Golden Triangle Travels: Journey into the Golden Triangle and Hall of Opium

This journey began with an early morning departure to Ban Thoet Thai (the mountains in the heart of the Golden Triangle). Let's just say the ride up was a rough one, with the motion sickness and all. Our first big stop was at the Hall of Opium. This museum was funded by the Queen to educate the public about the Golden Triangle's history with opium. When we entered the museum, we walked through a tunnel which was supposed to simulate an opium high. Although I do not know what it would feel like, I didn't think it did a very accurate interpretation of it. I found it interesting that there were warped faces carved into the walls of the tunnel to portray all the souls that were lost due to opium dependence.

This illustrates very well that drugs have power and control over the users and abusers. Once an individual is hooked onto drugs, they lose their self control and surrender it to the drug. They are destructive in the way that they chemically change neurotransmission in the brain such as GABA and dopamine (DA) receptors, and through that, affect physiological functions and actions as well.

As we discussed in class, when there is no learning, dopamine levels are stable, however, when learning and wanting is present, there is an increase in dopamine transmission. In terms of addiction, the user over time wants more and more of that drug, which increases DA and leads to a pleasurable euphoric rush that is highly addictive. People learn that taking drugs increases DA levels and in turn produces pleasurable feelings, which is how they become addicted. This is how addiction hijacks the brain into thinking that it needs more drugs to produce the effect. This is the power of the downward spiral of addiction has on users.

The Hall of Opium was more educational and inspirational than I had thought it would have been, it went beyond my expectations. It was cool to see all the opium paraphernalia such as the pipes and pillows. I would find the "pillows" quite uncomfortable as they were made out of porcelain. The purpose for this was to keep the head cool while smoking.

Opium pillows

Opium pipes

The one display that everyone found unforgettable was the one with the stories of celebrities who suffered greatly and passed away due to their uncontrollable addictions. Because of their celebrity status, we feel like we know a lot about them and feel closer to them, so reading about their personal battles hits close to home and holds a powerful influence to not end up like that.

After our visit to the Hall of Opium, we took a boat tour down the Mae Kok River in the Golden Triangle. This river divides Thailand, Laos and Myanmar/Burma. We stopped briefly in Laos to see the differences between their border and that of Thailand's.

It was very evident that Laos is a poorer nation and portrayed by the number of beggar kids. It was a sad sight to see, but it was obviously a prevalent enough occurrence that there were signs posted informing visitors to not give money to the kids because it would promote begging which would instill the never ending poverty struggle in lesser fortunate countries. It was also important to resist temptation to offer money because as soon as one child received money, all the other kids would swarm around the generous donor, as illustrated by Tai's account.

This depiction shows power in a two different ways. The first is the power of giving money. The person with the money is more powerful with people who don't. We have power over the child beggars because we have money and they don't, but the child who received money from Tai is also viewed as more powerful than the children who didn't receive any. This creates a hierarchy in their village and the children who are able to beg for more money are seen as better than those who don't have any. The other illustration of power is the power of groups. Once one beggar gets money, all the others swarm over to the donor in hopes of also getting some money. If there are more kids swarming around an individual for money, it is harder to resist all of those little kids. The kids know that this might be a better chance for them to get some, so they use their numbers as a powerful persuasion tool.

More experiences to come... but for now, enjoy these pictures of the more fun side of Thailand :)