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CHIANG RAI – Situated in the northern part of Thailand, Chiang Rai slips under the radar of tourists as the area is not as popular as its neighboring city Chiang Mai.

However, Chiang Rai actually offers one-of-a-kind attractions, varying from a majestic white temple to Akha tribe tradition, which cannot be found anywhere else.

Those wanting to know more about Chiang Rai may consult the list below:

Wat Rong Khun (White Temple)

Pha Mee village

Located in Mae Sai district, Pha Mee village is home to the Akha hill tribe. In the past, the village was known as an opium producer and conflict area. However, with the help from the late King Rama IX, Pha Mee has transformed into a peaceful village.

During Asean Travel Journo Camp – a nine-day trip organized by Thai Journalists Association and Thai AirAsia to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Association of Southeast Asian Nations – The Jakarta Post discovered that the tribe recently developed a community-based tourism program, allowing tourists to catch a glimpse of their daily lives through various activities.

By contacting local guides such as Local Alike or go to the Pha Mee directly, tourists can expect to learn about Akha hill tribe tradition, the village history, sample the local Arabica coffee or hop on the village’s giant swing.

Singha Park

Singha is recognized as a Thai beer producer. However, in Singha Park, visitors would not see brewery or the likes, but instead a picturesque oolong tea plantation.

Meanwhile, tucked inside the park, the Phu Phi Lom restaurant is ready to satisfy your taste buds with Northern Thai delicacies.

By Jessicha Valentina
The Jakarta Post

Two villagers pulled my seat and I screamed at the top of my lungs as the cool breeze hits my cheeks.

CHIANG RAI – The Akha’s giant swing, located on the hill of Pha Mee village in Mae Sai district, Chiang Rai, Thailand, was made of woods, ropes and tire. No safety equipment was seen around the swing, only a villager controlling one rope on the side.

Our guide, who is also Local Alike sustainable tourism initiator, Bow Pongnin, ensured us the swing is safe, explaining that it has been a tradition in the village for men to remove the wooden seat and swing as high as they could to prove their manhood.

I felt excited when seeing Pongnin and two Akha natives hopped on the swing. After they were done, I raised my hand, wanting to try it too, of course with a seat on.

As I walked towards the giant swing, I could see the bear-shaped mountains, reminding me of Akha tribe community leader Pho Luang’s story that Pha Mee village’s name was derived from the shape.

I climbed the seat and hold on the rope tightly. Two villagers pulled my seat and I screamed at the top of my lungs as the cool breeze hits my cheeks. I tried to keep my eyes open to make sure I would not fall down the hill as well as to record the breathtaking views on my mind.

After a while, I asked the villager to stop the swing. I felt fortunate as I landed on the ground, fully intact.

The giant swing is not merely for entertainment, but a part of Akha tribe traditions I learned during Asean Travel Journo Camp, an event initiated by Thai Journalists Association and Thai AirAsia.

Though the appearance looked decent, the giant swing plays a crucial role in the life of Akha people, indigenous tribe living in the northern part of Thailand.

In addition to a place for the men to show their manhood, the giant swing’s area is a central spot during Akha’s New Year. In fact, it is considered sacred as visitors are not allowed to look back while entering the gate. “They believe it is going to give bad luck,” said Pongnin.

After trying the giant swing, Pongnin and Pha Mee Community Tourism Enterprise vice president Phakakarn Rongpracharat brought us to a wooden lodge, explaining the community relationship with Thailand former King Rama IX.

Nowadays, Akha tribe grows coffee for a living. However, it was not always the case. Back in the early 1970s, the villagers produced opium to make ends meet.

Opium production was not the only issue. Pha Mee village is located a stone’s throw away from Myanmar border and conflicts happened frequently, making some of the villagers wanted to move from the area.

Fortunately, with the help of King Rama IX, Pha Mee has become a livable peaceful village. The King was said to study the area and suggest them to grow coffee, a tradition they still keep up to this day.

Though peace has come to the village, some people still associated Pha Mee with drugs.

To change the negative image and promote the village, 30 members of the community worked hand-in-hand to develop community-based tourism program, starting from October last year.

Before landing on the giant swing, this tourism community brought us to catch a glimpse of their daily lives through several activities, such as weaving, making local snack, homecoming tradition and trying Akha traditional clothing that includes a five-kilogram silver headpiece. These activities were designed for tourists to learn more about their culture.

Rongpracharat told The Jakarta Post that they enjoy hosting people. “At first we did not have any idea how to start [the community-based tourism], but with the help from several organizations, such as AirAsia and Local Alike, they started to understand it,” she said.

She added that tourism activity had become one of the ways to preserve the tradition.

“Time has changed. Sometime, the children feel shy to wear their traditional Akha clothing. [Since we started the tourism program] the children began to feel proud [to wear the traditional clothing],” she explained.

After the entire activities were done, the community sent us back to our vans. We bid goodbye and, surprisingly, I felt a bit melancholy. In less than 12 hours, this community not only made me understand their traditions, but their hospitality made me, temporarily at least, feel as a part of them.

