Mae Sot part 2

So it's been hard to get time to blog on this trip, we're just constantly walking around and visiting different Wats (Temples) and eating at different restaurants, so we've decided to lump together the days at each city into one or two blogs instead of individual posts per day.

Doesn't hurt that I also just paid 200 Baht ($6) to use the computer for 1 day. That's expensive considering I can get a 1 hour massage for less!

Anyways, to continue our Mae Sot adventure:

Our second day in Mae Sot began with a late start. I think all of us enjoyed sleeping in after our days of traveling on planes, buses and Tuk Tuks. The guest house we stayed at offered a complimentary breakfast including toast, coffee, tropical fruits and various unknown pastries. Towards the beginning of our trip Andrew and I were more cautious and tried to stick to the travel rules (aka not drinking any water except from bottles with plastic seals on them, not eating any fruit unless we peeled it ourselves, not eating anything from street vendors) but this quickly ended because we just ended up missing out on a large part of the experience. We haven't been sick yet so keep your fingers crossed!

After breakfast Andrew and I volunteered for a portion of the morning. More about that in the volunteering post.

Afterwards, Andrew and I decided to go on an adventure and explore Mae Sot on our own. This may not seem like an adventure to you, but going out in a city where you can't even ask for directions if you get lost because no one speaks English is quite the adventure to me. If we had gotten lost I'm sure Andrew would have acted out our questions and found our way home (but that wasn't necessary). Walking through the street market it smelled of onions, spices and ginger in the first section. As we got deeper into the market it started to smell like fish and meat that had been sitting out all day (comparable to riding on the 45 going through China Town). We saw stands full of onions, other stands with whole pig heads for sale, and even a few stands with live animals for sale such as miniature turtles, snakes and cockroaches. The market was not only unique in sight and smell, it was also packed with people, umbrella stands, bicycles and motorbikes trying to get through the narrow passage ways.

After we fought our way through the market place we made our way to a very tall and skinny cone-like Wat we had intended to get to. It wasn't the prettiest Wat or the most unique Wat. As we continue our adventure in Thailand we'll see more and more impressive Wats, but still it was one of the first one's we'd seen, so it was worth the trip. Every Wat in Thailand is covered in gold and littered with Buddhas and other figures. It's really a sight to see. I think our only complaint is that we don't know the significance of each of the figures.

Transportation in Mae Sot is mostly by bike or by motorbike. You can't cross a street or go through a market without seeing hundreds of these. It's a pretty unique culture where cars are the minority. Also littering the streets are wild street dogs. They're everywhere. No, I'm not exaggerating they're literally everywhere you turn.

After we finished adventuring Brian and Jess brought home take out called Khao Sai (said Cow Soy). It was a red curry broth with peanut sauce and egg noodles. Something we never would have experienced if we had stuck to the common touristy towns.

After lunch we went back to the school and continued with our volunteer work.

Once our second day of volunteering was over we decided it was time to get a famous Thai Massage. Brian took us to their favorite spot, ironically it was at the local hospital. I'd like that kind of service at the hospital in the states! For 120 Baht (about 4 dollars) I got a 1 hour massage. Andrew, his mom and I all got massages and Andrew's dad and brother got foot massages. It was then that my love affair with Thai massages began. It was like a physical therapy session with all the stretching and massaging combined with a deep tissue rubbing session. It was great. And only cost me $4. Now if only physical therapy cost that little I'd be a happy (and not as broke) physical therapy patient!

On our way home from the massages it started storming so we decided to just get some food from the night market. Brian got us the "greatest hits" the Cashew Nut Chicken, Pad Thai from Mr. Pad Thai and my favorite mango with sticky rice.

Our 3rd Day in Mae Sot had an early start. Brian met us at 7:30am so that we could bike to the Burmese boarder before our volunteer work began. It was a 7km bike ride on a highway (again remember that bikes are king in Mae Sot). Once we got to the boarder it was easier to understand the impact of our volunteer work.

We saw the semi permanent refugee camps steps away from the Thailand boarder, the police patrolling the boarder, the Friendship Bridge where people "legally" pay to cross the boarder and the Burmese people who crossed underneath after paying off the police. It was hard to see what these people's lives must be like. I can't imagine living in the filth of these camps and having no where better to go. It really made me appreciate everything that we have.

Note from Andrew:

The one thing that jumped out at me was an image that we would never see in the states.

A naked kid running out of a cardboard box (his family of 10) with a gun (not loaded) totally naked and pointing it at others. It was quite a sight to see families living in cardboard boxes, smelling like the Tenderloin and calling that home.

One thing that was crazy to me was the Thai police....

They would smile at us when we walked by and act as if we were better than the others below. They stand next to the illegal cigarette / liquor stands with their AK-47s waiting to get paid off....

The rumor is that they are not allowed to cross over the walkway on the Thai border (which is why the Burmese have built up stations to the edge with wooden posts to resell their products).

Deeper into the border camp, there is a river that runs under the bridge. This river has people building boats to catch dirty fish to resell in the market place. You would be surprised to know that many of these people catch fish that swim in dirty 'poop' water and resell them in the market.

Back to Becky:
We have to head out to go on a walking tour of Chaing Mai, so we'll continue our Mae Sot post later. Hope all is well in the States!

LOTS OF LOVE!