In early July 2015, as part of my first trip to Chiang Rai Province from my home in Chiang Mai, my friend Ratiya and I took a 90 minute ride in a scheduled 15 seater van from downtown Chiang Rai to a boat pier near Chiang Saen, Thailand. We paid 400 baht each (now about $11.25 USD each) for the boat ride, were fitted with life preservers, and boarded our 15 foot or so wooden boat. As we slow down, you can hear the boat captain explain the various waters and borders to Ratiya in Thai, which she then translates for me. Towards the end of the video, you’ll notice a number of passenger vessels along the Laos shoreline. I understand that one can schedule a river cruise, dinner cruise, etc. Also, I think the gleaming new development on the Laos shoreline was a casino, but I’m not sure. Thus some of those boats could be shuttles bringing folks over from Thailand to gamble. We were moving along at a pretty good clip and may have covered 10 miles or so. Outside of a possible collision with another boat (which can and does occasionally happen, more so in Florida I think), the experience is not very risky.

During the outset of the cruise, you see Burma in the distance straight ahead. It’s identified by the red roofed resort and casino on shore. See below the Google Maps link identifying this as the Paradise Casino.

Google Map view of Golden Triangle – Burma casino name – Paradise

Notice there was no roof on this boat. Only my hat. The heat was punishing later in the day as we hiked a bit, maybe approaching 100F. And, of course, it was muggy. We’re essentially surrounded by monsoonal rain forest, foothill terrain, threaded by rivers and streams throughout. It’s just a beautiful region, and it’s difficult to describe how many shades of green emerge from the forests. See below the photo of the Ruak River upstream view. Amazing terrain I would say.

[Note that since this filming, I have purchased an improved microphone that should screen out much of the wind noise in subsequent videos.]

After the cruise, we walked along the shoreline in the surrounding village. There are many boat operations nearby, including Thai Police and Thai Navy operations. The large riverside Buddha statue you see in the video is new, set in a large ship of sorts, and intended to attract more tourism to the area. There were occasional tour buses that came and went, but no crowds as I describe them. Walking up river past the statue, we headed to the Opium Museum you can read about in my Chiang Rai Province post. I’ve again included a photo from a Ruak riverside cafe of boats docked along the Ruak where a peninsula of Burma extends into the Mekong River along the Ruak. The dock on the Burmese side was active, as the crews are escorting supposed Thai visitors to the red roof topped Burmese casino and resort you see in the background during our boat ride. There were shuttle buses bringing guests to and from the casino that’s maybe 3 miles away or so. Very interesting to just sit in a cafe and watch this activity.

Like many Thai villages, this one presents itself to the world along a single 2 lane road, with cafes and shops along the route. As I have a few times, I noticed one unique (for me anyway) business on this road. In one of the 4 meter wide shop spaces was an automated gas station. Presumably, gas storage tanks are inside this shop, motorbikes pull up and fill their tanks, paying an automated teller. This is amazing to me. It works for them I suppose, as long as it doesn’t blow up. Otherwise, locals would have to travel miles further to fill up their 110 cc motorbikes. I’ve seen these stations scattered elsewhere in remote areas of Thailand.

This area north of the boat docks along Highway 1290 is remote to say the least. Google Maps is pretty good these days, and shows very little along this road. But there are people, places and they’re all part of a village of some sort. It’s just fun to get out to these areas and get lost for a bit. There is a rough and tumble drug trade along the border, so it’s best to stay on the Thai side of this region generally. The Thai military and police regularly interdict and clash with drug smugglers around this region. Not much opium is at issue, it’s mainly methamphetamine (am I back in Florida?) manufactured in Burma and Laos I suppose. They try to get it into circulation in Thailand. After this trip, I read the news more closely, and there are regular Thai drug interdiction actions along this border. The Thai army and police earn their pay in this region. All of the highways on the Thai side stop all traffic and buses as they flow south into Thailand, and at each checkpoint, you can see a sand bag bunker set up in case an escalated fire fight erupts. Good stuff. Anyway, as police inevitably board each bus, they randomly ask for ID’s from passengers, presumably for both immigration as well as contraband purposes. I’m always grabbing for my passport, but each time they shake their heads confirming they don’t need to see any “falang” ID’s. That’s not a focus. (“Falang” is the common term in Thailand for caucasian or western people. It’s by no means derogatory, just descriptive, often in a humorous way.)