Chiang Paradise Province with the capital of the same name is worth a visit if you are interested in the history of Siam and the formation of this Thailand. It is from here that they went to those traditions, in many respects life and culture of modern Thailand. The city itself is not so big. Well, that would be an understanding, there are practically no public transport in it, as such, and one or two regular bus, not at all. However, this does not mean that it is not particularly looking at what. In the city itself there are several museums, there are interesting monuments and temples with a multi-year story. But the most interesting, of course, in the suburbs, where on the shore of Mekong near the ancient city of Chiangsen is located, the so-called "golden triangle", the place where Siam originated as such.
What to see in the city:
- White Temple.
It is not only the temple itself, but also the entrance to it (see photo). Hands from the ground rising to the incoming, symbolizing the hands of sinners stretching to liberation, and the road to the temple, nothing like a way to paradise. By the way, it is impossible to break on this track. This warns an employee of the temple complex at the very beginning of the trail. The temple is very different from the traditional architecture of Siam, and indeed the entire Buddhist culture, perhaps because it is Novodel (construction began in 1997), but it does not cease to admire his greatness.
- Monument of the king Menga, the founder of the city in the distant 13th century.
In local history textbooks, the founder of Chiang Paradise and the Kingdom of Lanna, the progenitor Siam and Thailand appear not otherwise as like Mengray the Great. Local residents are very respecting those tourists who begin to inspect the city with the Dani of respect to the great ruler of antiquity.
- Museum of Highlanders.
The museum is interested in its unusual collection of objects of life, culture, the written tribes inhabited the area of the current Northern Thailand. But the most unusual thing is that this is a museum of living tribes in the mountains of Chiang Paradise and Chiang May. Moreover, all income from the activities of the museum go to maintain the life of the mountaineers. Some time ago, the museum could organize a tour of their place of residence, as I do not know now. There were rumors that this practice stopped.
This is not all the sights of the city, there are also, but they are not so significant. As for the above-mentioned "golden triangle", this place attracts the most tourists, but at the same time, especially the most exclusive in it is not so much. The city of Chiangsen is interesting with his temples Pra-Thahat-Doi-Tung, Wat-Prahat-Chom Kitty and others built during the times of the Kingdom of Lanna and the statue of the Golden Buddha.
The most interesting thing is that the presence in the title of the precious metal is not connected with the temples that are located here. This very large territory (more than 900 hectares) at the junction of the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar in the middle of the last century was ruled by a drug carter under the leadership of Khun Sa, which, after stripping this territory, did not find despite the remuneration for his head at $ 3 million. According to the standards of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, the amount is simply translated. Drugosyindicate was crushed only at the end of the 20th century.