Today I had a arranged for a private tour to the Golden Triangle area. Our tour guide/driver was the same one we had on Thursday, Pothai (?). He picked us up at 7 and off we went. After about an hour we arrived at the hot springs. He told us we could boil eggs in the hot springs. There was an old lady standing there, so we bought a small basket of quail eggs. She gave me a thick with a hook and I put the handle of the basket on the hot and lowered the eggs into the boiling hot springs water. It takes several minutes for the eggs to be done. I felt like I was fishing holding the stick with the eggs in the water. When they were done, we took the eggs and went to a little sidewalk cafe. We ordered toast to go with the eggs. I also had a hot chocolate and Jay has a mocca. We had a nice breakfast of toast and eggs.
After breakfast we left to continue our journey. It took probably another hour to get to Chiang Rai and the white temple. The white temple is definitely white, but very beautiful. We walked around admiring the temple for every angle. You have to go across a bridge to go through the temple. You are not allowed to stop on the bridge because it blocks the people behind you. We then continued our journey. Along the way we saw a couple harvesting rice. Since we had a private tour, we were able to stop and watch. One person was cutting the rice and the other person was gathering it up and putting in bags. It was interesting.
From there we left and drove to the Opium Museum. It tells you all about how opium is made. It also shows you the proper way to smoke opium. I did not know that there was a special way to smoke it. You lie down on your side with your head on a pillow made of a hard substance like wood and you feed curled back under you. In this position you smoke the opium. Apparently after you smoke it. the pillow feels very soft to the person. The opium high lasts about 4 hours. I really enjoyed this museum.
Next we went to a open air restaurant next to the Mekong river. We were served rice, chicken with cashews and some kind of fried meat, soup and salad. For desert we had watermelon. The lunch was very good. Then it was time to take the boat across the river to Laos. We had to give our passports to our guide. Our guide could not go with us, so he had us join a group tour led by his brother. We got in the boat and they took us a little ways down the Mekong river. You were able to see Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, hence the name the Golden triangle. We landed at Laos and walked around. It was raining and the ground was muddy. There are souvenir stalls for the tourists and of course we bought our souvenir plate and key chain. Then we got back n the boat to go back to Thailand.
We met back up with our guide and got our passports back. Our next stop was the Long Necked Karen tribe. The story goes that long ago, tigers attached the tribal village and bit the villagers on the neck. To protect its women from this happening again, the elders order gold rings to be place around the women’s necks to protect them. The rings are now made of brass, because gold is too expensive and the men in the village make the rings. Eight rings are placed on the girls neck starting at age 5. Then additional rings are added each year until they are 18. The women do not necessarily have longer necks than normal. The rings are very heavy and press down, pushing the collar bones down lower. The women must wear the rings their entire life, because they weaken the neck muscles and they would not be able to hold their heads up without them.
The Long-necked tribe make very beautiful scarfs. I wish that I was able to buy from each one, but I could not. To get to their stalls, you have to walk down a slightly steep slope. Since it was raining when we were there, it was muddy and slippery. Also walking through their stalls, it was muddy because of the rain.
We got back in our car and headed home. It was a long day. We did not arrive back at our hotel until 9:30 PM. I really enjoyed the day. Since it spent so much of the day raining and we were in the mountains, it was not as hot. I would highly recommend you taking a trip to see the Long-necked tribe and the Opium museum.
