Day 8: Chiang Rai & Karen Long Neck Tribe

This morning was a great wake up call. Chiang Mai is really very peaceful and our guesthouse is on a quiet side street so we were woken up by the birds and a rooster. I forgot what it was like showering in a wet room (open shower in the bathroom). Jake and I both experienced that in Europe, but it's been awhile. Always an interesting experience compared to what we are used to in canada! The entire bathroom gets soaking wet! Hehe 

We got picked up by "Journey" tour company (booked through Travel Hub) at 7:30 AM. We were taken to Chiang Rai, a northern city in Thailand about 3.5 hrs north of Chiang Mai. The roads were extremely twisty and bumpy - caused Jake to get a bit of road sickness. Luckily the roads flattened out when we got through the mountains. 

Our first stop was a newer Buddhist temple that is still under construction. This temple is known as "Wat Rong Khun." The architect/designer is dedicating the remainder of his life to this temple. It was beautiful and unlike any other Buddhist temple we have seen before. It was all white and covered in little silver stones which shone in the sun. It literally glimmered. If you see any temple in Thailand, you need to see this one!

From there we went to see the hill tribes, particularly the Karen Long Neck Tribe. We were literally in the middle f the jungle surrounded by mountains. The scenery was amazing but also humbling to see how the tribes live. 

The women wear gold rings around their neck, starting around the age of 4-5. At that age, they begin to add about 4 rings to their neck, adding more about every 4 years until they are approximately 45. The rings actually don't stretch out their neck, but they do push down their collar bone. See here for a better explanation:

They do it for a few reasons: it is traditional, they believe it is a sign of beauty, and they also believe it will protect their neck from animal bites (tiger bites in particular). The Karen Long Neck tribe are actually Burmese refugees and unable to get Thai citizenship. Although in recent years, the King has started projects to help these tribes. He has helped them get passports and has given them funds from the tourism industry to help them live. Next year though, it is predicted that this tribe will move to Myanmar since they are opening up to more tribal communities and it is suspected to continue into 2015. 

After visiting the tribal villages, we went for lunch in the "golden triangle" which is on the border to Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. 

We then took a river cruise down the river bordering Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. We learnt about the opium trade which was a major problem for the three countries until it was (for the most part) shut down in 1977. The area was the second largest opium producer in the world following Afghanistan. They call the area the "golden" triangle because the would trade 1 kilo of gold for 1 kilo of opium since the three neighboring countries did not want to trade each others currency.

While on the river boat cruise we went across to Laos where we spent a bit of the afternoon shopping and sightseeing. We returned to Thailand and then visited the most northern part of Thailand which borders Myanmar. At that point, it was 5PM and the end of our excursion. We had a 4 hour drive back to Chiang Mai where we called it quits for the evening in order to make sure we were rested up for Patara Elephant Farm Saturday morning!