Doi Tung and Bangkok

Wat Arun, the other side of the Chao Phraya in Bangkok
Street baristas...love at first site (80 cent espresso)!
Doi Tung Coffee Shop in the Botanical Gardens

Meeting between partners and villagers on the Myanmar border

Doi Tung sunrise

Hi everyone,

yes, it's been a long time since I last posted. Things are getting busier at work with my livelihood responsibilities; the war is heating up so we are having a lot of meetings on security issues and emergency response; and I had eight days away in Thailand (half work and half vacation).

The trip to Thailand began in the Doi Tung region outside of Chiang Rai. This area straddles the Laos and Myanmar borders, the infamous Golden Triangle (opium poppies). I organized a group of NGOs and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce Sri Lanka to go and view a development site. The basis in the program was to rid the area of opium by diversifying the livelihoods of villages in the area. The Thais were well ahead of their time when the project began in 1988. They realized the social problems that came with opium (addiction, prostitution, and the sale of their children to be sold to "entrepreneurs" from Bangkok who were recruiting them into the "sex travel" trade). They also realized that opium was the only source of income for many of the people in the villages. Rather than destroy all of the crops, they did needs assessments, introduced new crops such as coffee and macademia nuts and then brought in social programs that helped addicts, built capacity through vocational training, and provided medical services.

20 years later and the project has found its place in high end niche markets. Macadamia nuts, coffee, pottery, decorative paper, handicrafts, and tea are now produced in the region and sold in shops throughout the region and in Bangkok. There is also tourism (hotel, botanical gardens, Opium Museum). It's an amazing accomplishment and the average per capity income in the region has increased 10 fold since 1990.

It was very inspiring, and the hope now is to take the learnings, and principles associated with the project into the Sri Lankan context. The burning question is "how do you create such an initiative in an area in conflict"?

After the tour, I took a bit of personal time and spent four days in Bangkok. It's not the place I remember from when I was last there in 1990. It's glitzy, efficient, clean, and more expensive. It was great to wander around though and rediscover the city. The highpoint was definitely the street baristas ready with my morning espresso.

T