Monday, March 8 - The Golden Triangle and beyond!

 We got everything packed for flying and set off at 5:30, stopping at a large lake where we had a picnic breakfast and then walked out on a rather shaky pier to look at ducks and herons. Our leaders had contacted a local birder who joined us to show us a tree where a rare Black-faced Spoonbill was perched. Fortunately he untucked his bill from under his wing so we could see his diagnostic feature.

We continued north, stopping to see the ancient and very beautiful Wat Pa Sak which has wonderful images of elephants and robust goddesses .

David promised us a stop at the infamous Golden Triangle where Burma, Loas and Thailand meet so we could buy t-shirts. The place, at least on the Thailand side, is a really zoo of huge tourist busses and shops selling trinkets. We all got our mementos and fled the scene, getting back on the vans in 12 minutes, rather than the 15 we had been allotted!

Dion said we were stropping for lunch nearby and we pulled into the grounds of a sumptuous hotel, the Anantara Golden Triangle, which would have seemed wonderful in any event, but after the chaos of the market was quite unreal. I had green papaya salad with soft shell crab and Bob had deep fried pot stickers which we shared, followed by sticky rice with papaya and coconut milk, a very traditional and yummy dessert, and coconut cake and ice cream.

David and Dion had difficulty dragging us away, but we had a plane to catch and so set off driving a couple of hours to the city of Chaing Rai where we boarded a Royal Thai jet for the hour flight back to Bangkok and the Novotel hotel.



We were on our own this evening to give everyone a break from group activity, so after cleaning up, Bob and I wandered down to the restaurant, choosing a la carte instead of the enormous buffet and had hamburgers and fries, and went to bed,