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…..