Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The following car rental companies have offices in Chiang Rai.
0 5374 0585;
www.northwheels.com
; 591 Th
Phahonyothin; 8am-6pm)
Thai Rent A Car
(
0 5379 3393;
www.thairentacar.com
; Chiang Rai Airport;
7am-6pm)
Mae Salong (Santikhiri)
POP 20,000
For a taste of China without crossing any international borders, head to this atmo-
spheric village perched on the back hills of Chiang Rai.
Home Away From Home
Mae Salong was originally settled by the 93rd Regiment of the Kuomintang (KMT), who
had fled to Myanmar (Burma) from China after the 1949 Chinese revolution. The reneg-
ades were forced to leave Myanmar in 1961 when the Yangon government decided it
wouldn't allow the KMT to remain legally in northern Myanmar. Crossing into northern
Thailand with their pony caravans, the ex-soldiers and their families settled into mountain
villages and re-created a society like the one they'd left behind in Yunnan.
After the Thai government granted the KMT refugee status in the 1960s, efforts were
made to incorporate the Yunnanese KMT and their families into the Thai nation. Until the
late 1980s, they didn't have much success. Many ex-KMT persisted in involving them-
selves in the Golden Triangle opium trade in a three-way partnership with opium warlord
Khun Sa and the Shan United Army (SUA). Because of the rough, mountainous terrain
and lack of sealed roads, the outside world was rather cut off from the goings-on in Mae
Salong, so the Yunnanese were able to ignore attempts by the Thai authorities to sup-
press opium activity and tame the region.
In an attempt to quash opium activity, and the more recent threat of
yah bâh
(methamphetamine) trafficking, the Thai government has created crop-substitution pro-
grams to encourage hill tribes to cultivate tea, coffee, corn and fruit trees.
