Mae Salong to the Golden Triangle

We spent our last "free" day in Thailand exploring the peoples, culture and land between the borders with Myanmar (Burma) and Laos. We began our day by driving to Mae Salong, in the mountains along the Myanmar border.



Mae Salong is an interesting mixture of ethnic minorities and the descendants of part of the Chinese Nationalist army that escaped the Chinese Red Army by moving into northern Thailand. It is also in the heart of the tea-growing region.





The tea leaves are left out to dry.



But these women pick the buds for special tea.









Of course we had to test the local tea.



We were offered dried fruit to accompany the tea as well as



Bamboo Worms, a seasonal delicacy, we were told. Unfortunately our taste buds weren't attuned to them, all we tasted was something dry and crunchy.

Our next stop was to be Doi Tung in the central part of this northernmost region.



Gail tried to surreptitiously snap a photo of this woman as we were driving by



but the woman caught Gail in the act, yelled at her — and then laughed at Gail's startled response.

Doi Tung is the site of the Queen Mother's beautiful house and gardens. She had her gardens planted with flowers popular in other parts of the world that Thai people would usually not see. — They looked familiar to us.







The Queen Mother was apparently quite environmentally conscious and she had her home built with recycled materials. The interior was all paneled with pine boards recycled from shipping crates!





Our last stop of the day was the area called



Although the name carries allusions to drug smuggling, gun running and lawlessness, in many ways it reminded us more of the tourist traps at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.

There was a casino just across the border in Myanmar



and another one just across the Mekong River in Laos.



Gail finally got her long-tailed boat ride. We were bounced pretty hard as we sped up the Mekong at 50 miles per hour!



Of course we couldn't visit the Golden Triangle without visiting the dusty old House of Opium museum



The excursion ended on a more peaceful note in Chiang Saen visiting remnants of an ancient Thai kingdom.



We returned to Chiang Rai for dinner at "Cabbages and Condoms," a venture by the Thai Ministry of Health "to make condoms as available as cabbages." We never could figure out what the connection was with a restaurant, which may be why the food was a disappointment. But the restaurant had some interesting sights:



and a Santa Claus dressed in red condoms!



It was certainly a memorable day and a memorable trip to Thailand.