The Golden Triangle

The towns of Mae Sai and Tachilek are the Thai-Burmese interface in the area. You can renew your Thai visa, join the Thais shopping in the Burmese Market, and get an awesome view of the area from the Scorpion Temple. Ban Sop Ruak is the closest point to the triple border. You can take a boat to tour the Mekong and to reach the Don Sao Market in Laos. If you have never been in Laos, the market is an impressive experience, taking you back in time to a place of basic huts, undersized farm animals, and handmade souvenirs. The Opium Museum is in Ban Sop Ruak and provides an intriguing look into that dark part of the area past. Chiang Saen played a key roll as a fort during the endless wars between the Thais and the Burmese. Nowadays you can see the ruins, wonder at the design of the circular gate, and visit the port, from where you can reach China through the Mekong River. Despite its humble size, Chiang Rai combines all the commodities of modern Thai cities with a rural, rustic ambience.

Quick Tips:

You can make the whole loop from and to Chiang Rai in a single day, although that will take away all the fun from the adventure. The point is that despite the exciting and apparently wild sites in the area, it is extremely well connected to itself and to the rest of Thailand. See my "Green Pagodas, Golden People" journal for more detailed information regarding the renewal of your Thai visa through Tachilek. Actually, it is impossible to enter Laos from Don Sao, since the place is not connected by roads to the rest of the country.

If you wish to cross to Laos in this area, the only open option is from Chiang Khon, the first town south from Chiang Saen. A truck doing the 53km way costs 30 baht and leaves at 7:30am from the post office in Chiang Saen. In such a way, you will reach the town of Huay Xai, which resembles more of a Thai town than a Lao one. From there you can continue through the Laotian stretch of the Mekong south or east through a terrible dirt road to Luang Namtha.

Best Way To Get Around:

Politics have decided the way for us. The only way to reach the area is from Thailand. The Triangle’s Gate is the town of Chiang Rai, from where you can advance to Mae Sai or to Chiang Saen. Mae Sai is an attractive option since you can renovate your Thai visa there. During the day, local buses leave from Chiang Rai to Mae Sai every 15 minutes from 6am to 6pm (45B air, 25B fan, 60km, 1 hour, platform 5, through Mae Chan (13B) and Ban Pasang (14B)). To Chiang Saen, the buses leave from 6am to 6pm every 15 minutes and cost 25B, and the 58km way takes 1 hour. Trucks from Mae Sai to Chiang Saen leave from the Top Charoen Optical shop near the 7-11 at the main road. They cost 30 baht whether you go down at Ban Sop Ruak or Chiang Saen. From Chiang Saen to Mae Sai or Ban Sop Ruak, you can catch them on their way back at the town’s northern exit. Ban Sop Ruak is only 11km north of Chiang Saen. If you are in the mood, the way is suitable for a delightful walk along the river.

Chiang Rai offers many culinary surprises, ranging from unusual local food to adaptations of Asian dishes. Serendipity will be well remunerated here. The night market is the best place for that, but surprises wait in many local eateries: the smaller and less advertised the place is, the better chance you have to find a pot of gold.

 

 

Kong Ne Restaurant is located in front of Top Charoen Optical, close to the terminal, and serves Khao Kriab Paak Moh, an exceptional local dish that I could not spot elsewhere. Thai dishes names usually refer to their method of preparation and their main ingredients. In this case, it means steamed rice butter with pork filling. From afar, it reminds a common dumpling, but a closer look will excite all your senses. The perceptibly thin coating looks liquid -- I wondered which kind of force held the structure together -- and has a weak bluish hue, a fragile, liquid blue with the emotional strength of an electric one. The product is appealingly prepared in front of your eyes over two bowls, with boiling water working in parallel. One of the bowls is covered with a cloth, over which a thin layer of rice flour is poured and then covered with a conical metallic cover. While this one is cooking, the second one is opened. The ready circular, thin pancake is cut in half, and in each half a small amount of shredded pork is placed. Afterwards, each half pancake is then folded into an irregular shape. They are served with garlic and coconut cream on top and fresh vegetables at their side. These delicate, highly esthetical dumplings are one of the best Thai dishes I ever tasted. Curious about their hue, I approached the chef, and she proudly showed me small, dark blue flowers that are added to the flour.

Sixty kilometers north of Chiang Rai is the northernmost town in Thailand, as the sign by the border cross proudly states. The way from Chiang Rai to Mae Sai passes inside a relatively narrow valley among the green hills separating the plains where these two towns are located. The town is a large typical border town ending by the Sai River at the north. It is built around a main axial road, Thanon Phaholyothin, actually Highway 1, that by the limit is transformed into a bridge that connects Mae Sai with Tachilek on the Burmese side. Both towns are a huge market catering mainly for Thais searching for cheap Burmese goods and tourists visiting the Golden Triangle or renewing their Thai visas. If you arrived by bus to the terminal (from Chiang Rai: 6am to 6pm every 15 minutes, fan 25B, air 45B, 1 hour), then you are still 5km south from the town. A truck to there costs 5B. The trucks travel straight along the main road until the bridge. If you are planning to renew your visa, then you should descend by the immigration office (look for the flags) 1km before the bridge.

