Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Day 7
31st July 2013
08:00 check out and off in our two mini vans for our trip today to the Golden Triangle.
The Golden Triangle is one of Asia's two main opium-producing areas. It is an area of around 367,000 square miles that overlaps the mountains of four countries of Southeast Asia: Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.
We arrive at the border between Thailand and Myanmar ( formally Burma ) and all head across the border. We are given two options of what we can do whilst crossing. First for those that want a Myanmar stamp in their passports and are not going to be staying in Thailand for more than another 15 day can pay 500 baht to cross and then re-enter later . The second option for those who will be staying in Thailand for longer is to get a special day pass which lets them cross the border but without loosing days from there original 30 entrance visa. I choose the first option. As we leave Thailand and wait in no mans land between the two border controls I notice a sign with information of what you can take into Thailand. It's got the normal kind of things on it like 200 cigarettes, 1 litre of spirits and the at the bottom 2 packs of playing cards! I find out that this is because gambling is illegal in Thailand. The others join us and we head to the Burma border, those wanting the stamp in their passports being ushered into a small office. I'm here we each hand over our passports and 500 baht and then are sent to another desk to have our photo taken and a temporary ID card issued. We then have to hand this and our passport to the first guy again and he keeps the passport and the top half of the ID card. We all look a little nervous about leaving our passports at the border.
We exit immigration and head down to a group of Tuc Tuks waiting for us. Our first stop is a small village which was built and supported by the owner of the nearby golf coarse and is the home to the long neck people.
Most people know of the Karen people from television documentaries, magazines and encyclopedias as the "long-neck" or "giraffe" tribe. But the women who wear these brass rings on their neck belong to a sub-group of the Karen known as the Padaung. There are other sub-groups who do not and never have practiced this custom. A further myth is that these rings act to elongate the wearer's neck. Any chiropractor or orthopedic surgeon will tell you that this would lead to paralysis or death. In fact the appearance of a longer neck is a visual illusion. The weight of the rings pushes down the collar bone, as well as the upper ribs, to such an angle that the collar bone actually appears to be a part of the neck!
Back on the road again stopping at several temples as we go and then we arrive at the market on the border with Thailand. We are given 30 minutes to wander round and I walk with Tracey and Jackie as I have no watch. The market sells so many different fake goods like designer sunglasses, handbags, watches DVD's and even cigarettes and Viagra. We stop at a stall selling sunglasses and I try on a couple of pairs until I find a nice pair of Ray bands. I ask the price and am told 380 baht ( just under £10 ) so I pay the guy at which point the girls say did you barter for them ? Nope didn't realise I could oh well. We continue through the market and walk past another stall selling sun glasses and the are shouting out 40 baht a pair!!!! Really!!!! I could have got 10 pairs for what I just paid!
We continue to wander and Tracey looks at watches for her boyfriend. She had looked at the one she knew he liked in another stall and the were asking 3500 baht but in this shop they were asking 2500. After a bit of haggling the price comes down to 1000 baht, bargain the real thing is over £3000. We meet back with the others and collect our passports from immigration and then go back through Thai immigration having to fill out arrival cards for the second time this trip. Once everyone is through we jump back onto our buses and head off for a buffet lunch at a local resort. After lunch we are driven down to the river for our boat ride along the Mekong river. From the boat we can see 3 countries with Thailand and Burma on the left bank and Lao on the right bank. We cruise down the river for a while before turning around and heading down river to the Lao market. The market is on an island in the river and as its not part of the main land we can visit it without having to worry about border crossings. The prices on the island are supposed to be cheaper and I managed to buy a bottle of beer Loa for 30 baht ( about 80 pence ). After a wander round we get back onto our boat and head back to Thailand, it's not very often you get to visit 3 counties in one day so this has been another one for the list.
When we arrive back on the mainland we head to see the Golden Buddha and then the whole group climb up onto an elephant statue for a photo op. Hannah has set next to me and I start to shake the frame and make her scream and laugh. We leave the elephant and take some more photos of the Golden Buddha before going to the opium museum and being given a chance to get an opium stamp on our free postcard. After the museum we get back onto the buses for a 2 minute drive to the hotel. Today has been so busy and very hot and humid and we are all looking forward to a nice cool shower before going out for dinner.
Tonight we are eating in the open air restaurant in front of our hotel and all meet up at 19:00. I order a mojito and when it arrives I'm very disappointed as it tastes like soda water and very little mint. Most of the group want a break from Asian food and a lot of us order pizza. Tracey orders a plate of spring rolls for us to split and then I order a Hawaiian pizza. The spring rolls come out cold so we send them back to the kitchen to be warmed up. After the pizzas start to arrive and the waiter says that he has medium pizzas but iv ordered a large. By the time the large pizzas come out the others have almost finished theirs and then we discover that the ones that came out earlier were in fact the large pizzas and these ones are the mediums. There is lots of confusion and laughs about who's eaten who's dinner and the pizzas are sent back. After a long wait our pizzas arrive and after we have finished we all walk down to the 7-11 for some cold drinks including a beers for Jackie, Bond and myself. As we come out it starts to rain again and we walk back to the hotel and everyone turns in. A few of us sit in the lobby chatting for a little while and drinking our drinks. One by one every body goes up and I go out side for a final smoke and to phone Sharon before going to bed.
- comments