A Brit in The Orient.

Beautiful pictures and journal entries, Mathos. I enjoy them very much!

Great pixx, good effort Mathos and Dutchy, thanks.

I am enjoying the account.

I'm glad you are all enjoying the account and pictures.

Dutchy, I really want to express my thanks here for your kind and valued assistance.

So much appreciated.

This is just a flying visit, I will write up on the aforementioned pictures this evening probably, unless it rains of course to-day. I'm off to the dentist with m'laddo in fifteen minutes or so, and then I'll be working outside all day.

The first picture Dutchy has put on for me, his post number 3176607 is the sleepy little town of Chiang Khong, nestling on the banks of the Mekong, as I mentioned the town is very attractive, clean and well maintained.

Also noticeable to us Brits especially is the overhead electricity, there is very little overhead electricity in The UK just about all electricity is now underground. We do have large pylons carrying initial supplies out from the major power stations but overheads supplying towns and housing estates etc are virtually non existent.

Some of the overheads in the larger towns and cities in Thailand are quite alarming, especially in the monsoon season, when flashes and arcs appear to be part of the norm.

The two pigs (hogs) basking happily in the mid morning sun in a pool of mud in a small Laotian village represent a common site in these towns.
Pork appears to be the most common form of meat eaten by Thais, Burmese, Laotians, Vietnamese and Cambodians; This is not the case in Malaysia however, as the majority of the population are Muslim, and pork is not eaten at all by them. Chicken and Duck are also very popular in this part of the world. Unfortunately dog is a preferred meat in Vietnam and there is presently strong concern in Thailand regarding truck loads of dogs which have been discovered being conveyed across Cambodia and into Vietnam for human consumption . I have seen people in northern Thailand cooking and eating dog as recent as last year. This was well out in the 'sticks' and not in one of the towns or villages. The townspeople and village people have over the last ten years or so become more western in their approach to the canines in general, they are proud to have them as pets, there are pet shops, dog food and sundries such as collars and leads for sale in most of the more modern supermarkets, such as Tesco/Lotus.

As I mentioned previously the streets in the town of Chiang Khong bar b q
freshly caught river fish on a regular basis, the fish is excellent to eat, especially with the additional herbs they cover the same in. Really nice, I can recommend it.

As you rightly mention Mac, the hut you see built on unexploded bombs (thankfully now de-commissioned, at one time not that long ago they were not) is a very common site all over Laos. The bombs are I understand American from the American/Vietnam war.

There are houses and all sorts of buildings including school houses supported on these one time weapons.

The next two photographs show the immigration Mekong River ports at Chiang Khong Thailand on the first and Huay Xai on the latter. It was a pleasant walk through town from the hotel down to the port and we made the short crossing from Thailand after going through immigration, having our passport duly stamped, previous country arrival cards, removed from our passports, checked over and filed. The arrivals procedure and visa fees then had to be paid on the Laotian side and entry into town permitted with a flash Laotian stamp into our passports.

The next photograph is taken from The Restaurant at the Riverside Hotel, Chiang Khong, superbly situated and overlooking the Mekong.

It was indeed a pleasant open air restaurant, not only catering for the hotel guests with local fare, it boasted quite a surprising selection of European food.

The restaurant was also very busy each evening we were there with locals, families and business men alike. There was also entertainment each night we dined there by means of an organist and guitar vocalist, who despite his Thai accent didn't make too bad a job of a few Elvis and Zimmerman numbers, which surprised us accordingly.

Breakfast was well presented, copious amounts of fresh fruit, choice of three cereals and eggs any way you wanted them, (they were of course free range and tasted excellent), ham, tomatoes, pork sausage, bread rolls and butter, toast if you so desired, freshly blended juice and plenty of tea or coffee,

The other residents were really friendly and we managed a few amicable chats each morning in the warmth of the January sunshine.

I thought the elephants and combined Giant Budda by the bank of The Mekong in the town of Chiang Saen was quite impressive as we drove into town on our way through to Chiang Khong.

The town is rather small even though it has been a major trading post and crossroads since the seventh century. I understand it was once part of the Yonok Kingdom, birthplace of Mengrai who founded the Kingdom of Lanna.

King Saen Phu the nephew of Mengrai apparently moved Lanna's capital to this town. The walls were built and the moats dug out. There was always long conflict between Siam and Burma possession of the town passed from one country to the other for years. The Burmese were eventually forced out of Siam, and King Rama the first had the city levelled in 1804 to move it as a temptation. History tells us that the city was reoccupied and rebuilt by the descendants of the original citizens on the orders of King Rama V in 1881.

