Word: mekong
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...turmoil as colonial powers bickered over the region, sandwiched between Burma's Shan states and modern-day Laos. They were following a well-worn path. For centuries, the Buddhist, rice-farming Dai have been tempted by the wide open spaces of Thailand's north, and have ventured across the Mekong to start anew. Sawitree grew up speaking Dai Lue, the main Dai language, which remains the lingua franca of many northern Thais...
...Palm-lined Manting Lu Road, near the Mekong in the heart of Jinghong, is a magnet for the hungry. Other standouts among its dozens of eateries are the Mei Mei and Forest cafes, backpackers' havens both. But for authentic eats, head for Chai's place. He gets all the superlatives...
...babble and then suddenly a roar, and I'm sitting soggy-shoed in a wicker chair, clutching a pink parasol, almost a foot under water. This is white-water rafting, Xishuangbanna-style. Granted, the rapids on this particular stretch of the Nam Baan river, a chocolatey tributary of the Mekong, don't quite deliver Grand Canyonesque white-knuckle thrills. But when you're sitting in a wobbly chair, sliding around atop 20-odd lengths of bamboo lashed together with twine, any white water is, frankly, too much...
...Businessmen are more demanding and can only travel a few days a week. Where's the money to be made in that?" On average, his flights are 75% full, and 93% of those passengers are international tourists. Tourists for whom Prasarttong-Osoth has great plans. As part of his Mekong region tourism development scheme, Prasarttong-Osoth has started building a five-star eco-resort on the spacious grounds of the six-year-old Sukhothai Airport, which is only a 15-minute drive from the 9th century temple ruins of the UNESCO-listed World Heritage site of the same name...
This month Bangkok Airways is launching its Mekong World Heritage Tour, linking Sukhothai with the unesco-listed sites of Luang Prabang in Laos, the ancient Vietnamese capital of Hue and the Khmer ruins of Angkor in Cambodia. Travelers can visit all four sites in eight days for about $1,000 including hotels. Or they can purchase individual flights for a customized itinerary. Says Prasarttong-Osoth: "Even those traveling for a short time will be able to get an understanding of this area's incredible history." And get a taste of incredible Bangkok Airways...