Part II: The River Runs Through It Part One- Golden Traingle
可2魁: The River Runs Through It Part One- Golden Traingle

created 9/2004

Day 10 (7/10)

I was surprised to find it is only the 12th longest river in the world. I thought it should be like No. 6 or No. 7, only a little shorter than China・s Yangtze River or Yellow River. Coincidentally, they all originate from Tibetan Plateau anyway.

This is a river I always have some fascination about, a river where some great civilization were cultivated, a river that was a lifeline for several great cultures. I am not talking about the Niles, the Amazons, the Yangtze, or the Ganges. I・m talking about the Mekong River.

On a very long flight earlier this year, I read an article in ：The Economist； with great interest (They usually have great articles, very often better than ：Time；). It・s an article about the Mekong and the countries it runs through. Interestingly, this river seems not to have great economic benefits for those countries it runs through. It is not a great river for transportation (too muddy, too many hidden rocks along the way); it is not very scenic for tourism; even though it offers great irrigation source for crops, its constant flooding also causes a lot of damage to lives and properties.

However, I do not think about the Mekong by thinking its economics or civilization. What I remember about the river is, it runs through countries that have experienced tremendously tumultuous history in last century. Numerous wars, revolution, famine, and even genocide are those come to mind when people read about countries along Mekong Basin. Countries include Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China, and Burma. Ironically, I started this trip in a country that experienced relatively harmony compared to its unstable neighbors.

This day, I finally had a chance to sail on this mighty but disturbed river.

After a whole afternoon・s sailing in a very small long-tailed boat (Kwok River is a tributary of Mekong indeed), I was not very excited about the idea of more river cruising.

The weather was turning bad after we arrived at Chiang Saen, the largest town in the Golden Triangle Area. It started to drizzle when we stopped at the riverfront to take some pictures.

So, this is the Mekong. I looked at the extremely muddy river, only about 50 meters wide.

：So, it is Laos over there?； I asked Sonchit, our tour guide.

：Yes.； She said. ：We can take a small boat over there later.；

：But we don・t have entry visa to Laos!； I wonder.

"No, you don・t need a visa to Laos. It is just a small island in Mekong that we will visit. You don・t even need to show your passport." She assured us.

：Really? But that island is part of Laos?； I still had some doubts.

：Yes.；

So I would be visiting another new country, even I only stopped on an "off-shore" island of its main territory.

However, the boat is even smaller than the one we had the day before and there was not even a roof covering it. When the boat sped up, the drizzle also turned into more intense rain. The raindrop falling on our faces started to feel like cut. It wasn・t a pleasant ride.

People・s Democratic Republic of Laos. (Isn・t that strange? Why do those communist countries all have word like "democratic" or "people" in their names, while their governments don't care about either?)

It is just a small village with several souvenir stands where postcards, T-shirts, and some privately brewed liquor (including some gecko wine!) were sold. There are also some Viet Cong helmets on sale. I walked around with a bottle of Laos Beer in hand, wondering if there were other interesting things to buy. There were not.

We had lunch at the Golden Triangle Resort, back to the comfort in Thailand. The weather is still bad outside, so it wasn・t easy to view the other sides of the River. Three countries, Thailand, Laos, and Burma (now called Myanmar), border each other at the point where Mekong joins its tributary Ruak. There is nothing really spectacular here, just a triangle area where rivers meet. However, this whole region was responsible for more than 60% of the world・s heroin production.

Thailand outlawed poppy growing a few years ago and now heroin is not as easy to find on the Thai side of the Triangle Area (or it is just we don't see it doesn・t mean it is not there.). It is so peaceful here that it is hard to associate this place with drug trafficking and narcotics abuse.

Most of heroin in Triangle Region is now grown in Burma, a nation now controlled by military junta and pretty much isolated from outside world due to international boycott.

And I would visit it in the afternoon.

After lunch, we drove to Mae Sai, the northernmost town of Thailand. Just across Mae Sai River, it is the Burmese town of Tachelik.

Even though I expected a wild border town like Tijuana (Mexico), with a lot of gun carrying soldier patrolling the streets, Mae Sai is actually quite clean and modern (There are even a few Seven-Eleven convenient stores). There were not many soldiers in sight. After taking a few pictures at a monument marking the northernmost point of Thai territory. We were pondering the question: "Should we go to Burma?"

Yes, we did need to show our passport this time. We did not need a entry visa if we only visited Tachelik for a day. However, visiting Burma meant we would leave Thailand. Our Thai single-entry visa would not facilitate us to re-enter Thailand. And yes, simply stepping into Burma cost almost 10 dollars entry fee each person.

"But this is another country." My vanity was calling again.

：We might never have another chance to visit Burma for the rest of our life." My mother wondered.

So we found some easier way to do it: leaving our Taiwanese passports at the Thai custom (so we technically did not "leave" Thailand) and got in Burma with a Xeroxed copy of our passports (Burmese don・t care). Problem solved. A few hundred bahts entry fee was not really that much either, we told ourselves.

This border bridge is possible only about 15 meters long. You can hardly imagine such a small river divide two countries with quite different political and economic systems. And about different regulation in poppy growing.

Just like that small Laotian island, again, Tachelik is a disappointment. Though it actually did not look very different from Mae Sai (except that, Burmese drive on right side of the road.), we did feel people here were more pushy hustling than Thais. We got a cab to visit a giant pagoda on the hilltop (it is a replica of the Golden Pagoda in Rangoon, now called Yangon by the Junta) and stopped at a Shan village (those little girls surprised us by yelling "100 bahts, only 100 bahts for the tapestry!" in Taiwanese). Later, it was raining even harder so we did not even want to wander around outside for too long. Then we were taken to a marketplace where many pirate DVDs were on sale (including movies as new as Shrek 2). Judging from simplified Chinese characters on their covers, these pirate products were obviously made in China.

"You can get them even cheaper in Beijing." My mother said while Sonchit sneaked away to find some cheap DVDs herself.

"But I don・t buy pirate products." I told my mother.

So pretty much, for us, this Burmese border town had very little to offer.

One day, three countries, however, there was not much of this visit really memorable. We drove back to our 5-star island resort in Chiang Rai, decided just doing nothing for the rest of the day (it was still raining).

"At least I saw the Mekong." I consoled myself, after counting that I just visited my 57th and 58th countries.

I will encounter Mekong again, when I visited my 59th and 60th countries.

Part III - 可3魁

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