On our return from Bhutan we passed through Thailand and made a stop in the North where we visited two refugee communities near Chiang Mai.
This was in the Golden Triangle area, with refugees from the Chinese revolution, the Vietnam war and most recently from Myanmar.
These communities had been famous for opium cultivation which the Thai government has been able to stamp out. We visited the Queen’s Museum of Opium which featured the horrors of the trade but opium was the cash crop for these people.
The Thai government encouraged alternatives. We found one community’s new work inspirational. In a high mountain Acah tribe village, we were hosted by the community leader who is developing a range of sustainable enterprises, some but not all related to ecotourism.
