Category: Laos

The Golden Triangle

On By disconoodlesIn Laos, Myanmar, ThailandLeave a comment

I hadn’t heard about the Golden Triangle prior to researching our trip, but the conspiracies surrounding the area’s illicit history are super juicy. Geographically, the Golden Triangle is the three-country border between Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos. From the 1950’s to the early 90’s this area was the primary source of the world’s supply of heroin. The opium poppy was a cash crop for the region’s ethnic minorities, and the porous frontier was a perfect environment for processing and distribution. The opium was used to help finance their civil wars- in Myanmar this meant hill tribes fighting the central government, in Laos it was Hmong rebels and Royal Lao Government vs the Communist Pathet Lao .

As if that wasn’t juicy enough, some historians allege that the CIA was actually involved in opium drug trafficking here. Opium trade was legal in Laos until 1971; the name “the Golden Triangle” actually comes from a US State Department memo on the practice. Throughout 60’s and 70’s the CIA was sponsoring The Secret War in Laos, and several historians and veterans allege that US forces either participated in or turned a blind eye to Laotian forces using the drug to fund their operations. Some pop culture references: If you’ve seen the movie American Gangster, (an Hollywood version of real-life events), this is the region Frank Lucas got his pure heroin from. Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now is said to be inspired by real-life whacko Tony Poe, who was based in northern Laos during that time.

The Golden Triangle’s golden years have come and gone, but I did allow my imagination to search for any remaining clues of the once ubiquitous drug trade. The only evidence I found that might’ve stuck was this super haggard British guy that awkwardly joined our table at a cafe in Huay Xai. He was very thin and slurring his words, moving in slow motion.  He mentioned that he’d spent the last 10 years cycling all over northern Laos. It’s a beautiful country, but I really don’t understand why one would do something like that – alone, for 10 years – unless something you were relentlessly addicted to was keeping you there.  He was totally out of it and didn’t remember any of us the next morning (8 hours later re-introduced himself and started the same conversations). To be fair, he never mentioned anything, but in my gut I felt like this guy was on something.

I didn’t mean for this to be a sad or scary post;  it is what it is. So much of traveling is taking the good with the bad, and it’s important to learn as much as you can about areas you’re traveling to. If you shelter yourself from the bad, the sad, or the hard to stomach, you’ll never get the whole story, you’ll fail to recognize suffering, and you could miss an opportunity to help. If you are aware of the problem it makes it so much easier to find people who are doing good things and support them; become a part of the solution, inspire hope, and help along the healing process.

 

 

 

Leaving for Laos

On By disconoodlesIn Laos, ThailandLeave a comment

We left Chiang Mai just after 8:30AM on a bus bound for the Chiang Khong–Huay Xai border crossing. The crossing is about 200 miles northeast of Chiang Mai, and should take around 5 hours to reach by land. The goal was to get thru to Laos before the crossing closed at 6PM, and I wanted to allow for plenty of delays, which are apparently to be expected when traveling by bus through Northern Thailand. We bought tickets for an 8AM departure, but the clerk told us that we should probably just arrive at the station at 8 because the bus never leaves on time.

The trip started out pretty lush and green and hilly. We went through a couple of national parks and a lot of farmland. The overhead entertainment screened Oblivion but it was dubbed over in Thai, so I mostly just slept and let my imagination run wild across the surrounding countryside, which at one time in the not-so-distant past was the world’s primary source of heroin (more on this later). An ALLEGED US opium processing plant was ALLEGEDLY based at our destination (Huay Xai) during the Secret War… but have no fear, I’ve been assured that these days the only things moving through the area are tourists on their way into Laos.

Once we got to Chiang Khong we had to hire a tuk-tuk to take us to the border crossing. It was rather amusing to see an entire busload of people alight just to be immediately swarmed by tuk-tuk drivers. People rushed to grab their bags from beneath bus and raced to the nearest tuk-tuk – no one wanted to be the last in line at the border. (The same thing happens when you deplane into immigration at the airport, people attempt to casually speed walk past each other to avoid long lines at passport processing.) The proceeding 15-minute ride to the border was a passive-aggressive parade of tuk-tuks hauling tourists ready to rocket themselves out of the tuk-tuks and onto the passport processing windows at the first sign of slowing.

The building at the border crossing was comically empty – we had all rushed for nothing. There was a man lounging on a bench, smoking with his friend that jumped up and ran over to an unmarked folding table upon our arrival. We went over to him after getting our exit forms processed (seemed like the natural progression) and he tried to charge us a RIDICULOUS rate to change our Thai baht to US dollars, because “a Laotian Visa On Arrival is only available for purchase in USD.” He did a great job of making it seem like this exchange was compulsory, and the immigration officials nearby did nothing to dissuade us. We decided to roll the dice with that one and continued on past him.

At the VOA counter the clerk clarified that you could actually purchase a VOA with baht, BUT it was cheaper to pay in USD. We ended up changing money with her at a better rate and purchasing the VOAs with USD. Backwards as hell, c’est la vie. We were then told to wait for a bus that would take us across the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge #4, and drop us just outside Huay Xai.

The bus took so long to arrive that we were eventually joined by the entirety of our comrades from the previous bus, and then some. We made friends with an Indonesian gal, Indira, and her French husband, Kenny. Once outside Huay Xai we shared a tuk-tuk with them into town, and teamed up to pick out a niceish hotel and place to eat. After a long day of traveling, it was really nice to decompress with such a friendly and funny couple. I wished we had more time with them, but alas, we had to catch the 2-day slow boat down the Mekong the next morning. ONWARD HO!