Monday, September 2, 2013

Northern Thailand

So apart from cooking classes and jungle hiking, we also took a very long, full day trip to visit some hot springs, the famous White Temple, the Golden Triangle, the border of Thailand and Myanmar, AND the Karen Long-Neck Tribe.  Yes, all of this in one day. 

Wat Rong Khun, is the White Temple in Chiang Rai, slightly East of Chiang Mai. The white temple is actually really quite new, with construction starting in the 1960's that was eventually finished in the late 90's. As you can see the whole temple is white- 97% as the other 3% are slivers of glass. The color white symbolizes purity and goodness. 
After visiting this temple, which was a breath of fresh air from other temples since it's so different. We raced on over in the tour van to catch the boat to visit the Golden Triangle. 

The Golden Triangle is where Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand all meet, being divided by the Ruak River. It gets it's name from the opium trade. Luca wrote an article about it for Cronache Internazionale, you can read it here: The Business of the Evil Flower

This part of the trip is really only interesting if you know some of the history. Apart from seeing the river, we stopped on an island of Laos and walked around for a bit. They gave us a memorabilia stamp on a separate piece of paper and if you wanted you could try the local whiskey that has either a snake, scorpion, or tiger's penis soaking in it. We passed on trying the local whiskey, but we did try some Laos beer. 




 Along with riding down the river where Thailand meets with it's Northern neighbors, we got into the tourist van and drove to the Myanmar and Thailand border. Again, here there is a bridge that is historical for the many people who died on it while trying to cross it during some period of unrest. Luca knew a little of the history and so appreciated seeing it. 

                                 
To finish off the day trip, we visited the Karen Long-Neck tribe. It was a very strange experience. We had to pay to visit their village, where all the women were sat in an open space "hut" working on making scarves which they also sell. It almost felt like they were on display and it didn't feel right taking their photo. 
These women start wearing the golden brass rings around their neck as young as 5 years old and will continue to add rings until they're in their 80's. The started to wear the rings for 3 reasons. The first it was a means of protection from tigers, which go for the throat. Secondly it was considered beautiful. Lastly, the longer your neck, the closer you are to the spirits. However, we didn't know if these women are forced to continue this tradition just as a means to earn money, or if it really is a continued practice in their tribe. 
These people are originally from Burma, but fled the country in the 1980's. They live out in the countryside of Northern Thailand, where the men of the tribe make their living from working the fields. 

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