There is a decent museum in the town and some really attractive temples, especially Wat Prathat Chom Kitti which is built on top of a hill, (a great number of Thai Temples are) and it affords a brilliant view of the city and river below.

I took these notes from a small booklet I picked up in the town.

Finish the remainder off tomorrow evening.

I was surprised by the sign at Chiang Saen Immigration point on The Mekong which stated;-

You are not allowed to take more than 500,000 Baht out of the country.


In three languages especially

Thai

English

Chinese.

I have never seen such a notice at any other Immigration point that I can call to mind, be it land, sea, airport, or other river point.

500,00 Baht or a cool half million Baht equates to approximately £8,000..00 (a little below) and I am familiar with numerous Immigration points, as Visa runs have to be carried out every thirty days, unless you have an extended visa to start with (These can be obtained from The Thai Visa Office in Hull United Kingdom for a fee) and assuming you do not leave the country during the six month period the same can be allocated for without permission, previously obtained and marked up on your six month Visa in advance, again for a fee.

I should point out that there are still great amounts of drug related criminal activity in the Golden Triangle and on the 25th February this year it was reported that one of The Shan Drug Lords with his band of villains had attacked and shot three Police Officers on The Mekong around The Chiang Saen river point.

Latest findings by Thai investigators indicated that the most plausible cause for the attack on a Chinese police patrol boat on 25 February was the forced relocation of Laotian villagers by the $200 million casino project launched by Chinese financiers earlier this year, according to senior security officials on the triangle.

The relocation had displaced 70-80 households in Hueypheung, the village in Tonpheung district, Bokeo province, opposite Thailand's Chiang Rai province. "To our knowledge, there had been little or no compensations to the affected people," said one officer.

The project management also refused to hire local people, bringing Chinese laborers from Yunnan instead to work on the site. "Worse, the security personal for the project had fired upon local prowlers earlier in the month thereby killing 2 people, an incident which brought the local people's anger past the boiling point," he added.

Another officer chipped in by saying while there was little doubt that the gunmen were members of the armed group led by Naw Kham, a Shan drug fugitive who is believed to have homes on all three countries that form the triangle, they were being supported by the unhappy Laotian villagers.

I could tell you some very interesting stories of deeds of this nature in The Golden Triangle, some of which I have witnessed first hand over the years. They are quite remarkable, I have also met some very interesting people.

I have some cuttings from The Bangkok post regarding this and additional occurences of strange and peculiar instances which I will let you have sight off with other interesting news items at the end of the write up.

<dropping in to catch up>

Hello ,

The next photograph represents a typical Laotian village home.

As is familiar throughout the region of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia, houses especially are all built on stilt like supports, even in the mountain homes.

This usually affords protection from the monsoon floods, the underpart can also be used for storage, animal compounds (pigs especially) cooking, nattering and places of work or carrying out various chores.

This particular home sports a single fluorescent light, there was no electricity to the village however and I learned that the occupier had a small generator which he used on special occasions and made use of the light with the same.

I was of the opinion that the occupants looked quite well fed, happy and healthy.

___________________________________________


The next photograph shows part of a local market mainly fruit on sale at this point, I must say the fruit in this part of the world is exceptionally good, as well as being so very cheap to us as occidentals.

The market as all in these towns also sold everything else, meat, poultry, fish, fish paste, tobacco, clothing and a few items of hardware.

_____________________________________________


The next shows a further village and a lady thatching for roof repairs or replacement.

It is quite amazing how competent these people are in using the most basics of materials and or whatever they can find (unexploded bombs for instance and making use of the same) there is little thrown away!

Post number 3176809

This photograph shows a small type of tributary going into The Mekong, it is a safer haven for the smaller boats especially, the boats in general though don't look like they would be considered fit to sail on the village duck pond back at home. However, the need for people to travel and convey goods, outweighs the safety measures we naturally take for granted, be it be land, sea and air at certain air-strips I can bring to mind.

Post number 3176818 shows a snap simply taken from the balcony of our hotel room showing the sun about to rise over the mountain in the distant east, it was indeed a pleasant start to the day to await the rising sun with a nice hot mug of tea before breakfast.

The photograph on post 3176831 shows a better class of village, again you can see a lady thatching as the earlier snap showed . The houses were better built and some fairly decent lengths of timber were neatly stored below the the main house.

It's getting rather late for me right now and I have had a long day working. I was up at 6.30 am and worked outside until 4.15pm when I took a shower before going to the boxing gym for 5pm. I didn't get home until 8pm, had my meal and did these entries. I'll finish them off over the weekend, all going well.

After that I would like to take you into an opium den which is quite interesting. You can see a couple of the addicts well spaced out on photographs I managed to take. Plus some other very interesting snaps the likes of which I doubt you will have seen before.