On his Old World Wandering website, Iain Manley has presented a terrific interview with a Kuomintang soldier, Zhan Dening, who settled in northern Thailand. The general story is one that gets told from time-to-time but the details of this particular account are well worth your attention. Zhang concludes by reflecting:
Yes, you could say we’re pretty satisfied. We take care of ourselves. Apart from taxes, the country [Thailand] doesn’t ask anything of us. It’s a different story in Burma. Burma has a complex composition of armies, every ethnic group has its own military force. This ethnic group wants you to pay tax and that one wants you to pay tax too. People there don’t have such a good life. In Thailand, it’s like this: if you look after yourself, that’s fine, you’re left alone.
The story of the KMT in N. Thailand is one which has always fascinated me.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Mae Salong, the former KMT HQ, and have got to know a few of the people up there and particularly a former KMT Colonel, Somboon, who now runs one of Mae Salong’s most popular guesthouses.
Somboon’s father was Jang Pong Gow, who went on to become a one star KMT General and was one of General Duan’s most trusted fighters. Jang Pong Gow died, I believe, fighting Thai communists at Phu Chi Fah, up in the hills near the Laos border.
Back in late 2008 I wrote/photographed two stories about Somboon and Mae Salong one of which appeared in CNN Traveller magazine and another which appeared in UK national paper, The Independent.
The Independent one is a bit more travel orientated, the CNN one has a bit more of a feature feel although the two pieces do overlap in places.
The Independent one can be found online here
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/asia/mae-salong-from-army-camp-to-tourist-town-1667396.html
The CNN Traveller one is not online – although I reproduced it in two parts on the Travel Wire Asia site
http://www.travelwireasia.com/2012/01/the-extraordinary-story-of-mae-salong-a-slice-of-yunnan-china-in-n-thailand-pt1/
http://www.travelwireasia.com/2012/01/the-extraordinary-story-of-mae-salong-a-slice-of-yunnan-china-in-n-thailand-pt2/
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Andrew Spooner: According to the piece you did for the Independent on Mae Salong – “The other advantage of the location is the views – on a clear day, a giant sweep of rolling green marches all the way to the Mekong River” – that is some view! 25kms over to highway 1 then another 30km over to Chiang Saen … – I won’t bother reading what you wrote for CNN and congratulate myself on never having used any Footprint guides.
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“In Thailand, it’s like this: if you look after yourself, that’s fine, you’re left alone.”
Yes, Thai government have left them alone in peace because during cold war communist surrounded Thailand, Thailand used them as a bumper – guard Thailand from communist.
In the same time Thai government used Chinese – Malay communist as a bumper to balance the power of the Muslim insurgents in three southern provinces between Thai and Malaysia border. Chinese-Malay communist surrendered to Thai government 25 years ago under
ผู้ร่วมพัฒนาชาติไทย program, the insurgents in the south have been stronger since then.
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Thai government like to do easy job – sweep all the problems under a carpet.
Luckily Kuomintang in northern Thailand live peacefully!
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Jon Wright
Yep, from the top of the hill by temple you can see it on a clear day. About 30ishmiles away in a straight line.
Easy.
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Andrew Spooner: Well color me surprised! I take it this wasn’t an eye-witness account, however? You know they could have been saying Mae Kok? Thirtyish miles would be Chiang Saen or thereabouts – any there’s no rolling green on the other side of Highway 1. Also, no part of Burma will appear on the other side of the Mekong (yes I just opened the CNN story).
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Apropos, does anyone have information about a confrontation on Doi Lang (near Mae Ai) involving the Burmese army, the KMT and the Thai army? This would be in the late 1940s. One result was sanctuary for the KMT in Chiang Rai province, and the other is Doi Lang becoming part of Thai territory.
I may have details wrong because I heard these tales from the children of participants.
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Jon Wright
“Also, no part of Burma will appear on the other side of the Mekong.”
If you go to Mae Salong, there’s a viewing area by the temple that points roughly in the direction Chiang Saen and Sop Ruak/Golden Triangle where Burma/Laos/Thailand all meet on the banks of the Mekong.
“You know they could have been saying Mae Kok”
It would be impossible to see the Mae Kok from the temple viewing point as it is on the opposite side of the hill on which the temple sits just below the top of.
But you’d know that if you’d been there.
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> “Burma/Laos/Thailand all meet on the banks of the Mekong”
Burma & Thailand on this side, Laos on the other side.
> “It would be impossible to see the Mae Kok”
I imagined so – but you know the yarns they spin …
I’ve definitely been there, last time I stayed next to the place you wrote about, at the Shinsane.
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Could another reason that the Thai government leaves them more or less alone is that if they so wished these old boys could dish vast dollops of dirt on the workings of the RTP, the RTA and Taharn Phran, past present & future? (It has to be said though that they would have to be seriously pissed to take such a perilous step.) One of your comments has already noted how they were used as buffers. As such, they were left to work their stuff until such time as Pao Siyanond and others figured out how easy it would be to shift opium out of the area by RTP aircraft, in Air America-style operations. By all means let the old KMT live in peace, but never forget how they were managed by this country’s uniformed mafias.
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