Thailand - Mae Sai

Friday, June 24'th

We leave the guesthouse at 9AM, but before we go Shehab want to leave the American girl from yesterday a message, they have already left for their trek, but will return in three days and hopefully she will get his note. She was cute, perhaps they will make contact.

The Tuk-Tuk driver are waiting for us again so they get the job of driving us to the bus station. The MAE SAI bus are punctual, it leave right on time. There are many passengers and it is warm when we start. But after an hour we are getting into the foothills, a nice breeze blow through the bus, but now the engine is running hot, perhaps the busdriver should slow down before he ruins the motor. The engine develop some smoke, a short break is put into the program while the bus cool off.

Immediately the local residents see their chance of earning some Baht, selling fruits to the passangers. We buy some, they taste like grapes but I don't know the name of the sort. Soon the bus continue and at early afternoon we are at CHIANG RAI where there is a half hour break and lunch is served, all included in the busfare.

Just outside CHIANG RAI the bus is invaded by school children going home for the weekend. The landscape is changing while we continue north, we feel the altitude. The roads are excellent I must say, most of the big highways that connect the large cities are made of concrete, like the German Autobahns. At every small village some of the children are stepping off the bus, and finally we have come to the terminus, Thailand's northern most border district to Burma, MAE SAI.

We have found our lodge in Lonely Planet, the MAESAI GUEST HOUSE, situated at the southern bank of the MAESAI river that make out the border to neighbouring Burma (the regime there call it Myanmar). Go north down the main street and down the last road to the left before the Burmese border. Half a mile along the river you find the place (end of the road).

Again we hire two Tuk-Tuk's to take us there, it is not that far, but who bother to walk the with all our luggage. The guesthouse consist of small bungalows build of bamboom but they have all you could ask. The price ('94) is 100-150 Baht for a double room, the best we had in Thailand.

There is a fan in the ceiling, enough to cool you off and prevent the mosquitoes from biting because of the draft produced. A shower with pleanty of hot water, the place looks brand new ('94). It is intriguing to be so close to Burma, it have been impossible for tourists to go there for a decade but there are roumers that the tension between Thailand and Burma have loosen. We will see about that.

The Burma atmosphere is prevalent in this area and also Burmesian goods and handicrafts can be purchased here, but it would be interesting to seek the goods in Burma ourself. We look at the nearby shops and enter a restaurant to have some dinner. I have the usual fried rice with chicken in a sweet-and-sour sauce. Nice as always.

The rest of the evening we spend at the main building of the guest house, they have plenty of beer so we are content. We try to make plans for our stay

Saturday, June 25'th

I am having pancakes with banana for breakfast, I have gotten my appetite back and order an extra batch. There are prices of treks displayed and we discuss whether to go. But the prices are too high, we try to haggle without success, and our time is limited. A three day trek is too long.

Instead we go into town and notice that there are a brisk traffic across the border to Burma. We go to the borderpost and ask if we can cross as well. No problem, the border have been open for tourists for two weeks by now so we are welcome. It cost 5$US (luckily we have a 20$ note) and we have to leave our passports behind. We get a receipt (visa) and can cross the border-bridge, I feel like an explorer in unknown territory.

At he other side of the border there is not much of a difference, the most obvious is the lack of motorized traffic. We walk around a while and decide to hire three Rickshaw (Cycle taxi), one for each of us guys (Sauchera ride with Sune). They are happy to get some work and we get to see more of Burma. We haggle back and forth a while as it is the custom to do, we don't want to get ripped off (we probably did anyway but the price was fine with us). There is no need to buy the local currency (Kyat), being in a bordertown, the Baht is just as good.

We go down the highway, leaving the

after a few hours of sight seeing we are back at the borderpost, but before we leave we go through the market. There are good handicraft here and we buy fruits and, what we couldn't find in Thailand, a deck of cards. It is not the usual symbols for the court cards, but we figure it out.

Sune buy a piece of soap from the beautiful Burmesian girl and get permission to take the above picture. Notice the delicate stripes of makeup on the girls cheek, this is the Burmesian way. A stanza from the old Kipling song suddently entered my mind: "By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea, There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me" - not that I can have made any impression on her but I couldn't get the song out of my head, like the needle stuck in a groove.

