The Golden Triangle
What a day... we got up early and began our journey up to the Golden Triangle where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet on the Mekong River. It was a long trip - about six hours, but once we got there, it was really interesting to take a peek into Myanmar and see the Mekong. Such an amazing river...
On the way, we stopped at a few tribal villages and although they would have been really interesting, there are always some really dumb tourists about and more often than not, you get coerced into buying some tat. Anyway, it's amazing to see the villages, just because the living conditions are so basic, but the people seem content and the families stick together, forming a tight community. We saw the Hmong and Karen tribes mainly. Overall though, I usually felt like I was intruding though they of course expected us. I thought the Hmong people in particular were very beautiful and their features were very Chinese influenced. Apparently they came from Tibet originally, crossing the mountains.
The whole area there is very hilly and the roads were rough. It was alright though we did speed along the roads at an amazing pace.
We also managed to visit a Laos market by the Golden Triangle and visited a temple. We were crossing the Mekong by speedboat, which was scary - basically, you are in a nutshell speeding along at about 80 miles an hour, wearing a piece of foam, that's a life jacket... also, you are being deafened by the engine! It was very exciting though!
I'm ready for tomorrow, when we leave Chiang Mai and head over to Laos.
On the way, we stopped at a few tribal villages and although they would have been really interesting, there are always some really dumb tourists about and more often than not, you get coerced into buying some tat. Anyway, it's amazing to see the villages, just because the living conditions are so basic, but the people seem content and the families stick together, forming a tight community. We saw the Hmong and Karen tribes mainly. Overall though, I usually felt like I was intruding though they of course expected us. I thought the Hmong people in particular were very beautiful and their features were very Chinese influenced. Apparently they came from Tibet originally, crossing the mountains.
The whole area there is very hilly and the roads were rough. It was alright though we did speed along the roads at an amazing pace.
We also managed to visit a Laos market by the Golden Triangle and visited a temple. We were crossing the Mekong by speedboat, which was scary - basically, you are in a nutshell speeding along at about 80 miles an hour, wearing a piece of foam, that's a life jacket... also, you are being deafened by the engine! It was very exciting though!
I'm ready for tomorrow, when we leave Chiang Mai and head over to Laos.
posted by Phil and Tanja @ 12:55 AM
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