For detailed information regarding the renewal and Tachilek, please read the relevant entry in my “Green Pagodas, Golden People” journal. Otherwise, the place to reach is the bridge. The main commercial and tourist activity of the town is concentrated around it. Just before the bridge and to the west, there is a long staircase to Wat Phra That Doi Wao, a temple better known as the Scorpion Temple. From there you can have exceptional looks of the whole area from the base of a huge scorpion statue.

There are several accommodations around the bridge, but I recommend the Mae Sai Complex Hotel on the eastern side of the river road. A friendly family of Chinese descent runs the place, and you can rent one of its clean rooms for 200 to 250B.

If you want to continue from here to the Golden Triangle itself, i.e. to Ban Sop Ruak or to Chiang Saen, then approach the Top Charoen Optical shop by the main road, some 200m before the bridge. The shop is next to a 7-11 branch and hard to miss due to the huge number of trucks parking around it. The trucks leave between 9am and 3pm whenever they have enough passengers and cost 30B. Most of the way is along a featureless green plateau parallel to the Sai River until the ground suddenly drops to the Mekong. You can ask the driver to stop for a moment, as you will have an excellent top view of the Golden Triangle.

Another interesting option from Mae Sai is to continue to Fang on the old way to Chiang Mai. The road goes through Tha Ton, and there are buses from the terminal at 7am, 10:30am, 1pm, and 3:30pm that cost 33B. Doi Maesalong is reached in the same way as from Chiang Rai. See the “Traveling Around” section of the overview for details.

Ban Sop Ruak is next to where the borders of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand meet, at the meeting of the Ruak River with the Mekong. The village is along road 1290, which connects Mae Sai with Chiang Saen. It has a great view of the rivers’ junction, an Opium Museum, and shops selling the glory of past days. Two rows of stalls sell textiles, food, and souvenirs. They are covered with plastic sheets that create a narrow and comfortable corridor for the shoppers. There are restaurants serving local food and small piers all along the river, and  the boats there offer Paradise Resort and Don Sao trips for 300B. The boat trip starts upriver, traveling in the Mekong stretch between Myanmar and Laos, until you get a clear sight of the Paradise Resort Casino, but you cannot land there without a special permit. Then the boats turn south and approach the Laotian Don Sao Island, some 3km south from the village. The Laotian Immigration charges 20B for landing and your passport will not be stamped; thus, you cannot renew your Thai visa once you return to Thailand.
The little village is not connected to the rest of Laos and has very little to offer: a very basic market with souvenirs, a few farms with undersized animals, and coffee stalls selling instant coffee instead of the amazing Laotian coffee. However, if you have not been yet in Laos, the experience is highly recommendable. The Opium Museum is interesting and sells beautiful postcards stamped with their logo, which make interesting souvenirs for the worried friends at home. Another interesting activity is to walk south to Chiang Saen. See that entry for more information.

Accommodations: There are several options, and most of them are in the immediate surroundings of the Opium Museum. Pu One Guesthouse, behind the museum, asks 500B for an air-conditioned room and for a fan room. Nearby, Golden Home Guesthouse asks 500B for an air-conditioned room and 400B for a fan room, and it is very close to the river. Farther south, SV Place offers daily and monthly rooms on a big sign, but when asked, the owner said that a daily room costs 300B and that there is no monthly option.

Chiang Saen is about 60km northeast from Chiang Rai, 11km south from Ban Sop Ruak, and 37km southeast from Mae Sai. The town watches over the Mekong River, and just south of it the Mekok River, arriving from Chiang Rai, meets the Mekong. Modern Chiang Saen is shaped as a letter "T," the top being the Mekong riverside. At the center of town, road 1290 from the north splits into road 1016 to Mae Chan 32km to the west and road 1129 to Chiang Khong 53.1km to the south. The city was built in a rectangular shape, 1,400m wide and 2,400m long in a north-south orientation and originally had 11 gates. King Saenphu, the grandson of King Mengrai, Chiang Rai’s founder, established it in 1328. Its importance in the Lanna kingdom declined with time, and it became mainly a religious center. In 1558, the Burmese conquered it. Following a long period of battles between the Thai Ayuthaya kingdom and the Angwa Burmese, the Thai re-conquered it in 1803, after troops from Chiang Mai, Phrae, Nan, and Lampang united and repelled the Burmese from their last base in northern Thailand. To avoid it from being used again as a stronghold, the city wall was then partially dismantled.

