CHIANGSAEN… PAGE OF HISTORY ALONG THE MEKONG

A HALF DAY TOUR in NORTHERN THAILAND. This one leads you from CHIANG RAI to beautiful CHIANGSAEN and offers you’re the best of the GOLDEN TRIANGLE. CHIANGSAEN would have been built by a nephew of King Mengrai (the Founder of Chiangmai)… Later on, the city was completely destroyed by Siamese army for fear it would fall in hands of Burmese enemy… From this glorious past, ruins still stand up and the Fine Arts Department of Bangkok has restored actively many testimonies of the past. The city would have been a counter along the Mekong, which was a important way to carrying goods from China to South East Asia… The walls of the city let imagine its trade function as well as its importance in the whole region. About 15 kilometers upriver, is the geographical point of the Golden Triangle. Here meet 3 countries, Thailand, Lao and Myanmar. The place is kitsch since local authorities have built a huge Buddha Statue, plus other unnecessary decorations dominating the Mekong… It is a place where to stop a short while to admire the river and the opposite bank on Laotian territory But the most impressive place to go to with Chiangsaen is certainly the Ho Fi (Hall of Opium). This interactive and western look like museum is a must… Those visiting the region ought to stop and visit it. It tells us history of opium in the region as well as the role European have had in the Boxer War and the doomsday of Chinese Empire. It features superb collections and also explains interactively, as modern Western museums do, the impact of heroin on western countries, and reveals the importance it had in Siam trade… Definitely an attraction one cannot miss if visiting the region