The Golden Triangle

Northern Thailand - December 2012

The strange thing about these sculpted hands and skulls reaching up out of a pit where bad folk go, is that someone has painted a single fingernail red.

Where do bad folks go when they die?  

They don't go to heaven where the angels fly  

They go to a lake of fire and fry  

Won't see 'em again till the 4th of July

There's an Opium Museum up on the Thai/Laos/Burma border. It's mostly about the British squaring up their balance of trade with opium balls. It's a fine museum, but leave three or four hours to visit and take it all in. There are movies about the CIA and all kinds of Golden Triangle history things that you might find interesting. We had to cut it shorter than I would have liked..busy schedule.

The visit starts with a walk up a dimly lit long tunnel with eerie music and tortured human images carved into the tunnel walls.

There is no order to the pictures here today. Just another weird day in the Golden Triangle. Cooking eggs in boiling hot springs for breakfast, talking to bald-headed monks, seeing surrealistic strange structures, eating the local food...

The inside of this temple had a lot of white strings in it which created an interesting visual view of the Buddha. The visual view is not as redundant as it sounds. Consider spiritual view, overview, or other views...

This old, bald monk is building a new place for the young monks to sleep and cook. It's all open air. The weather does not require heaters for the most part.

This is an adjunct structure going up near an old temple along a remote river off the beaten path. It's sort of a boat-like temple thingy.

Our driver, Ken on the temple boat.

Carol and Bennett draw a stick in the temple which gives a number that leads to a written fortune. Their fortune says that the new baby is not expected anytime soon. Nailed it in one.

Ken tells me that the people who use the temple make these things and people vote for the most beautiful by placing money in them. The money is used for maintenance and additions...

The old temple next to the new boat structure on the river.

We are the only customers in this open-air restaurant. The food is good and very spicy. Fortunately, both Bennett and Ken are fluent in Thai.

Down the road, This ultra-modern temple has some odd images, including all the hands coming out of the pit. Maybe they are drawing on Christian images. Maybe we were once visited by really ugly aliens? Interesting use of Spanish Moss?

The temples vary greatly in design. This one is fairly new. It was built by a really wealthy businessman. As far as Bennett knows, it was built to make merit. He doesn't accept large gifts, support monks or do good works. We think we see him sitting by the temple entrance...

The Red Rose Hotel in Chaing Rai is built around a Disneyland motif. It is intended for only short-term occupancy (prostitution) We drive all-around at night to look for it because Ken and Bennett think we will find it interesting. We went into one very humid room that had some kind of bugs that bit Mrs. Phred. I wonder what Walt Disney would think?

This is the little mermaid room.

I think this room is the little engine that could.

Behind Carol is Burma. Behind Bennett is Laos. They are standing in Thailand. The three countries are divided by the Mekong and the smaller river that joins it from between them to the left.