Khun Sa's House

A few weeks ago one of the world most wanted drug kingpins from the Golden Triangle, Khun Sa, died in Burma. I went up to his old house where he ran his operations a few months ago. There's talk of renovating his old compound now that he's dead--even talk of turning it into a tourist trap of sorts. I wanted to show a few pics of what it looks like before anything dramatic changes.

Khun Sa's camp is in a Shan village up in the mountains, and is extremely difficult to find, first of all. But thanks to J and Pornsak we managed to find it. When we got to the village there was nobody there, but some kids playing football told us to go right in. the place looked like it had hardly been touched since he left. Part of the house was used as a kind of museum commemorating heroes who have fought for an independent Shan state located primarily in Burma. There were old maps, and paintings of leaders in traditional clothing, and a copy of a statement of a Shan independence state signed by the Burmese government prior to the current Junta, who have ignore it. And there were cobwebs. And dust. Everywhere. Obviously, it's not cared after very well. It may also reflect some ambivalence about Khun Sa within his own community.
The Thai authorities tolerated him for a time when he was useful in fending off supposed communist threats. He was also in a poppy territorial war for control of the trade with the Chinese nationals around Mae Salong (I plan to blog about that soon). Anyway, he began to be a liability and embarrassment when he started knocking off CIA agents snooping around him. He was very open about what he did, and says he used the drug revenues to fight for the liberation of the Shan ethnic group. He's a fallen hero to some Shan. After all, he 'turned himself in' to the Burmese Junta. In turn for shutting up about Shan liberation, he got a nice life with a big house and reportedly got to play golf all the time. The place had a strange feel about it; like you just knew many people were killed in this very spot. You get the sense that Khun Sa's cause is also dying, being eaten away by cobwebs. Perhaps there are better ways for the Shan to go forward other than a separatist state.