THE RUBBER TRIANGLE, CONDOMS AND CABBAGES

We travel this morning from Chiang Rai To Chiang Mai, the major city of the north. Its the cultural, religious and crafts center of the Northern Provinces and a favorite place for visitors. Our first stop is what we nicknamed the Candy Palace above. It is a temple built by a rich artist who decided on white rather than gold for his temple, though there is a lot of gold bling about the place as well.
The multiple rooves show the add ons as the place got bigger and more elaborate.
Macabre sculpture lines the walkway to the entrance bridge.

A beautiful setting for a drinking fountain.
This was the only restroom in which we had to remove our shoes. They provided little cloth slippers for us to wear. Not exactly sanitary.
The women's above, the cleanest most beautiful in all Thailand, so beautiful in fact, the artist/owner closed it and built alternative restrooms.

The gents had to have that gold carved ceiling decoration. It is a choice in how you spend your money, and beauty is always appreciated if not practical.

Our next stop was the restaurant, Condoms and Cabbages. Its a bit tricky to understand, but this man known as the Condom King believed so strongly in safe sex and promoting and educating Thais about safe sex, he opened a restaurant with a shop that sells condoms. He uses humor to help people over embarrassment. In front of his place is a shaded kiosk that has diagrammed the human life cycle and how a condom prevents unwanted births and protects against disease.
In his gift shop you can find t-shirts with safe sex messages, flower bouquets made with condoms, figures, a swan, a life-sized female figure and Santa Claus. Hey, whatever works.

On the road we saw this farmer resting and attending his water buffalo.
We stopped for lunch at this beautiful complex for their specialty, phad tai. The cook below is beginning a new batch.
You can rent a flowered bicycle powered rickshaw to visit the area.

Flat Stanley enjoyed a ride on a dragon.
After lunch we learned how silk was made.

It is hard to see that the tray above is full of silk worms munching on mulberry leaves. When they finally roll up into a cocoon, they have covered themselves in the precious fiber known as silk.
The cocoons are heated, which kills the moth and allows the worker to remove the fibers and gather it into a bundle.
The bundles of silk thread is dyed beautiful colors and wound onto a spindle for weaving.
This woman is working on a tapestry that will take 9 months to finish. Intense work. Notice her feet pump the weft to allow the shuttle to pass through.
We visited a gem merchant who sells exquisite jewelry. We learned about the process of recognizing gems from the outside, before they are polished. They specialize in sapphires but have rubies, diamonds, jade, garnets and other stones. Lovely stuff.
We check into the hotel and some of our party went to the night bazaar after dinner where everything in Thailand is available for sale.

TIGER PENIS AND COBRA WHISKEY, WHERE AM I?

Myanmar, which used to be Burma, is surrounded by Thailand, China, Laos, India and the Bay of Bengal. It has only recently been opened for limited tourism after a long period of isolation. It is probably the least changed Asian country, though the people here tend to dress in western clothing. Panu expedited our border crossing into the town of Tachilek, took care of our passports, got them stamped and zoom, we were in. While waiting I photographed this guy on a motor scooter carrying a mattress on a trailer over the bridge and into Myanmar. The motor scooter is the cheapest and most common method of transportation for the average person in all of these countries.

Shoulder poles to carry goods are much in evidence here, something rarely seen in Thailand.

Common market items dried persimmons and chestnuts.

This well dressed gent with his cheeroot passed by me before I could get a good focus on him.
Dog meat in the market place was a distasteful, yet compelling sight for us.

These old singers have been here for many, many years, no doubt.
We took a walk through the town headed for the rickshaw station. We stopped at this school. Notice the outdoor toilet out in back.
The playground had tire swings, a dirt yard and a bamboo made climbing apparatus.
These children on the streets looked to be playing a dice game without the dice. They would throw down the rinds or bones and scramble for the winning throw, chattering madly the whole while. Notice the Mickey Mouse shirt.
Children happily run a stick over an old tire and roll it along expertly.
The children seem healthy but this is a poor country. This woman was attending her washing next to her house.
We reached the rickshaw station and loaded into motorized rickshaws for a ride to the Shan Temple.
At the temple, we paid 30 baht to a young girl or boy to take us through the temple rituals. Many women and girls paint their faces with a chalky powder for the beauty of it. This was the only boy I saw painted thus. He approached me with flowers and a small bamboo cage with a live bird in it.
Everyone in our group was individually led to the particular shrine that relates to their birth. For me, the year of the dragon, Wednesday.
You place the flowers, pour water over several effigies, three times, then release the bird as I am doing above. The bird flew away so fast, the child could not get its picture.
Then you return to the temple bell and ring it three times and your ritual is complete. From there you can go inside to pray where there are Budda from India, China and Thailand.
The Shan Temple above.
We returned to Thailand and loaded into farmer La Valles truck for a long dusty, bumpy drive into the mountains for a lovely outdoor lunch.

