Golden Time in the Triangle

We had to wake up early to catch the van as we had a very long day of driving ahead of us up to the "Golden Triangle" - where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet. The first stop was a hot springs with a geyser. The locals were boiling quail and chicken eggs in the water, we passed on both the quail and the chicken eggs but some of the Chinese in our tour group were all over it.

Back in the van we were off to Chiang Rai to visit another wat complex and more importantly...the bathroom! The wat complex has a completely white facade which is pretty unique in Thailand. We passed going inside the wat in order to check out the food stalls. We found a place  selling large cups of cut pineapple for less than US$2. When we were checking out they asked if we wanted it blended into a smoothie, sure a fresh pineapple smoothie! After 2 smoothies we needed that bathroom. Not surprised that they charged for it, but for .10 we at least could expect a clean bathroom.

After lunch, we headed to the Mekong river for a cruise up the river to Laos to a black market. As soon as we got off the boat they offered us some of the "special whisky." As you can see from the photo they have 2 special types, one with snake and the other with deer penis.. yes you read correctly. They say that it makes you strong and healthy. Needless to say I passed, but there were some takers in our group. There were stalls with fake everything from fake designer purses to fake cigarettes. 

 Next it was off to the Burma border crossing. Not much to see, just smile take a photo. The golden triangle area is infamous for heroine trafficking and for being a very lawless area, but have cleaned up as of late.

The last stop of the day was to the Karen long neck hill tribe. The ladies of the tribe add rings to their neck, not to make their neck longer, but to push their shoulders down.  Melissa took the opportunity to try on a set of the tie on rings. The 1/2 version with a large cut out she tried on were very heavy so I am sure the larger version would weigh a TON. The ladies make their money selling scarfs that they make by hand as well as other nick naks.

On the long drive back to Chiang Mai one of the Chinese girls asked if we were on the Air Asia flight from Macau, um yes. It turned out she sat next to me on the flight, small world! 

The ladies make these scarfs. Of course Melissa had to have one