Today was one of the highlights of our trip. We left Chiang Rai this morning to drive into the mountains to visit the villages of some of the Hill Tribes,   There are a number of different tribes who have migrated from Burma and Laos to northern Thailand. For many years their primary source of income was the production and movement of opium. Today, most of the opium trade is Thailand has been eliminated, and the tribes grow vegetables and market handicrafts.

The tribes live in remote villages and we walked through several of them . Each tribe has a distinct style of dress and different weaving and decorating techniques. We visited the Akha, Laku and Karen. The Karen are the largest of the Hill Tribes in Thailand, with a population of 250,000. We visited a group of the Karen referred to as "Long Necks" because of the tradition to wrap the necks of the women with coils of brass. When a girl is about 8, first 3 coils are placed around her neck, and more are added until she reaches her late teens when she may wear as many as 9 or 10 coils. Some of the women also have coils around their legs, just below the knees. We were also invited into a Karen home, which was built on stilts and made entirely of bamboo, but it did have electricity and satellite TV. Their existence is simple, but they seem to be happy and were very friendly.   It was a long walk down the mountain through the villages and a long climb back to the top. As I walked I kept hearing some children singing Happy Birthday, and soon saw three young girls standing in the middle of the path singing the Happy Birthday song over and over . Some of the young boys were very enterprising and volunteered to push us back up the hill for 20 Bakht.  However, I'm proud to say that I made it down and back to the top without being pushed.  

Our next stop was the Golden Triangle where Thailand, Burma, and Laos come together at a bend in the Mekong River.   We had time for a short tour of the town before climbing into the back of a couple of farm trucks for our ride to lunch. The first part of the ride was uneventful, but then the paved road disappeared and we were travel ling on a very narrow and rutted dirt road until we reached la Vallee, a combination art studio and restaurant about 5 km from the tourist area. As we sat in the hillside garden we had a wonderful barbeque lunch of chicken, fish, or tofu. 

After lunch we rode the trucks back to the village for a tour of the Opium Museum. However, about 10 minutes into our visit the power failed and we left for a boat ride on the Mekong River passing Burma (or Myanmar) and making a short stop in Laos . The stop in Laos was odd, because there were no entry requirements, which was a good thing because my passport was locked in the safe at the hotel. However, I have a photo of me standing next to the “welcome to Laos sign” and sent myself a postcard which hopefully will eventually arrive at home with a Laotian postmark. The Lao villagers appeared much poorer than the Thais across the river, and because the area has been leased to a group of Chinese who are building some casinos, the things for sale were not local craft but over-priced Chinese exports. The casinos are big money makers because they are not allowed in Thailand, but the Thais love to gamble and can easily cross the river to gamble in both Laos and Burma.  

I could write more, but the pictures tell the tale.