Jessicha Valentina
The Jakarta Post

CHIANG RAI – It is the middle of winter in the Mekong region; however throughout December, floods have brought havoc to communities along the Mekong River. From the Chiang Saen District, Chiang Rai province in Northern Thailand downward, the water level in the Mekong has risen rapidly. The flooding was most intense along the Thailand-Lao border from the Golden Triangle toward Khong Chiam, Ubonratchathani. It is unprecedented to experience such flooding in the Mekong during wintertime.

Flooding was particularly bad in Chiang Saen District, around “Sob Kok”, the delta plain in the Kok River where it meets the Mekong. In just one morning, the flooding damaged a large plantation owned by local villagers. Water from the Mekong River suddenly spilled over the banks causing levels of water tens of centimeters high to flood the area; corn, tobacco, bean and other vegetables vanished in the blink of an eye.

On December 19, The Vientiane Times reported that construction on the Xayaburi Dam was halted as The Mekong River rose, flooding the site. The Xayaburi Power Company – owner of the US$3.5 billion hydropower project – announced that “work on the dam’s spillway had to stop when water flowed over the temporary barriers and lower parts of the area were submerged.”

It was later reported that by the morning of December 20, the flooding had reached the Chiang Khan District, Loei. In the midst of the chilled winter morning, a grandmother, her nieces and nephews and local villagers in Ban Pha Baen were all stunned to see their plantations of green onion swept away, and they could do nothing to stop it.

Villagers in Tambon Hor Kham, Bueng Kan Province, also found that the Mekong’s water level rose greatly. They were dismayed to see their vegetable plantations vanish right before their eyes including, lettuce, morning glory, green onion, tomato, etc. Some villagers made an attempt to harvest the remaining produce; uprooting tomato shoots from one place to another as vegetables were swept away by the current.

According to Jintana Kesornsombat, a villager from Tambon Hor Kham, Bueng Kan, apart from the produce that was washed away, their fishing gear and boats which were tied up on the river banks were also damaged, as no one had expected such a flood to happen. “The floating water pumps belonging to villages and Tambon Administration Organizations were swept away in the Mekong as a result of the sudden high tide. The fishing boats suffered the same fate. The owners had to go out and look for their boats; otherwise they have to spend money to build new ones.”

Jintana also said that during the couple of days of high tide, the villagers were unable to go out to catch fish and so had lost their source of income. “Villagers of most of the villages along the Mekong could not go out to fish. But since it has happened, we do not know who to complain to.”

The unprecedented flooding has left many wondering if the rising water levels are a result of heavy rainfall released by the dams upstream in China?

During the winter, the water normally gets lower and becomes quite clear and clean. For hundreds of years, during this time of year, local villagers would grow vegetables on the banks of the Mekong River that are then teeming with rich sediments. Therefore it took them by surprise that such destructive floods would happen during this time of year.

Nevertheless, this is not the first time that floods have left a path of destruction in the Mekong. In August 2008, massive floods caused the inundation of houses along the river in Chiang Khong District, Chiang Rai, even though there was no downpour in the local area. Many were convinced that as a result of heavy rains in the North and in China, the dams upstream reached their full capacity and had to discharge water. Still, no warnings had been made to notify the villagers downstream.

After the flooding in 2008, the Chiang Khong Conservation Group followed up with the Mekong River Commission (MRC) who replied that “a warning was already posted” on their website. This time, according to the MRC website, the water level in Chiang Saen increased by seven meters on 17 December. Two days later, the water level had risen by another two meters.

According to the Mekong River Commission’s preliminary analysis, the severe flooding which hit the Mekong River in December was due to unusually high rainfall in northern Lao PDR, northeastern Myanmar and southern Yunnan province in China. A statement on the MRC website, says that “there is no evidence at this time to suggest that the sudden peak was caused by release from dams in China.”

However such unprecedented flooding has lead to many questions about the management of dams along the Mekong, as well as the need for better warning systems in place for communities downstream. A pertinent question is how can communication among the six countries that share the Mekong River, regarding the management of the dams, be improved? When will this much-needed communication system be set up?

Five out of a series of eight dams have already been completed in the upper reach of the Mekong River in Yunnan, China. In addition, there are eleven more dams being planned in the lower reach of the river, the first of which will be the Xayaburi Dam in, Lao PDR. Currently under construction, 95% of power generated by the Xayaburi Dam will be sold to Thailand. The second dam project “Don Sahong” in Siphandone, Southern Lao, has been announced and preparations are being made prior to the start of the construction.

The flooding water has made the small, marginalized people tearful, including those growing vegetable, cotton, the fishers and those growing rice along the Mekong. But who shall be held accountable for their agonies?

It is about time that a mechanism is developed to harness collaboration of people in the Mekong Basin based on the interest of local people.

The Precautionary Principle must be observed by the four member countries of MRC – Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and VietNam – and an earnest effort must be made to demand responsibility from the watershed country, namely, China.

Data concerning the water level in the Mekong, precipitation and the amount of water stored in the five dams in China should be publicized along with other related metrological data, which may affect the downstream area. It is time that this information is made transparent and accessible to the public, in order to provide checks and balances and accountability to ensure that warnings be made prior to such disasters taking place.

The Mekong flood has come and gone but how will the damages be remedied? Precautionary measures have since been taken. But the Mekong flood has come time and again causing massive damage and still no permanent warning system does not exist, nor have the damages been adequately addressed.