Along other thing I almost get a picture of illegal gambling with my camera. A friendly gesture from a Burmese woman warn me about the activity and I avoid problems with the players. Shehab found and bought his Samurai-sword that he have sigh for since the umbrella-workshop in CHIANG MAI.

We cross back into Thailand and collect our passports at the borderpost. I guess they don't

Back at the bungalow we rest from the walk for a few hours. We will eat dinner at a place in between the guesthouse and the town. The restaurent is located where the road curve round the bend and is siting on poles resting on the bank of the river. It seems to be constructed entirely of bamboo and whenever we pass the place the most delecious odour are drifting from the place with all the fragrances of the East.

There are several other guest than us, we get a cheap but fantastic meal. Afterwards we have more beers and get our playing cards out to use. We will play a game to decide who should pay the bill. Sune know just what game to play. In Danish it is called Agurk (Cucumber in English), but we title it Bananas hence the term, to go Bananas (the other sense of the word Agurk). Sune instruct us of the rules, it is a normal game of trumps, where you have to follow suit if possible. It is a tactic game and soon we got the hang of it, but Sune didn't so he ended up paying for the evening.

And it was getting late, we had been the only ones left in the restaurant for a while, Suchera saw the owner of the place sitting patiencely at an other table watching us. It occurred to us that he wanted to close for the night and go to bed, he seemed a little cranky about us playing for so long. We tried to cheer him up with a generous tip, I hope we

Sunday, June 26'th

We get up later than expected and grab some fast breakfast, we walk the 16 minutes up to the center of Mae Sai to find a car that can drive us for a day. We find a driver that ask 1200 Baht. Again a haggle, Sune is the master of the art, and we agree on 800 for the four of us. Suchera instruct him of our program and off we go.

First thing is a temple in the mountains. The rain have started and the higher we drive, the colder and foggier it gets. At the top it is so misty that you can only see ten feet ahead, and suddenly we are at the temple.

On the way down a pick-up like the one we are driving in are having problems getting up a steep part of the road. We jump off and give a helping push. Even though the road is asphalted, it is like soap due to the mist. Well out of the hills we come across a market of the local hill-tribe. They have many beautifull objects at display. Shehab notice a large dagger but he already bought the sword, so I snatch the knife from him and buy it,

We drive to the fish-cave where humongous Carps are kept. A large flock of monkeys hang out there, a booth there sell banana that you can feet to the monkeys. We buy bananas and food for the carps. A mile away is a very old temple, more than a thousand years old. We walk there, a nice walk with the hills to your left and partly open space to the right. The stone of temple have turned black, from the humidity I guess. It really look ancient.

Our last item on the agenda is the Great Cave. We park at an opening in the forest, a bit away from the entrance to the cave. From outside it doesn't look much, but inside it is like a cathedral and you can walk for miles into the mountain. Our agreement with the driver is running out and we don't want to be left stranded up here so an hour is all we get inside. We haven't brought a flash-light, it make it much more exiting, at every step you stuple. On the way back we turn a corner and there is the entrance again.

Your eyes have adapted completely to the dark, the light

Back at Mae Sai we take the motorcycle-taxi back to the bungalow. You sit on the back while the Kamikaze-rider drive in a tremendous pace, we are at our bungalows in 10 seconds flat, I imagine. The rest of the afternoon is spend at the porch, playing cards and reading.

Opposite where we stay, Burmese workers are securing their houses by making the bank of the river stronger. It makes a bend right here and to prevent the erosion from ruining their houses they make coast protection. Upstream they get sand and drop it at the bank. Notice the waterline of this boat, sometimes they put too much load into it and there were scenes of intense baling out and dropping

That evening we eat at the guesthouse, our best meal yet. We should have stayed put the hole time. More playing cards, this time Sune got grip of the tactic, Shehab looses. Our bus for NAKHON RATCHASIMA is not to leave until tomorrow afternoon so it is late before we hit the sack.