From the Hills to the Golden Triangle

March 12, 2010

This morning, after some eggs and toast, we piled into the car: me, Sam, Danny and Blue and set off for a day of exploration. The farmers around Chiang Rai have been burning their fields to fertilize the soil for the next round of planting and the air is a bit hazy. The temperature is cooler, nonetheless, and we're grateful for the breeze.

Our first stop on a day of sightseeing was a mixed hill tribe village about 20 minutes outside of Chiang Rai. The hill tribe people have been living in this part of Thailand for a very long time, and as Danny and Blue have been teaching us, the government has taken a very passive approach with them - essentially choosing to ignore them until they became an active part of the opium trade. Once we had paid our entrance fee to the village, we walked along a dirt path that led to a number of huts inhabited by members of the Akha tribe. The women sell handicrafts in the village - amazing pieces with intricate cross-stitching are their most revered craft. I bought a little purse, and Sam and I took pictures with an older woman who Blue knew from a previous visit with the most contagious smile you can imagine. The Akha tribe also did a short musical performance using bamboo reeds as percussion, and small flute-like instruments as well.

The next tribe we saw were the Lahu people. They also performed a dance for us, but seemed less excited and we felt a little awkward. There are donation boxes posted around their village with crosses hanging above - a sign of the Christian missionaries that Blue tells us are working among the tribes. Sam and I bought some amazing cups made from bamboo with amazing carvings along the sides.

The pathways wind through the village and kids in western t-shirts, hot dogs, and groups of chickens with chicks roam freely between the huts. We also visited the Longneck Paduang village, where women wear long brass coils around their necks. Blue tells us that each year on their birthday, the coils are unwound, and a new loop is added. The coils are incredibly heavy, and take a tough toll on the body, but all the women seemed in good spirits.

On our way out, we passed a group of women out working who Blue had photographed on one of his previous trips to the village. This time, he brought the prints back with him and gave them to the women, who laughed at the images of themselves, but seemed so happy to keep them. It's a pretty cool thing Blue does, and I doubt the tribes often get to see pictures of themselves.

Danny and Blue have been filling us in on the history of the hill tribes, and the general attitude towards this large part of the Thai population. Despite hard-living, economic distress, and very limited government assistance these tribes are resilient and some - like the Akha, have begun to find ways to lift themselves up. The Akha tribe now grows Doi Chang coffee, which is very popular in this area and throughout Thailand. Danny and Lisa always keep it on hand in their house, and it's very tasty. We bought some today to bring home and share.

After a cool drink we left the village and headed back to the car. The drive to the Golden Triangle took about 45 minutes, and we arrived during lunchtime and at a lull in tourist traffic. From a viewpoint along the river (which is incredibly low right now due to the drought and dams in China that divert water in the north), you can see where the river branches and divides the land into the borders of Burma, Laos, and Thailand. Pretty amazing.

We checked out the triangle, and browsed the shops, stopping at a stall Blue remembered where a Thai guy sells incredibly old Buddhist artifacts as well as dusty relics, funky instruments and dried up honeycomb with dead wasps on it.

We headed back to Danny and Lisa's to head out to dinner at a restaurant perched above the night bazaar. After some tasty food, we browsed the market and headed home - worn out from a good day and ready for a good nights sleep.

I am Sam:

Travelling around with Danny and Blue has been a real treat since they have a wealth of knowledge about the area, it's people, politics, and environment.

We started off by going to visit a village of mixed hill tribes. It was neat to see some of the indigenous people of Thailand living in their customary settings. Blue knows many of the people in the village as he has spent the last 25 years in this area learning about them, even publishing a book about them a couple years ago.

The reason this village is here is because many of the tribes are refugees from Burma particularly. The land is privately owned, and hence used as a tourist attraction to see many of the hilltop tribes in one convenient stop. Blue has also explained to us that these people are not recognized as Thai citizens, but as refugees and must remain on the property at all times.

Walking through the different parts of the village was definitely a trip, a lot of extravagant traditional garb, different types of huts, and lots of friendly smiley women and children (there was a noticeable lack of men, who supposedly are somewhere else working). Each tribe had their own individual style, lots of crafts for sale, and some even gave a performance.

The Hoka tribe gave a pretty cool performance banging together pieces of bamboo, creating a very complete percussion ensemble accompanied by a couple gourd pipes. Blue took our picture with one of the tribes older woman who has quite an entrancing smile. Many of the older people in most of the tribes don't have many teeth, and those which they do have are stained a dark red from chewing on beet roots, I think. The Lahu's, performance was more of a dance, and seemed a little forced and insincere.

One of the coolest tribes we saw was the Padaung, who's women wear heavy rings around their necks, adding another ring on each birthday. It looks really cool, they also do some pretty nice weaving, and in general were the most friendly of the tribes we had seen.

After hiking around the villages, we all sat down for a cool soda and discussed what we had seen and some of the bigger picture things that is going one with these people. It seems that they are quickly being assimilated into Thai/Western culture, loosing their own that has been alive for thousands of years. They also have some troubling problems with their citizenship in Thailand as well as some pretty heavy Opium problems in some cases. Some pretty sad stuff going on.

We next headed to the Golden Triangle, an intersection of rivers which separate Burma, Laos, and Thailand. They have a little strip above the river selling goods and some pretty neat views of the area. Unfortunately this is a bad time for the beauty of the area, as the air is very hazy from the smoke and drought, the river is very low, and the foliage is not at its darkest shade of green. Fortunately it is hard not to see the beauty of this place, and see the significance of this river which is practically the life line of SE Asia.

We visited a merchant who Blue knows, who owns an incredible antique stand at the end of the road. The place was filled with some really old stuff, and it all felt very earthy and a lor more authentic than similar stands down the street. The owner was a very cool, simple man, who is very passionate about his things, loves to show and talk about them, lives in the store front, and when we walked up to see him was washing his clothes at a faucet across the street.

We then ate some lunch, checked out some higher views of the triangle and headed back to the Big Brown House.

Then it was off to the Chiang Rai Night Bazaar. This was much cooler than the one back in Bangkok, having some sense of uniqueness in the stalls, cheaper prices, cooler weather, and an altogether much better vibe. We ate dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Bazaar, and then looked around the stalls, buying a much needed watch, and checking out Danny and Lisa's favorite vendors. One of the highlights is a clothing designer called Nine Shop, which has tons of individually painted clothes and shoes. Danny thinks it would be a big hit with the MTV crowd, and I definitely agree.

Then it was bedtime. Long, full day in Chiang Rai.