.

Mekong river

The golden triangle

It’s basically an overgrown sandbar that disappears when the river rises in the rainy season. The river is quite wide and brown from the soil runoff especially from the Ruk river. From the river you can see the casino in Myanmar and the one on the opposite bank in Laos. We did not have time to visit either but did stop for a brief visit in Laos. There’s just a little area of shops selling stuff to tourists. Most of the usual items of clothing and trinkets you’ve already seen.

Myanmar casino

Laos casino

However, they do make a big deal of the bottle of alcohol with various animals added. We saw snake (very popular), scorpion, gecko and tiger penis in various bottles. The stuff tastes terrible. It’s just pure grain alcohol or kerosene, I can’t tell which, and the critter inside really adds no flavor, it’s just for effect. But I can legitimately say I was in Laos (at least for 45min) and had a Laotian beer, which is very good.

Snake and tiger penis alcohol

Turtle and gecko alcohol

We finished our day with a visit to the Karen long neck village. The Karen are another of the hill tribes that populate Thailand. In total all the hill tribes number about 1 million people. Hmong and Lisu are two other tribes. There are many more. Some came from Burma, China Myanmar, Tibet and other countries. 

Rings 5-6 kilos

The long necks are unique in that the women wear brass rings around their necks, adding one ring each year. They consider the one with the most rings the most beautiful. Even though they are called rings, they are not actually individual rings, but a brass coil that looks like rings. We were shown one set of rings and it is heavy, 5-6 kilos. And although it looks like they are stretching their necks, what is actually happening is the collar bone is being forced down so it appears that their necks are getting longer. There is a lot of controversy around the tourism of the Karen people. Some consider it like a human zoo. Tourists come to view them and take photos, myself included.  They also make handcrafted items, weaving cloth being a major item. They then sell these to tourists to earn a living. But if it wasn’t for the fascination with their long necks, folks probably wouldn’t stop in at all. So the criticism is that the tribes force the children to wear the rings perpetuating the cycle. I spoke with our guide about it and his take was that they were going to continue the practice of the rings regardless of whether tourists came or not and it is the tourists who provide them their income. Also he said the children are given a choice and are not forced to wear the rings. One of the down sides is that if a young girl chooses to go to wear the rings she cannot go to school, the reason being all children must wear a school uniform and having the rings is not part of the uniform.  The Thai government really provides them no support since they are not indigenous people. If the tourists stop coming, so does their income The women are extremely nice and will pose quietly if you ask to take their photo. They know a little English and will answer any questions you have; and our guide was helpful as an interpreter although Thai is not their first language, they do understand some of that as well. The children are delightful and act like children anywhere else in the world. I was really torn about going to visit them, although ultimately we did. For me it was an extremely emotional experience. Even as a I write this, it is affecting me.  I am still unsure exactly how I feel about the practice, but I can tell you it is an encounter that I will never forget.

Next up: Black and White