A monument to opium

Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong for six years in the mid-19th century, was a Christian capitalist of the kind we just don't see any more.

"Free trade is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is free trade," he once said.

For the Governor and many of his politically powerful peers, British economic expansion into China went hand in glove with Christianity. And opium.

Within two decades of opium being shipped from poppy fields in the colony of India and sold into China with the tacit approval of the British Government, the balance of trade had shifted in Britain's favour. The Chinese Government emptied its coffers of silver to buy this powerful drug which was decimating its people.

Trade in the drug was worth twice all legal trade, but in 1839 the Chinese Government proclaimed the drug, and trade in it, illegal. And so the Opium Wars.

Bowring is a bit player in the long and complex history of opium in Asia - a drug which was identified as having curative properties as far back as ancient Sumeria and Egypt.

The pre-Renaissance physician Paracelcus is purported to have been the first to make laudanum - opium mixed with alcohol. Among its many addicts were Benjamin Franklin, the poet Samuel Coleridge, and countless millions from the docks of Liverpool to the slums of Shanghai.

Today the opium poppy - papaver somniferum, one of 250 species of poppy but the only one to produce the drug - is harvested in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Laos and Myanmar (Burma) to produce a cash crop for poor farmers.

In the notorious but beautiful Golden Triangle where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet, opium was the major economy and its trade was enforced by powerful warlords like Lo Hsing-han who, in 1972, boasted he was dealing 180 tons a year.

Though Laos and Myanmar still have considerable opium fields, Thailand has all but eradicated the growing of opium poppies (on pain of lengthy imprisonment). But it is fitting that the new Hall of Opium - an impressive museum built right through a mountain - should be in the Golden Triangle near the tiny town of Ban Sop Ruak. Just 1km from the Mekong River - with China 300km upriver and Laos on the far bank - the museum offers a special journey through the history of opium.

It's more than a museum of history, images and paraphernalia. It provides a literal and metaphoric journey from dark to light: from the long, dark entrance tunnel - where spotlights pick out wracked and ribbed bodies and contorted faces carved into the wall - to the final room which is the Hall of Reflection with wise words from the Talmud, Koran, the Bible, Gandhi and other sources.

In 1988, Thailand's late Princess Mother recognised that the opium trade - which had only grown in the Golden Triangle in the previous half century - had become the cash economy for the various hill tribes. Theirs was a life of slash and burn in the jungle where they planted poppy fields; the product of which would be bought by warlords and their armies for sale around the region.

Her Royal Highness instigated development projects to give these hill people education and alternative sources of income, and encouraged research into the history of the drug. The Hall of Opium offers a video introduction to the history of the trade and its effects on various societies.

Tourism is now a money-spinner in this region. Beautiful resorts and spa retreats in the jungle bring monied travellers here to enjoy the splendid isolation, balmy climate and views of three countries where the jungle refuses to acknowledge the borders.

The Anantara Resort and Spa - with its elephant camp and infinity pool - lies directly opposite the entrance to the Hall of Opium, and is tucked well into the canopy of bush and vines. The Greater Mekong Lodge is within a stone's throw from the imposing entrance to the museum.

Visitors to this region can barely taste this dark part of Golden Triangle's history. They sit in small bars in Ban Sop Ruak - which means "the village where rivers meet" - and sip beer and eat meals for less than $2 a plate, or luxuriate in the spas and resorts hidden in the mist-covered jungle.

It's unlikely that traders still shift opium through here , but the Hall of Opium offers provocative thoughts about its exoticism and the price its victims have paid.

And one thought occurs: that Sir John Bowring knew what free traders thought of opium, but he was silent on what Jesus Christ might have made of this trade in human misery.

•Getting there:

Flights from Bangkok to Chiang Rai; the Hall of Opium is an hour away, 12km north of Chiang Saen. Entry 300 baht ($11).