An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
We enjoyed some of their delicious local fruit before heading down to the breakfast buffet. The tangerines deserve special mention, as they’re sweet and juicy like none we’ve had previously!
We met Nok and Jeet in the lobby and hopped aboard the van. First stop was the King’s Mother’s Palace, high in the hills. Quite an interesting lady, that King’s Mother - she died at 94 three years ago, lived part of each year in Lusanne, Switzerland, loved gardening, and did much to improve the lives of the people of the Hill Tribes. (there are about 6 different Hill Tribes in this area, ranging in population from 2,500 to over 10,000. Most of them fled from China or Myanmar several generations ago, and, until recently, lived basically primitive, agrarian lives in the hills of northern Thailand) The palace was completed 7 years ago and is constructed mainly of local woods (primarily teak), but in a Swiss-chalet style with Thai accents. It is also notable for the spectacular gardens all around. This is a perfect climate for flowers, and she certainly took full advantage of that! We took a quick tour of the house (about 1/3 is open for viewing) then walked around appreciating the gardens for a while (including the Auspicious Garden and the Frigid Garden).
We then drove to an Akha village set into the mountainside. They’re the largest of the Hill Tribes, and this village has a population of about 500. After our Maasei experience, we were ready for anything, but they turned out to be a bit more modern. Most of the women still dress quite exotically and wear elaborate ornamented silver headresses (partly resembling a potato grater) and the homes are bamboo with thatch roofs, but we saw small refrigerators inside and heard the occasional television and music blaring. We walked around a bit, then got into the van and set off for the Myanmar border.
The hour or so drive was along a winding road up and down the steep 6,000-foot hills (Chiang Rai is at 2,000). The scenery appeared to be grand, reminiscent of Chinese silkscreens, but with all the smoke and haze, we couldn’t see much at all. We rolled into Mae Sai, the Thai border town, and stopped at a jade workshop and jewelers. Not much carving was going on as the power wasn’t working today (!), but we marveled at their opulent and copious offerings using daylight and flashlights. We then strolled the shops while waiting for Nok to do whatever bureaucratic nonsense was required in order for us to leave the country for less than an hour. We walked the 2 minutes to Myanmar, then around the border shops for not even 30 minutes. Both sides were nothing but typical LDC border-town shitholes, a poor man’s Nogales or Tijuana. We found nothing to buy (though were tempted by some realistic-looking cell phones that were actually lighters, one with “wotorola” in familiar script!) and so were soon back in the van heading for lunch.
Lunch was in a bit too local of a place overlooking the wide and muddy Mekong river. We also overlooked the Golden Triangle, the border of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, where most of the world’s opium was grown and sold for gold, hence the name. (no more, though, as the Thai government has really clamped down, and we saw many checkpoints all along the roads to ensure no drugs enter the country) Lunch was ok, but we weren’t sure this was the place to get too local, as, for starters, the lettuce in the soup clearly hadn’t been cleaned too well. The pad thai was quite tasty, though, and Wendy amused herself by feeding most of her meal to one of the local sad-eyed dogs.
We took a quick detour up to a scenic overlook so we could get a sweeping view of the dense haze, then stopped at a local town’s greenmarket that made us pine for Union Square. We were presented with a few options for tomorrow’s activities, but we created one of our own — an early departure, as we had no interest in another long hour on a longboat nor in either a short or long ride atop an elephant. So we stopped in town to change our flight from tomorrow evening to noon, and were informed that the flight was completely sold out in coach. We asked how much to upgrade to first and were told $20 per person!! So we booked the noon flight, and were brought back to the hotel.
We freshened up in the room, then went down to their Chinese restaurant and had a delicious dinner. The mixed appetizers were good, especially the crab cakes which were wrapped in a light pastry and tasted a bit like honey. Then the Peking duck, which came with the familiar scallions, cucumbers and pancakes (which were light and perfect) but with only the roasted duck skin. Though not exactly Pritikin-approved, it was damn good. Then a wonton soup (good, but bland) and a memorable hot and sour soup. They then brought the duck meat, succulent and fried in a brown garlic sauce. Dessert was a small package of Oreos we’d bought in the hotel shop before dinner.
As it was almost past our 9pm bedtime, we turned in for the night.