We have continued on the bus for a couple of more days. It feels almost like one of our early road trips,  except for the early starts and someone else is driving.  Lucky,  our Tour Leader,  always had his eyes open for interesting stops,  some planned and some just happenstance with a bus driver who is not afraid to block traffic so we can make the stop. We made a stop along the way for “happy room” tour name for toilet break,  and found a great coffee shop.  While some of us enjoyed coffee,  someone else noticed a festival along the lakeshore.  Off we went to explore the festival.  At another happy room stop there was a new temple with a huge reclining  Buddah, only 20 years old,  giving the tour a chance to live up to its name Oh, Another Temple (OAT for those who missed it). I am struggling to remember all the stops. 

Today,  Tuesday the 10th of December as I write,  we stopped to visit several Hill Country tribes. First the Padong known for the women having their necks wrapped in brass coils as well as their ankles and  calfs. They are immigrants from Burma where they are no longer welcome.  Next to them are the Palong whose women have greatly extended ear lobes with open rings inserted. Another nearby tribe wear hats covered with silver baubles. To get to these tribes we road in the back of pickup trucks with bench seating. Although much of this visit felt a bit commercial as other for groups hiked through the forest as well to see these people and all the women had items for sale to augment their living, it is clear that the people are living a modification of their former lifestyle and adapting in small ways to the 21st century. The pickup trucks brought us out of the forest to a filling station where our bus met us and we continued north to The Golden Triangle.  Although celebrated and marked with a golden Buddah this site represents the worst of human nature.  Thailand,  Burma,  and Laos meet on the Mekong River and another smaller river. At the confluence is a delta that is actually an island since the rivers cut it off from Burma.  Here opium dealers gathered to trade opium for gold through the 1970s. Then the area was accessible only by river or 4 wheel drive through the forest. The benches at the view point are stenciled with a note that they are a gift of the US DEA!

Along the way Lucky spotted some rice farmers threshing newly harvested rice using pairs of sticks with a string between them at one end to hold bunches of rice stalks so they could beat them on the ground to free the rice from the stalk.  Naturally we stopped and got down from the bus to photograph this sight.  Within a matter of minutes most of us had to try our hand at the process.  This resulted in much laughter from us and the workers and not a lot of rice being threshed. I am sure my back will be fine in the morning.

We were picked up at the Museum of Opium History in vehicles called “Japanese Water Buffalo” start with what looks like a very large tilling machine,  throw away everything except the engine and Mount that engine sideways in front of a 4 wheeled hand built truck body with steering wheel, two speed transmission and no springs. Climb into the back on padded (Thank G-d) benches and set off through back roads through farm land to a restaurant in the valley for lunch.  Great lunch,  Lots of fun.  One of us,  not me, tried his hand at driving. No power steering,  a wicked clutch and the driver was sitting on the gear shift so we were limited to first year. As we road back to our hotel on the bus we were tangled up in a traffic back up caused by an accident.  Lucky jumped down and ran ahead of the bus.  We thought he was trying to find the cause.  As we overtook him he had a bag in his hands,  he had taken advantage of the hold up to buy local pineapples for inclusion in lunch tomorrow.

And so it goes,  we have a couple of hours to ourselves and then off to the local night market and dinner.