I awaken refreshed from the massage the day before, ready
for another day on the bike. We dawdle a little as I look for socks and we
eat breakfast at a new place. Establishments seem to change a lot here, opening
and closing often, stealing each others’ chefs and the like, the ‘in” place
discernable through the locals only.
It is warm and hazy as we drive out of town. We again head north to the Burmese border, stopping at little villages along the way. We lunch in a Chinese village on stir-fired vegetables and water. A roll of film is about three times as expensive as our lunch bill. Afternoon warms us as we start winding our way into less traveled areas.
| Our next stop is a temple just outside Tha Ton, again on the Burmese border. We look down from a Buddha onto the river below. Long-tail boats litter the bank, ready to take tourists down the Kok River to Chiang Rai. These 40-foot gondolas have car engines mounted on the back with a 5-meter pipe attached to the drive shaft with a propeller. There are resorts just across the river, even one in an international chain (Days Inn?). | |
We stop briefly at Theod Thai (pronounced Tur
Tai) for a break and decide to see where the newly opened road up northwest
to a Burmese village is like. Sixty punishing kilometers later, slogging
through powdered dirt as fine as talc, we reach Hua Mae Kham. The people
we ask vary on estimates to its distance, either 3 or 10 klicks up the road,
and the estimates for how much is dirt and how much is paved vary too. The
variety of obstacles in the road is also telling. Shit is among the most
prevalent. On a motorcycle like ours, the cat and dog shit can be ignored.
Buffalo excrement is the most dangerous, squatting in large pies, and usually
quite slippery. The elephant dung is large and dry, easily avoidable. David
takes notes from his GPS and increasingly finds that fewer and fewer people
speak Thai up here.
 |
We reach the village as the sun approaches the mountainous horizon, about 2 more hours of sunlight left. People here live more slowly. Quietly. Life is simpler here, until we see small pickups, Japanese mostly, and filled with 10 or 12 people in the back, ascending the slippery track (we could hardly call it a road) up to the village. Burma surrounds us on 3 sides. David said the trucks were a symptom of the opium production in the area. People didn’t seem to mind my taking pictures, though, as David said the drug lords had been pushed back a kilometer or so from the village. |
The only accommodations in the village had dirt flooring, and probably a hammock setup without netting and no restaurants, so we decided once more to descend to Theod Thai. David has never stayed here before. I find this exciting. I get to explore with him. We find some surprisingly nice bungalows just across the street from the bar on the main road. Down the hill, they are quiet and next to a river. Still no mosquitoes. We get two because they are about $5 apiece. David picks his and gets the one with the broken shower. The older gentleman manager speaks six languages, mostly dialects of the area but Chinese as well. We find that in this little town of about 5,000 there are 3 karaoke bars.
The mother is 18, already with 2 kids (maybe a third?). David offers candy to the baby. |
 |
After our shower we ride the cycles up the road to a place called “River Place.” At the side of a pond, we find a deserted restaurant. After ordering, one of the managers comes out to greet us. It seems that there are no girls here tonight (and thus no men) because there is a big national exam tomorrow and the young ones have to study. He employs 23 of them, but tonight there is only him. We sit in a covered area in the middle of the garden. David draws out facts gradually. They have been in business only a short time, their first season. We order more beer and the manager gives us two dishes, raw pork and raw fish from the pond, “cooked” in lemon and vinegar, I believe. I try the pork and decline the fish.
 |
They have plans, the owner tells us after disembarking from his Citroen and joining us. He has studied marketing in Bangkok and is back to make his name with his father’s land, the village leader. Cement foundations are being poured for bamboo shacks, plans for a floating entertainment area, a movie screen, and colored lighting when it gets foggy, as is happening now. We had forgotten our jackets and were completely chilled by now. We walk around the compound to warm up before returning to an early bed. |
| The next morning we awake early and hit the local market
for breakfast and pictures. People come down from the mountains to sell
their wares. We see at least 4 different tribes at the market. We get some
steamed buns, and order coffee at another place. The coffee is instant,
with more condensed milk and sugar than hot water. I ask about the 3 women
bagging small amounts of drink. Soy milk. It is almost as sweet as the
coffee, with a syrupy sugar added. A lady is roasting eggs across the street.
We wander the main part of the market before making our way up the hill.
We get lost in the immediate hills, winding up at a small school. Wrong road, but it shows us that the hills in this area can really isolate people. We go back to the village and take another road to the house of a drug overlord. |
 |
Khun Sa had his headquarters in this town until about ten
years ago when the Thai government sent 1,000 troops. It took them two weeks
to force Khun Sa across the border into Burma. The museum and the ruins of
his compound showed that he was an enormously charismatic leader of the Akha
people. He financed his defense with opium. He hoped to create an Akha state
or at least an autonomous area straddling Thailand and Burma. He sold out his
people, though, as he moved to Burma and made a deal with the corrupt regime
there and enjoys protection and concentrates on his opium production instead
of liberty.
 |
By this time it is glorious warm. We load up the bikes and walk next door to the restaurant, one of the cleanest places I have seen in Thailand. The food is good, I choose flower stems and mushrooms in spicy sauce. Off we go for another day of riding. |
