The Golden Triangle

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and we celebrated with a visa run to Myanmar. This time we chartered a tour to see some other sites along the way. Our first stop was at some hot springs where we boiled some eggs and bought some pumpkin chip snacks from one of the many vendors at the site. We continued on to the White Wat, a contemporary temple built by a famous Thai artist in his home town. The contemporary spin on some classic themes - such as the hands reaching from below in the photo to the right and the contemporary levels of Hell including nuclear bombs and other technological "marvels" on a mural in the interior - were quite powerful. From there we headed to the Golden Triangle where Burma, Laos, and Thailand meet. We chartered a small boat to take us across the Mekong River to Laos. Note the attention to detail on safety gear in the photo to the left. Life on the other side of the river was starkly different than that in Thailand. Clearly this was a much more impoverished community. There were some open-air shops selling knock-off designer clothing bottles of alcohol containing snakes, scorpions, tiger penises, armadillos, etc. Now I’m always up for a libation but this stuff was enough to turn my stomach. However, there were fellow travelers braver than myself and the man offering samples was downright drunk; good for him. We returned to the boat and headed up the river along the Burmese shore. In both Laos and Myanmar/Burma, Chinese entrepreneurs had started ventures including a large casino in Burma (where no one ever wins according to our guide) and a large neo-classical hotel complex in Laos. On the Thai side of the triangle there was a huge seated gold Buddha statue on a boat-like base. The statue had been was a combined gift from Laos, Myanmar, and China to celebrate the Queen of Thailand’s birthday.

We then got back in the mini-van and headed North to Mae Sai and the official border crossing into Myanmar. Interestingly, as you can see by the photos of the clocks on the wall, the time in Myanmar is one-half hour behind the time in Thailand. I couldn’t help thinking this was more reflective of how Myanmar is one-half hour out of step with the rest of the world. After renewing our entry visas into Thailand, we stopped by an Akha hill tribe village. The older woman in the photo is wearing her traditional garb and her teeth are stained from chewing betel nuts. The older man is smoking from an opium pipe. The last photo is of me standing, on level ground, next to a woman from an ethnic Chinese community.