Thailand 2014 Day 6b

Thailand 2014 Day7a

Thailand 2014 Day7b

Thailand Day 10b

Thailand Day

The bus drove us a ways south of Mae Sai, the border town, past these nice homes and thru beautiful countryside, and dropped us off to be taken by a "country limo" up the hill to a wonderful hillside luncheon. Strange vehicles with seating for 8 to 10 inside.

Lush green fields and banana trees along the way. The banana trees here are everywhere - the bananas are about half the size (length) of those we get here in the US. I like the smaller size!

We are in this pavilion on the hillside which was built on a person's property. We were greeted by lots of young kids on the street (dirt road) below that were drawing pictures to sell to us.

The meal was wonderful, which glass noodles steamed in a banana leaf, and saffron rice.

Once on the Mekong River, this restaurant was on the Thailand side of the river. See closeup view - click here

Temple on the Laotian side of the Mekong River

The Mekong River near the Golden Triangle - very wide river, home of the largest catfish (12 ft long!) on earth. (Watch RIVER MONSTERS on Animal Planet and see them being caught! AMAZING!!)

On the Thailand side, fisherman build these little shanties for housing while they are out fishing all day. See larger view- click here

Large casino in Laos, right across from the river shanties. Laos wants this area to become a "destination" for vacations, like Monte Carlo. The area is full of shops and is growing fast.

Artifacts at the Opium Museum in Thailand at the Golden Triangle area

Read the info from Wikipedia, and see how stupid the Australian and US governments were!!

Biography of Khun Sa from Wikipedia

Khun Sa was born to a Chinese father and a Shan mother. He adopted the pseudonym Khun Sa, meaning "Prince Prosperous". In his youth he trained with the Kuomintang, which had fled into the border regions of Burma from Yunnan upon its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, and eventually went to form his own army of a few hundred men. In 1963 he re-formed it into a Ka Kwe Ye local militia loyal to Gen Ne Win's Burmese government. Ka Kwe Ye received money, uniforms and weapons in return for fighting the Shan rebels.

When Khun Sa had expanded his army to 800 men, he stopped cooperating with the Burmese government, took control of large area in Shan and Wa states and expanded into opium production. In 1967 he clashed with the Kuomintang remnants in Shan State, which resulted in his defeat, demoralizing him and his forces. In 1969, the Rangoon government captured him. He was freed in 1973 when his second-in-command abducted two Russian doctors and demanded his release. By 1976 he had returned to opium smuggling, and set up a base inside northern Thailand in the village of Ban Hin Taek. He renamed his group the Shan United Army and began ostensibly fighting for Shan autonomy against the Burmese government.

In October 1981 a 39-man unit of Thai Rangers and Burmese guerrillas attempted to assassinate Khun Sa at the insistence of the US Drug Enforcement Administration. The attempt failed, however in January 1982 a Thai Ranger squad from Pak Thong Chai, together with units from the Border Patrol Police and the Royal Thai Army, was used to force Khun Sa to move his headquarters from Ban Hin Taek across the border into Myanmar.

In 1985, Khun Sa joined forces with the Tai Revolutionary Council of Moh Heng. Through that alliance he both gained control of the whole Thai-Burma border area from Mae Hong Son to Mae Sai and became one of the principal figures in opium smuggling in the Golden Triangle.

Over the two decades of his unrivalled dominance of the Shan state, from 1974 to 1994, the share of New York street heroin coming from the Golden Triangle—the northern parts of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos—rose from 5% to 80%. It was 90% pure, "the best in the business", according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. And Khun Sa, the DEA thought, had most of that trade

A Panthay Chinese Muslim from Burma, Ma Zhengwen, assisted Khun Sa in selling his heroin in north Thailand

In 1988, Khun Sa was interviewed by Australian journalist Stephen Rice, who had crossed the border from Thailand into Burma illegally. Khun Sa offered to sell his entire heroin crop to the Australian Government for A$ 50m a year for the next eight years, a move that would have virtually stopped the heroin trade into both Australia and the United States overnight. The Australian Government rejected the offer, with Senator Gareth Evans declaring: “The Australian Government is simply not in the business of paying criminals to refrain from criminal activity.”

In 1989, Khun Sa was charged by a New York court for trying to import 1,000 tons of heroin. By then he had proposed USA to buy his entire opium production or he would sell it on the international narcotics market.

It is claimed that Khun Sa surrendered to Burmese officials in January 1996, reportedly because he did not want to face drug smuggling charges in the USA. The US DEA had promised $2 million reward for his arrest. Khun Sa left the Shan States for Rangoon, but he was never arrested by the government. Burmese officials refused to extradite him, and he lived the rest of his life in the Rangoon area with significant investments in Yangon, Mandalay and Taunggyi.

In Media

Khun Sa was portrayed by actor Ric Young in the 2007 film, American Gangster.

Death

Khun Sa died on 26 October 2007 in Yangon at the age of 73. The cause of death was not known, though he had suffered from diabetes, partial paralysis and high blood pressure. He is buried at Yayway Cemetery, North Okkalapa, Yangon Division, Burma.