After breakfast we departed the hotel for Doi Tung Royal Villa. Chiangrai is in the golden triangle which historically covered Northern Thailand, Burma, and Laos. Local hill tribes in this area grew poppies for opium. The mother of the last king decided to establish a residence in this area to try to bring attention to the region and provide the locals with other ways to support themselves. Through her and others’ efforts, opium production in Northern Thailand has halted and many other crops have been introduced. Sounds like she was an amazing woman. We toured her home (we couldn’t take pictures in the house), her garden and a small museum, aptly called the Hall of Inspiration.
We went to lunch in a remote local village of 2,000 people. To get there we took tractor/pick up trucks.
On the way we saw people picking tea. Lin got out to buy some, but we didn’t drink any because she wasn’t sure if it was safe.
When we arrived there were ladies there selling various goods. One of them had a baby. We had received stuffed tigers at the tiger reserve which we intended to give away so we gave one to the baby.
The restaurant was a beautiful, remote retreat.
After lunch we went to the area where Thailand, Laos, and Burma’s borders meet along the Mekong River. The Chinese had leased the land along the river and were building casinos. There were a couple of large Buddhas there. We looked in a few shops but didn’t find anything we wanted to bring back.
That evening we had dinner at the hotel. A number of people from our group, including Rick and Lin, sang karaoke that evening. Again, it was a lot of fun.