A jaunt along the Mekong in a speed boat is a delightful way to whet one's curiosity about the remote parts of Thailand, Laos and Burma which meet to form the so-called Golden Triangle.
Built close to what is now the northernmost point in the Kingdom, the backwater town of Chiang Saen in Chiang Rai province frequently featured in chronicles of our early history.
In an area once infamous for opium-poppy cultivation is the village of Sop Ruak, a short walk from the river. Today the only opium to be found hereabouts is the residue left on pipes and other smoking paraphernalia on display at local museums, quipped Jira, our tour guide, a pleasant individual with a dry sense of humour and an infectious smile.
Where poppies once waved in the breeze, hotels to suit all budgets plus a string of restaurants and souvenir stalls hug the line of the Mekong. And it didn't take us long to realise what most tourists end up doing in these parts: cruising up and down the river with short stopovers at villages on the Laotian side.
By the time we'd boarded our speed boat to Don Sao Island in Laos, a thick haze had blanketed the whole area. Jira explained that the prolonged drought had exacerbated forest fires, hence the copious amounts of smoke drifting our way. Still, our half-hour cruise did turn out to be an entertaining experience.
Along the way typical scenes of riparian life unfolded: solitary cows grazing under the blazing, mid-afternoon sun; little boys frolicking noisily in the muddy waterway; and women doing their laundry in the shallows, seemingly oblivious to my snap-happy fellow travellers capturing their images on film.
We had a mercifully hassle-free reception on Don Sao. Immigration officials manning a thatched-roof kiosk charged us 20 baht each for a day pass. But since this is just a plain piece of paper, foreign tourists who wanted a souvenir of their visit to the Lao People's Democratic Republic were happy to affix colourful "Welcome to Laos" stickers to their passports. These labels were being given away free if you bought postcards for the nearby line of stalls.
These shops stocked an eclectic selection of goods from Laos, Burma and Thailand; the rather steep prices all quoted in baht. Beside handicrafts, food and Laotian national flags, the most popular purchase seemed to be bottles of the local hooch, a clear, potent spirit distilled from rice. Each contained a preserved spider, scorpion or small snake.
Having visited Laos before, I soon realised that the only "authentic" feature in this place was a circle of bamboo huts, most of which had padlocked doors or an abandoned air about them, plus a small pen for housing ducks or chickens. (Later, we learned that this hamlet had been set up specifically to cash in on the tourist trade and that most of the stall-holders are not in fact natives but come from the Laotian province of Bokeo.)
To see the "real" Laos we were advised to walk to the other side of the islet, from where, we were told, we'd be able to get a glimpse, across a narrow strait, of villages in Bokeo on the mainland. Unfortunately, the view was obscured by the haze that day. Back at our disembarkation point, however, I did spot a few foreign tourists mailing postcards to themselves, presumably for the novelty of receiving something bearing a Laotian postage stamp. Other than shopping for souvenirs, this seemed to be about the only other distraction on offer!
Returning to Thai territory, we spent the rest of the afternoon touring historic sites. We walked around the remnants of the old walled muang (city-state) of Chiang Saen and made a brief visit to Wat Phra That Chedi Luang, a temple constructed in the 13th century by King Saen Phu. The latter has a bell-shaped, Lanna-style chedi and access to the compound is through a crumbling stone archway.
About one kilometre west of the old Chiang Saen, in Tambon Wiang, is another ancient temple called Wat Pa Sak. It was commissioned by the aforementioned monarch in 1295, who gave explicit instructions that 300 teak (pa sak) trees were to be planted around it - hence the name. Under its chedi, which is 12.5 metres high and 8 metres wide at the base, relics of the Lord Buddha are said to have been enshrined.
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