Introduction: Northern Thailand Experience

Northern Thailand Experience

Now my view of Northern Thailand has changed and never will be the same again.

Previously before coming here Northern Thailand was a ‘hard’ country. Its still is if you are referring to the mountains but it is not as notorious as I once thought it was.

As far as I can remember many years ago Northern Thailand especially in the areas at the border between Myanmar and Thailand lived a band of notorious bandit led by a man known as ‘Khun Sa’ aka Drug Lord or Drug King. He literally controlled the mountains in Northern Thailand with his well trained army. To his people he was like a hero. To both the Thai and Myanmar governments he was a wanted criminal. Khun Sa had his own killing field where his enemies once enter will never be out alive. I was told he never use bullets for executions. He said was a waste of money. He used big hammers to execute the prisoners.

Then, there was this area known as the Golden Triangle, where the three countries meet, only to be divided by the Mekong River, i.e. Myanmar on the West, Laos on the East and Thailand in the south (China at the far North). It was like a no man’s land without law and order smugglings and drugs trafficking were the main livelihood of the people there. Poppy grew in abundance.


At the same time, there was the story of a group of old soldiers, the remnants of the former Chinese Guo Ming Dang army who retreated into Northern Thailand after they were defeated by Mao Tse Dung during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The story went on that they were supposed to reunite with the other Guo Ming Dang army who fled to Taiwan - to retake China from Mao Tse Dung. It never did. While those in Taiwan prospered, these soldiers in Northern Thailand were abandoned and had to live among the hill tribes in the mountains as farmers. They are stateless.

The reason I went to Northern Thailand was because it sounded exciting. At the time I (and my wife Jessica) was coming back from Inner Mongolia in July 2008, one of our team members mentioned that her father was doing mission works at Northern Thailand and invited people who are interested to come over to Northern Thailand in December. I didn’t hesitate. I put Northern Thailand in my bucket list.

No regrets. It was a complete eye opener for me. I supposed it is the same for my wife Jessica and my team members, all eleven of us. The mountains were beautiful. It was quite cold as it was December. Day time the temperature was bearable (comfortable 20 degree) but the night can be a bit ‘freezing’ for us, although the night temperature was something like 10 degree Centigrade.

After arriving at Chiang Rai from a connecting flight at Bangkok the first night we spent at small mountain village called Wawee. This village is also known as Liu Xia Chun. It was a village founded by a former Guo Ming Dang soldier. It started with a few families hurdled together and now grown into a small town.

There the story began to unfold..... see Part 1