DAY 48 - GOLDEN TRIANGLE DAY 2

The Hummer speeds by the Giant Buddha in The Golden Triangle

We woke up reasonably early today to head down the road and visit the Hall of Opium, a museum which outlines the intriguing history of the drug in an area famed for the harvesting of poppy, the raw input for the substance. Conveniently located next door to our hotel, we were immediately impressed by the scale of investment and effort that had been put into it. We had a laugh upon entry having been charged at a higher rate due to the fact we were foreigners and not Thai.

Hall of Opium Admission Fees

In what promised to be a day that could go one of two ways (Chuck decided he would rather get his tan on at the pool than torture himself in a museum!) we were amazed to find how blissfully ignorant we have been to a whole side of history that ties very closely to the story of ruthless English imperialism. A series of interactive videos and recreations explained many issues such as; the vice-like grip chronic opium addiction had on a huge proportion of Chinese people in the 17th Century, the Opium Wars, the development of the East India trade company, history of drug smuggling, drug lords in the area and the dependence on the English to sell Opium to the Chinese to fund purchases of Tea from India. We left with heads packed with knowledge and a new found respect for an area that has played such a pivotal role in the development of the both the Eastern and Western world.

After the tour of the museum we relaxed for a little while before heading to dinner with John, Mark, Olivia and Amp from the elephant sanctuary at Anantara in a local Thai restaurant on the shore of the Mekong River and close to the town's giant Buddha.