Fresh tilapia or chicken was on the menu along with some wonderful mystery stew that was delicious.
Innovation is always on display in these countries. The flower pot sink and below that the paint job on the mens.

When we loaded back into the truck, the driver cut me pieces of bamboo to cook on at home. This farmer/artist enhances income by allowing tourists on the farm.
From Thailand, one can see across the Mekong River a small section of Loas. Many people stray over there without a passport because the town is remote from government and the people need the income for the stuff they sell.
We began our boat tour and stopped for a short half hour in Loas. Here a sign greeted us in the market.

The tiger penis in whiskey. Next to it a jar with two cobras also marinated in whiskey.
It tasted like whiskey with an odd flavor. Not anything I could compare it to. I figured the whiskey would preserve anything in it. Hey, they have worms in tequilla. I guess you can tell this isn't Kansas.

STICKY RICE AKHA STYLE, WORM SNACKS, OPIUM GROWING

Yesterday, Jim and I visited Biosphere2, an amazing project here in Tuscon begun in 1991. I'm still disseminating Thailand so check his blog for information at
http://otrwjam.wordpress.com

In Thailand, (don't know why I'm unable to get rid of this underline), we are pushing north for Chaing Rai. We stop and visit this Indigo Dye Works, a family run enterprise that has lifted this old craft from obscurity. At one time everyone wore Indigo died work clothes and it became unpopular as a working class clothing. The woman below, Yellow, revived this old craft using the batik process for fancier items. She supports 3 families with her entreprenurial talents.
Demonstrating, she mixes the leaves and stems of the indigo plant in water, then mixes in lime-ash, dips a piece of cloth in the mixture, and in a matter of minutes, the cloth hits the oxygen and turns from a pale green to a beautiful, deep blue.
We watched the workers dip iron molds into a vat of wax and stamp the cloth. Many beautiful patterns find their way onto table cloths, jackets, shirts, scarves, handbags and just about anything you can make with cloth. I might mention that these many stops in our travels are arranged to educate us and to provide a "Happy Room" stop since we don't always have convenient roadside rests.
The batik process allows the dye to cover the cloth everywhere the wax is not. The wax is cooled and then chips off the material.
This old stove-top iron was in her workshop and I photographed it. Several of us discussed among ourselves the marvelous antiques still in use in places we've visited, like the old sewing machines in the market. If they only knew how much someone in the states would pay for one of their old machines, they would sell them and we'd be poorer for the transaction.
Mason was interested in buying a sword to bring home. Panu stopped at this rudimentary roadside blacksmith shop.
Here is a sample of an amazing array of farm tools they produce. And, he did find a sword after the drivers pulled his luggage from the bottom of the bus to see what would fit in it.
Our next stop was a more glamorus place. This woman gave us a tea tasting. She cooled the little clay baby she is pouring the tea over and he peed on everyone within range much to our surprise as we howled with laughter. Here Panu bought a bamboo tray of deep fried worms to try. They were surprisingly good, a snack something like popcorn that you could munch by the handful. Not everyone tried them, but later on the bus, when Panu stopped and bought a cake and some fruit, Roberta and I agreed the worms were better tasting than the cake. They were grubs, not angle worms.
After lunch we loaded into songtaew (trucks) for a hillly drive to visit the indigenous Akha people who wear elaborate, colorful costumes for our visit. They wear their costumes for festivals and celebrations. This woman's teeth are stained by the betel nut leaves they chew.


We wandered the village and watched them at work and leisure. Some men were making sticky rice in an outdoor tub. In front of another thatched hut, men were butchering what looked like a wild pig. Children run around with the chickens, dogs and cats and play happily as all children do. They are probably unaware that they are poor since their village is quite remote. Fruits and foodstuffs dry on the rooves, they have little gardens between huts and clothing hangs on the lines. Old men watch the village activities from their hammock or chair.



A simple life style, but it wasn't always so. We are close to the Golden Triangle. Many of the hill tribes were induced by drug lords to grow opium. Not that they benefited much from the trade. The government established programs for them to benefit from legal crops and tourism, a safer alternative. The women danced for us with their children on their backs. Some of the mothers appeared to be 15 years old, children themselves.
OAT supports several indiginous tribes. Government efforts to halt the slash and burn of the jungle have been pretty successful. But, tourism has its problems too. The Karen tribe are called long necks because they begin putting brass rings on the necks which eventually stretches their neck, yes, but it breaks their shoulder bones and cripples these women. From this tribe of great beauty, children were often sold into prostitution. That has been halted but tourism is so popular that the tribe has begun putting brass rings on young girls to earn money from tourists. OAT has polled travellers such as we about supporting the people or not supporting the people because they are exploiting their children. Without exception all of us agreed we should not visit the Karen because it resulted in exploitation of children.
The history of these various peoples was explained to us in detail. The Lishu, we will meet later at the Elephant Camp.
Our hotel today is a couple kilometers from an Opium Museum as we are at a beautiful hotel in the Golden Triangle.