No 57      Mekong @Golden Triangle   (  Part 2 )

But throughout the boat trip which lasted only about 20 minutes as they say ,I was also saying my prayers silently as I was afraid. But there are also people who are afraid to take small Burmese boats like me. After we came back I talked to Ma Oo who said she didn’t ride the Burmese boats as she was afraid when she was there. I didn’t know at that time that we can go to the Thai side and take the more bigger Thai boats to cross to the Laos border.

 

Anyway the boat ride had been safe for us. We visited the Laos side which has nothing much but a few shops selling fake brand bags. So after spending some time there we got onto our boats and cross the Mekong to go to the Thai side. We climbed the concrete stairs to the customs office. and while someone get our clearance papers we look around.

 

Oh!  I was fascinated…the signboard on the other side said Chiangsaen Customs Thailand –Laos crossing Point.. I am very happy to see Chiangsaen. At present I am translating a book called Amongst the Shans, a very old book published in 1885. As it’s title it was written about the Shan people of long ago, starting from their origin which was China. From there the Shans spread westward to Yunnan, Merng Mao, Indo China until Manipur India. As the Shans spread west they built towns which were named with the word Chiang as it means town. And so Chiang Hung (Sipsaungpanna )Chiang Mai, Chiang Hai, Chiang Saen, Chiang Lao , Chiang Learn , Chiang Tung etc. were born. As the book is about the Shan people surely these places which were their old places have to be mentioned in this book.So This is why I am happy to see Chiangsaen with my own eyes as the 1^st in the series of Chiang towns. Later I will visit Chiang Hai Chiang Mai and maybe Chiang Lao (star ) Chiang Learn (moon )

There is a sitting Buddha statue about 1 block away from the customs office. As it is hot to walk we each took a motor cycle  to  take us there. We paid our homage at the Buddha statue, took some photos at the Golden Triangle rememberance monument and resume our journey to Myanmar Land.

P S….On our return journey the boats are as swift as when we came. But I think our company members had become less afraid , that nobody cared to fasten the life jacket straps…..

N 56   Mekong @Golden Triangle
         (part  1 )

When I heard that our young friends  (Ko Aung and Aye Aye Thi- couple ) were going to visit the eastern border we (who had been wanting to visit Sipsaungpanna or Luang Prabang and cannot go as it is illegal to enter from Myanmar border )  asked to join them .So we a group of 6 started a trip of 1 week by boarding a plane from Heho to Tachileik  on 31/ 3/14.

 

The next day Sai Lao Khay drove us through Merng Pone to the bank of the Mekong. This journey is about 30 miles and it took us about an hour. On the way at a village we visited a relative (U Tak Nu  ) and family who had come here from Kunhing to live with his son Ai Mu .

Though Tachileik is not a new place for me as I had visited it once a long time ago the Mekong River is new  to me and on seeing it I was very excited. But this is only partly true because I had crossed it by ferry when on my way from Siem Riep to Phnom Penh.

 

 To go to the Golden Trangle  we had to go along the river for some time and on the Myanmar bank there are only small boats that can carry only 4 people. So our company of 8 people had to hire 2 boats. The river is so big and our boats so small that we became alarmed and asked for life jackets which were provided for us.

And then we set out towards our destination , the Golden Triangle. As much as we were afraid of the mighty river, with it’s vast expanse of water we were also excited and happy to get such experience.The speed boat sped on the water so fast that sometimes it was like a fish flying out of the water.

There were also big ships anchored near the bank. It was lucky for us that we didn’t encounter big ships coming from China because at those times they would make our small boats rolling on waves and endanger them.

 

While speeding towards the Laos territory I thought about Naw Kham who was executed by the Chinese government some months ago as he was thought to have killed over 10 Chinese people on ships operating on this Mekong River.Anyway they all may be connected to drug rings of this notorious Golden Triangle. But when he was going to be executed his photo was posted on FB so that many people came to know about him. This is not an act that should be done . But I think  the  Chinese government  did this deliberately to show that they did not care about the  Myanmar  govt of whom NK is it’s citizen.We wondered why the govt didn’t do anything about this execution. Shouldn’t he be tried in his own country and get it’s own punishment whether it be death penalty or whatsoever. . And someone talked to us about Naw Kham that he was a kind of Robin Hood  around that area.

to be continued…..