Sign in with Facebook219 Patueng, Maechan, Chiang Rai, 57110, Thailand
Sunset over Mae Salong Chinese Village
no. 1. opium mark
view of Mae Salong from General Duan's Tomb
Shadow
I came here as the first stop on a Golden Triangle Tour I did. The garden, which is located at Doi Tung in the hills to the north of Chiang Rai, is part of a royal villa that was the final home of the Princess Mother (mother of King Rama IX). The garden is very beautiful and worthy of a trip, if you have the time.
Sop Ruak has a tourist trap (the Golden Triaangle signs) and a few interesting sights - the opium museum and some excellent temples. The opium museum is tiny but excellent... it tells everything you need (or don't need) to know about opium, and has an exhibit of bizarre opium scales that look like wooden boxes with carvings (so that people did not immediately recognise them as scales). The temples are wonderful. the first one you encounter is going up a long and ornated staircase - this latter one is the more interestig than the temple itself. Going further uphill you come to a parking lot - empty except for some stalls selling souvenirs, and the ruins of another temple: the highlight here are the statues scattered around the gardens... some are very scenically located. As an added bonus: views over the parking lot are much nicer than from down by the normal road
It was a long ride of 400 km from Chiang Mai, to see the golden triangle. Nothing much to see, except the sensation of being in a crossroads of the world, where the forbidden countries touch the open ones. We took a flat bottom boat, and followed the Mekong River between Burma and Laos, at that time closed countries in civil war. It touched us the way as children of all ages challenged the dangerous currents of the river to approach our boat, asking for a coin, that, as a matter of fact, I'm not so sure they could use, whatsoever.
And that was the place where:
1 - I tasted the hottest Thai dish of my life.
2 - I saw Portuguese Port wine in the list, and ordered it, for the pleasure of appreciating something Portuguese in the remote Golden Triangle.
"Sorry, sir, it's finished."
" Never mind, girl, at least I know that more than 30 other people enjoyed Port wine in the Golden Triangle."
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