Mae Sot Part 3

Ok picking back up at the Burmese boarder...

After we spent some time looking at the boarder and the semi-permanent refugee camps we made our way to the Burma boarder market. There were tons of stalls lined up and merging into each other selling all kinds of trinkets from back pillows, to electric tools, to Buddha statues and wood carvings. I got a few wooden spoons and a bracelet for about $2 total. Still amazes me what you can get for a few dollars in this country!

About an hour later we rode back towards town and stopped at another Wat where we made friends with a monk. Side note: lots of Wats in town have things called "Monk Chats" where you can actually sit down with a monk and learn about their lives and what it's like to be a monk - pretty cool. This was not one of these Wats but just wanted to make a note of that.

The monk we made friends with was in his 60s and spoke English fairly well. He told us about the high up monk that had passed away a year ago and was now being memorialized in the Wat. The monk asked us for a donation, gave us the high up monk's book (all in Thai) and blessed us with "good luck" water - which he sprayed on us using about 20 bamboo sticks held together. We explored the Wat further and saw the largest reclining Buddha I've seen so far on this trip. We have plenty of pictures to share about this!

We continued deeper into Mae Sot and visited the fair trade shops where many Burmese and Karen women sell their crafts to support their families. It was great to hear about the opportunities these women are given and that they receive the money they should for their beautiful purses and shawls and pillow cases instead of just selling them on the street for their pennies. There really is a lot to learn about different cultures interacting together in Mae Sot, you have the Thai people, the Burmese people, Muslim people and Karen people (tribal) all living in the same area. Quite interesting to walk down the street let me tell you.

We went behind the fair trade market to their coffee shop for some snacks and some drinks. We had the best Burmese Samoas (mainly potatoes, onions and coriander deep fried) and we learned not to order Burmese tea cakes!

After our morning adventure we returned to the schools to continue our volunteer work.

That evening we walked down the "Gem" street in Mae Sot and saw all the rubies and sapphires and jade for sale. It was fun to barter with the gem dealers (I even got a small star sapphire for 150 Baht (about $4).

We then made our way back to Brian's house and tried to go to his favorite Italian/Thai restaurant Casa Mia, but it was closed for the day so we headed back to T Corner for some Green Curry Rice.

By the end of the day I was so tired from biking all over town and to the boarder that I crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow. I have bruises from where I kept hitting my leg on the bike every time I swung my leg over to get on and off because my body was so tired.

Update on my back: Still doing fine - haven't had to take any pain killers or anything. I think the biking was a bit strenuous because my physical therapist said I could bike 20 mins a day, and I've been biking all day every day, but I'm still doing fine!

More later!