My visa was expiring on January 23rd, and I did a one day visa run. Five hours on the bus up to the border, and another five hours to get back to Chiang Mai. This time, once I got into Myanmar I hired a tuktuk and took a mini tour to a couple of temples.
They were quite different from the temples I see here in Chiang Mai. Concrete and rather crude, painted rather than glittery.
After my tour I walked around for a while, finding some things in shops that surprised me. A satellite dish? In such a repressive country? I started to wonder if it had been placed in the shop to make an impression, since I didn't see any actually installed anywhere.
The next time I might go to a different border crossing. I'm told Mae Sot is quite different, and that the Burmese town across the border would give me a look at the abject poverty and repression that is more the norm. What I see when I go to Mae Sai is sort of like the artificial restricted area set up in Belize so the cruise ship passengers won't actually see the ugly dirty dangerous pit of a city that is Belize City.
No comments:
Post a Comment