Along the border – Nam Yuen to Khong Chiam

The weather forecast promised another hot day in Isaan.
So we woke up at 5 am and started riding at 6 am. Cool and fresh air at this time.

Not far from Nam Yuen you find a place called “Hill 500”. Some know this area as well as the “Emerald Triangle”.

The Emerald triangle refers to the three borders of Laos, Cambodia and Thailand and is promoted as a counter part to the Golden Triangle (Laos, Myanmar and Thailand).

The area where the Emerald Triangle is located is known as Chong Bok which used to be a battlefield among the three countries for years.

In 2000, the Emarald Triangle project was established to promote cooperation in tourism, economics, social matters and politics.
For several reasons the project – stuck and did not move forward until today.

Usually from the Hill 500 you have a great view to Laos and Cambodia. Unfortunatelly when we arrived there the hill stuck in clouds so the view was zero.

Nevertheless it was a nice walk to the viewpoint and a great chat with the boss of the border police / military there.

Hill 500 with no view and a memorial of the battles in this area:

As we started the day early without and breakfast or coffee, it was time to find a market and get some borax style coffee. Borax style means old way of doing coffee.
Served in local markets this type of coffee is a mixture between instant coffee, sticky milk and milk. For me very delicious. You not only get the coffee which is very strong, you get the local atmosphere on top. And you get in touch with the local people who always ask where you are from and where you will go next.

After a relaxed time drinking coffee and recharge some energy we had a great ride along the Sirindhorn dam on Hwy 2248 / 2396. Almost no traffic and a lot of shadow.

Break in a temple along the Mekong river. Strong wind and shadow…very fresh!

Khong Chiam was the destination to go as it started to get hot.
We found a great resort at the Mekong river banks.
Well, the resort was great but they cut off the water in the whole city right before we arrived. What we found out is that due to a construction they killed the water pipe accidentally.

Imagine you are hot, sweaty, want to wash the clothes and there is no water for almost 6 hrs.

Not really fun but what you can do?

Walk around and visit the two color river, this is where the Mun river meets the Mekong river.

After rainy season, when both rivers are high tide, forget about the two colors. You only see one color and this is brown.

Even that there was the water problem, it was a great and relaxed day!!!

Find the trip details in the Calimoto link

Enjoy yourself and take care!!! See you in the next episode.

#dustysocks #fortheride #triumphtiger #thailand #mekong