A taste of China in the mountains - February 15, 2007

Stepping off the bus in Mae Salong, it's easy to think you were mistakenly dropped off in China. The street signs are in Mandarin, there are Chinese red lanterns over many of the shops and the architecture of the houses were distinctly Chinese.

For such a tiny village, Mae Salong has quite a storied history -- it was settled by a regiment of the Kuomintang army who fled China after the 1949 Communist Revolution. They simply set up their life as they had left it in Yunnan province -- and quickly beome involved in the opium trade operating along the borders of Burma, Laos and northern Thailand. Mae Salong was quite isolated from the Thai authorities, and with poor roads and its proximity to Burma, it soon became an important centre for the infamous opium warlord Khun Sa.

For decades, the Thai army's efforts to stamp out the drug industry met with little success -- it wasn't until the 1980s when they drove Khun Sa into Burma that Mae Salong began to open up. Paved roads and efforts to replace the poppy cultivation with tea, corn and other crops helped turn this tiny village into the tourist destination that it is today.

And no wonder -- set high at the top of a mountain rolling peaks, rice paddies and plantations on all sides, the views from this quiet village is spectactularly beautiful.

I decided to go on a four hour horseback trek into the surrounding countryside, which stopped in several remote hillside villages. My horse was a bit naughty -- I think he knew he had a novice on his back because he kept stepping off to the side to munch on grass and leaves, no matter how hard I tugged at his leash! Oh well.. it was a lot of fun.