 

 

All over the town are visible the stained red brick ruins of the Chiang Saen kingdom. At the west entrance, when coming from Chiang Rai, there is an interesting circular gate, maybe the best of its type in Southeast Asia. From north to south we can see Wat Sang Ka Keow Don Ton. At the northern entrance are Wat Sang Ka Keow Don Ton. Only a few columns and its base are left. Immediately after the ruins, the northern side of the promenade begins.

 

 

Municipality Building: At the municipality building by the main junction in front of the river, there are six big statues of birds, two at the south and four at the north side of the entrance. The smallest statue is some 1.8m high, and the largest about 3.5, all of them with a feathers outer layer.

 

 

Main Junction: At the junction itself, the town’s center, there is a sign over the riverside saying: "Welcome to Chiang Saen Land of Golden Triangle." The immigration checkpoint is just a few meters south from the junction, with officers speaking good English and willing to help.

 

 

Twenty meters south of the junction are the flat ruins of the very small Wat Ku Kham; they date from the 16th to 17th centuries. After the ruins, a colorful playground with metal swings provides some recreation to local children. The pier of the long-tailed boats to Chiang Khong is right after the playground. Another small pier is at the northern side of the junction and serves mainly the Ban Sop Ruak direction. Farther away, at the opposite side of the road, there is an active temple, Wat Pong Sanuk.

 

 

Port: At the southern promenade, there is a commercial port serving lines traveling to China, Myanmar, and Laos. If you have a Chinese visa and find a willing captain, then you can leave to the Middle Kingdom.

 

 

From east to west and back to the junction and to the west we can see Wat Phra Yeun. A big stupa is next to the main immigration building; it is called Wat Phra Yeun and is usually surrounded with a yellow scarf. Somewhat later is the almost completely ruined Wat Phra Chao Thong Noi from the 16th century. Closer to the gate there are two temple complexes, one on each side of the road. At the southern side is Wat Phra Buat, a brick chedi that was constructed in 1346. Each one of its four sides is 8m long, and an adjacent vihan has the ruined remains of a Buddha statue. In front of them, at the northern side of the road is the impressive Wat Mung Muang, a chamber shaped chedi with stucco decorations, topped with a round bell and having a vihan at its side, both from the 14th century. Chamber chedis always look dramatic, maybe because of the combination of the chamber colors with the outer walls ones, or maybe due to our thoughts regarding what filled those chambers. Farther west, on the north side, there is the abandoned temple no. 6, and 30m in front of it, at the south side again, appears the biggest and highest ruins complex in the town, Wat Chedi Luang. The complex is surrounded with a bricks fence decorated with lions and praying figurines. Inside the fence there is a huge, spiky eight-sided chedi 58m high, surrounded by an inner fence. It dates back to the 12th century. Chiang Saen gate is another hundred meters to the west, on the western side of the city wall. Together with its surrounding fortifications, it was built in a double semicircular style. It was the main gate, as it provided best access to the other towns on the plain of the Mekok River. Two different semicircular walls compromise the big structure so that being outside and looking inside you would see the canal between the two walls and not the city interior. The two walls were separated by a secondary road turning north, again with no direct sight of the interior. Wat Pa Sak Wat Pa Sak is just outside the wall, between the two gates. It has a chamber or mondop-shaped chedi with five bell-shaped finials. This chedi was built on a base with an architectural influence from Chedi Ku Kut, while Chedi Chiang Yan inspired the relic chamber and the spire. Both chedis are in the Lamphun province. The decorations reflect pagan, Chinese, Khmer, and Sukhothai artistic influences. A Buddha relic was brought to Chiang Saen in 1295 and the stupa was built for it. The 300 teak trees planted around the wat gave it his name as Wat Pasak, which means the temple of the teak forest.

 

 

Activities: The short distance between Ban Sop Ruak and Chiang Saen invites an afternoon walk along the Mekong. It is possible to do it in a 90-minute walk, and if you get tired, you can always wave down one of the passing trucks.

 

 

Transport: From the bus station along the northern side of the main road, close to its middle, it is possible to take a truck to Ban Sop Ruak (10B) and to Mae Sai (30B). From the terminal at the southern side, close to the main junction, small green buses to Chiang Rai depart constantly (25B). The terminal to Chiang Khong is 100m south from the main junction along the promenade. Trucks heading there depart whenever they are full, charging 50B each passenger. Long-tail boats are available to Chiang Khong and Ban Sop Ruak from the already described piers.

 

 

Accommodations: The Chiang Saen Guesthouse is at the northern side of the promenade and offers different types of rooms. A basic room with an attached bathroom and hot water costs 250B, a similar room without hot water costs 150B, and one with shared bathrooms costs 80B.