Nestled in the heart of the Golden Triangle we had heard there was a good Royal Palace and some flower gardens that were worth a visit. We planned a two hour stop before heading off to Chiang Sean, the border town of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. On our drive up to the Royal Palace the road was closed and we were waved off to a side road by the local police, luckily there was an alternative route that passed by a viewpoint.
Another splendid view and we got chatting to a local Monk who was on his way home, he had walked, barefoot from Bangkok, over kms away, his feet looked knackered. He gave us a blessing of good luck sealed with his own lucky bracelets. Feeling blessed we jumped back in the car and carried on round the back road up to the royal palace. As we got closer we noticed a lot of cars parked alongside the road, thoroughly confused but as it was getting busier as we got closer we deiced to park some m away and see what was going on.
We had inadvertently stumbled upon the 'Doi Tung in Colour' annual festival. They close the streets around the 3 major attractions and fill them instead with locals crafts merchants, food stalls and flower shops, it was quite a site to behold in what we thought was a small little mountain town. Through the 'Hall of Inspiration' museum and Royal Palace we established that in the 80s Doi Tung was a major opium farming region, the naturals forest had decayed due to years of deforestation and land mismanagement.
The region was very poverty stricken with children sold to the sex markets when the opium yeilds were low, causing an aids outbreak in the area along with rampant addiction.
In King Rama IX mother, Princess Srinagarindra, at the ripe old age of 87, took it upon herself to help the people break the cycle. She set up royal projects to regrow the forest and create foresters jobs for the locals as well as encouraging economic forest management, mixing high value crops with native trees to create a sustainable habitat. She also created a huge Garden open to the public and taught the local opium grows to cultivate beautiful flowers which could be sold to the gardens and the public.
