e kids took over e running of e stall after their mother passed away, & wake up before dawn (e market comes to life around 0500AM) to churn out you2 tiao2 & ham3 ji1 peng2 before rushing off to school.
2 days ago they were fresh:
landslide that explains why e designated area for a market remains unused:
Chinese Martyrs Memorial Museum:
we were e only visitors that morning, & some guy appeared out of nowhere to collect e 20 baht entrance fee & unlock a gate for us, though it seems that anyone can just walk in for free from e back....
spent e longest time in e exhibition hall which was full of extensive write-ups in Chinese, Thai & English:
Kuomintang (KMT) retreat route (blue) from Yunnan through Xishuangbanna into Burma & Vietnam with Communist forces in pursuit (red):
appears that Muang Sing, Luang Namtha & parts of Phongsali in today's Lao PDR & Kengtung & other northern bits of Shan state in present day Myanmar were then part of China?
crossing at Tachilek (Burma):
presumably across e Ruak(?) river into today's Mae Sai, e northernmost point of Chiangrai & Thailand where tourists flock to enroute to e Golden Triangle? e account of their journey across e mountains & rivers of Xishuangbanna & Shan state & e numbers of soldiers & family members who didn't make it to e end & had to be buried along e way or abandoned to die in e jungle reminded e cat of e stuff it'd read about e Long March & e Hmong escape from e Pathet Lao into Thailand.
some of e forces ended up crossing into Thailand from present day Lao PDR, establishing themselves at Doi Pha Tang in Chiangrai:
J of Baan Bua Guesthouse is from Doi Pha Tang, & a 3rd generation descendant of e KMT forces that settled there. Doi Pha Tang is somewhere north of Phu Chi Fa along e Thai-Lao border, & we'd wanted to visit e place. supposedly beautiful with cherry blossom trees like Mae Salong, but getting there without your own transport is difficult.
HM e King Bhumiphol & Queen Sirikit:
e KMT forces in Mae Salong & Doi Pha Tang were useful to e Thais in e days of territorial disputes with Burma & Lao. they also became involved in e opium trade around e time of e Secret War in Lao & Vietnam War.
Generals Lei Yutian & Duan Xiwen, two key figures whose names we heard several times while in Mae Salong:
we would later meet e 'successor' of this guy who used to stand guard at General Duan's tomb on a hillside overlooking Mae Salong every day until he passed away:
across from e exhibition hall is another hall with pictures documenting e development of Mae Salong with Taiwanese aid. completion of a bridge along Yong Le Road, along which we'd trekked e day before:
[ filed under: chiangrai_2005 + thewanderingstraycat + thai1 ]
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