Day 3 - Chiang Rai and The Golden Triangle

We departed Chiang Mai bright and early for a full day in Northern Thailand. Our first stop was at some hot springs, which was more of a tourist trap, but worth stopping if driving by. Also, they sell raw eggs that you can cook in the hot springs. We probably would've tried it, but we had just eaten a big buffet breakfast at the hotel. That said about 15 minutes later our guide stopped by a road-side stand and bought us some khao lan, which is sticky rice and sesame seeds cooked inside bamboo. It was very tasty, but now we were very full!

Quick side note about our guide: 'Bird' was our very friendly, knowledgable, and stylish guide, who calls himself the Prince of Lanna. He also liked to break out into song every so often throughout the car ride. Kim and I tried to keep our composure at one point as he serenaded us with "I Can't Takes My Eyes Off Of You" (the "s" at the end of takes is not a typo). He later popped in a Power of Love CD to keep the mood going. Pretty hilarious.

Next stop was the White Temple about an hour up the road. The temple is only 12 years old and is unlike any temple in Thailand we had seen thus far. I'll let the picture do the talking.

We drove through the city of Chiang Rai and made our way to Chaing Saen, an ancient city that had to be abandoned by king Meng Rai due to constant flooding (he then moved south to found Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai). The old city ruins still remain here, as well as a very old temple with no walls.

We then drove up to the point at which the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet - this spot is known as "The Golden Triangle". It was given this name during the time of opium trade between the three countries here. Gold was the currency of choice for buying opium for it's stability over the three countries' currencies.

We ate lunch here overlooking the Mae Khong River, which separates the three countries.

After lunch, we took a boat ride on the Mae Khong River and made a stop in Laos (Kim: note when Brian says "boat" he doesn't mean a ferry, he means a rowboat with an outboard engine. And by outboard engine, I mean a riding lawn mower engine precariously perched on the back of the boat. But what could go wrong when you're in international waters full of water pythons and giant catfish?).

The stop consisted of quickly buying our visas (which cost less than a dollar), then shopping in the village there. The guide wanted us to try some specialty Laos whiskies claiming to increase sex drive. Being good sports, we said we would do it (Kim: note there was no "we" involved in this decision). However, once we saw the whiskies we were not so excited anymore. Kim's whiskey had a huge king cobra floating in it. Coiled up inside mine was a certain tiger sex organ rhyming with weenis!! Well, with shots in hand, we didn't want to back down, so we reluctantly downed them.

Note: Laos is the poorest country in Asia. We bought a few things to support the village while there. Some of the boys from the village were asking us for money. The guide told us to ignore them, but I eventually gave in and gave one boy a coin from my pocket. It was at that moment that I learned a critical, life long lesson - never give a Laotian boy a coin unless you have enough coins for all of them. Soon after I gave the one boy money, I was surrounded by the other boys, all of whom seemed angry at me for not choosing them (whereas before I had handed out any money, the boys were perfectly happy with my presence). I had to get back in the boat quickly before the situation deteriorated into a scene from Lord of the Flies!  Update - We later found out the real reason we weren't supposed to give money to the boys of the village. Nowadays, the parents have gotten lazy and instead of sending their kids to school they send the kids out to ask for money while they stay home because the cute kids make more money begging than the parents sometimes do working.  Giving them money just feeds this bad behavior. 

We then drove up to the most northern point in Thailand bordering Myanmar. In the Thai markets, we noticed they sell lots of pirated movies and music from the U.S. However, it's illegal to sell pirated Thai movies and music in Thailand. So what do Thais do to get their pirated Thai material? They go to the large market just on the other side of the Myanmar border. Our guide pulled out stacks and stacks of pirated music he had recently acquired here at the Myanmar border (Power of Love CD was one of them)!