North to Chiang Rai

We leave Phrae and travel on to Phayano, we are entering the Golden Triangle. The sheltered hills, navigable rivers and independent tribal cultures allowed this region to become an infamous center of drug smuggling. In the early 70’s the hill tribes turned to the cultivation of opium for survival; the area also once was home of a band of Chinese nationalists who were followers of Chang Kai Sheck. More recently the Thai government has introduced programs to promote the cultivation of new crops and tourism which has offered alternatives to the drug trade.

Upon arrival in Phayao, a lakeside community, our guide introduced us to Dancing Prawns. These are baby shrimp no more than ¼ inch in size that are trying to jump out of the pail of water that the street vendor has them in. She mixes up some herbs and spices and offers us a taste. I step forward feeling that I didn’t come all this way to be an observer. My strategy was to swallow fast to minimize the amount of jumping going on in my mouth. The taste was totally of the spices there was no shrimp taste at all and a minimum of movement. The lady immediately offered me a plate of cabbage and I knew why, I needed something to counter the burning spices in my mouth.

Phayao is also the home of Thailand’s Arabica coffee, seeing a coffee bar across the street I felt a need to wash the taste of Dancing Prawns out of my mouth. See the pictures of our Café Latte on my album. I intend to import one of the girls that made my coffee to the US and take on Starbucks. The coffee was great and the work of art was amazing.

Adjacent to the coffee bar is a small convenience store, I came across the tobacco department and noticed their Surgeon Generals warning. This is something else that I think we should adopt in the US, see the pictures.

We continued our drive to Chiang Rai where we’ll spend two nights. After lunch we jumped into the back of a pick-up truck and climbed the mountain to visit the hill people. These are the people who 20 years ago were raising poppies to supply the drug trade. Today they raise rice and provide a diversion for travelers. They never made a lot of money selling their poppy crop, the money was made up the food chain, so when the government offered them other alternatives and incentives they were happy to oblige. They seem to be content living in thatched huts with satellite dishes outside every home, they have electricity, a TV and a refrigerator yet their floors are dirt, no heat or air, but no real worries in life either. They must do their job in the jungle but that seems to be the way in Thailand except in the big cities. They call the bathroom the happy room and I suspect it’s because their happy if they have one.

We checked into our hotel, Phowadol Resort and Spa; it’s beautiful. It would be at least $300 a night in the US. We’re here for two nights so I’ll take more pictures. I ate Italian tonight; what a treat.