Golden Triangle

Daeng's friend Peg, that now lives in Japan, was home for a little holiday and to visit family. She was staying at her Mother's home about 20 Km from Mae Sai. Daeng wanted to visit her and I said I would ride along.

After coffee, we jumped on Daeng's motorbike and rode east from where she was staying. When we arrived, Peg was having a morning meal of pork, sticky rice, fish, bamboo and vegetables. We joined in and talked with her family.

After about two hours, I told Daeng I would take the motorbike for a little ride and let them talk more. I marked my GPS so I could find my way back and headed out. The center of the "Golden Triangle" is only about 20 Km away so I put the motorbike on the road in that direction.

The road was being repaired so it was a little dusty but made it to the Mekong River without any problems and very little traffic. By the way, some folks here spell this river as Mae Kong River as "Mae" means "Mother" in Thai.

As I came down the hill I could see this mighty river was very high but not overflowing the banks. I could see from the water marks is had gone down at least three meters (about 10 feet) from the height a week ago.

This area is named, as our President "Tricky Dickie" said, the "Golden Triangle" because Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Laos meet at this spot. Most folks think of this area as a larger area projecting 300 Km in all directions as it had the largest production of Opium in the world, at one time.

It is also marked on the river with a huge golden Buddha. If you click on the picture you can see how little the people look compared to Buddha.

I stopped by the "Hall of Opium" sign with a big smile as you can see in the picture.

Daeng called me to be sure I was okay. It's nice to be loved!

I headed back and met her. We hung out some more, then said "good-bye" and headed back together. We went back on a different road so there was not as much dust.

Home and a hot shower!