Today was going to be a hectic day. We had planned to go right upto the northernmost tip of Thailand, right to the border with Myanmar. After a brief halt there, a lunch break we would cross the Mekong River by boat and enter Laos, thus completing the three countries of the Golden Triangle. It was going to be a long drive and we would be stopping over at a couple of other places en route.
We left early, at 6:30 in the morning, in a mini-bus, picking up a couple of other tourists from their hotels, so we were a small group of about 10 and our tour guide was a jovial guy – they all usually are – called Banana. Yes that was his real name. Our first halt was just a short distance out of Chiang Mai, it was the Hot Springs. A small resort whose claim to fame is – you’ve guessed it – Hot Springs. And really hot and steaming they are. So hot you can boil eggs in the water and you can buy these raw eggs from vendors in a little basket hanging from a small wooden pole and hold them suspended in the boiling spring till they are done. Amazing. We enjoyed the early morning livery, had a refreshing cup of coffee and were soon on our way. We had a lot of distance to cover. Some pictures from our halt at the Hot Springs are below:
Our next halt was the White Temple. The White Temple, or the Wat Rong Khin as it is actually called, is a unique temple located in Chiang Rai, with a great history behind it. Wikipedia explains:
“By the end of the 20th century, the original Wat Rong Khun was in a bad state of repair. Funds were not available for renovation. Chalermchai Kositpipat, a local artist from Chiang Rai, decided to completely rebuild the temple and fund the project with his own money. To date, Chalermchai has spent THB1,080 million of his own money on the project. The artist intends for the area adjacent to the temple to be a center of learning and meditation and for people to gain benefit from the Buddhist teachings. Kositpipat considers the temple to be an offering to Lord Buddha and believes the project will give him immortal life, Today the works are ongoing, but are not expected to be completed until 2070. Admission to the wat compound is free for Thais and THB50 for foreigners. Donations are accepted, but are not to exceed THB10,000, as Chalermchai refuses to be influenced by big donors.”
Chalermchal is there most days at site where he conducts classes on art and appreciation, and was there when we visited too. It was only later that we learnt who he was, and the great history behind the temple. Take a look at the pictures of the beautiful structures in the Wat
From the White Temple we continued our onward journey right to the northernmost tip of Thailand, up to the border post with Myanmar. You may perhaps remember the incident involving the Thai boys soccer team – the Wild Boars, who went to explore a cave during a picnic, got trapped inside the cave when the cave suddenly flooded and were stuck there in the claustrophobic darkness, without food or water for 10 days and were rescued after a dramatic effort which got world wide attention. It was almost exactly a year-to-date since that happened, and the mountain in which all this happened was on the way. Banana pointed it out to us and reminded us of the event,
At the border, Inter Country Road Traffic was flowing as at any other border post, on either side were shops selling the usual food stuff, souvenirs, gems and other such stuff at tourist rates. Reminded me of the Indo-Pak border at Wagah, near Amritsar except that this one was lively, unlike the serene border at Wagah. Still, just my luck, I got picked up by a uniformed officer for taking photographs of the border and was made to delete them. Just one of the unlucky ones because several people around were doing exactly that and nobody was bothered. A brief stopover and then we quickly headed back to the Golden Triangle Restaurant for a sumptuous lunch and then for the boat ride across the Mekong River to cross over to Laos. Some pictures from the border are below.
More in the next post on the visit to Laos and our return journey.. It makes another whole story