Word: chiang
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...very thing that is killing Chiang Rai can also be used to save indigenous traditions. While most tour guides based in town treat hill-tribe visits like trips to the zoo, the Akha village of Ban Lorcha, about an hour's drive away from Chiang Rai, is providing an interactive educational experience for visitors by becoming a living museum. "This project has been very valuable for our community," says Ban Lorcha Community Based Tourism Development Project director Songnam Ritwanna. "In the past, tourists just walked through the village, but no one could explain to them the culture, so they didn...
...nostalgic visitors pining for the taste of opium, once the unofficial mainstay of hill-tribe trekking tours, will be disappointed by Ban Lorcha. Instead they are better off taking a turn through Chiang Rai shops for "authentic" hill-tribe opium pipes?made in China. It's the modern way to get the tourist hooked...
SUNRISE SURPRISE As an antidote to the burgeoning commercial crassness of the Chiang Rai part of the Golden Triangle, take a drive to Phu Chi Fah, one of the most picturesque and unspoiled spots in Thailand. Its name means "mountain points to the sky," and when you arrive you'll realize why. A great finger of earth thrusts up from the Thai border, gesturing heavenward, while hundreds of meters below a seemingly endless valley fans out into Laos, where scattered black peaks sail on a billowing sea of low-lying cloud...
...best to get to Phu Chi Fah while it's still dark to appreciate the genuinely breathtaking sunrise. From Chiang Rai town it's about 130 km, which means leaving at 3 a.m. or thereabouts to get there by sunup. Count on a slow trip?at times the fog blanketing the road cuts visibility to a meter or two, making for an exhausting and eerie drive. From the parking lot, it's a 20-minute hike to the summit...
CULTURE CONTAINED Chiang Saen's National Museum is well worth a visit if history and archaeology hold some appeal for you. Established in 1957 near the crumbling majesty of Wat Chedi Luang, it contains a wealth of fascinating snippets about the Golden Triangle's bloody, tumultuous past. At its heyday in the 13th century, Chiang Saen was one of the most important cities in the Lanna kingdom; it boasts plenty of sites of archaeological significance, some dating to the prehistoric era. The museum has a fine collection of Buddha images, stone inscriptions and ceramics, as well as a section...