make a run to the border

Wasn't that a taco bell slogan a while back? Today was quite the busy day. I rented a bike to go to the border with burma and then hopefully to a waterfall, cave, and hotsprings. The woman at the guesthouse said I needed a scooter to go the waterfall and such, but I figured I could do it. The border was only 14km's there and back, and then only 36km to the waterfall. Zach Guy could probably do the waterfall part in 1hr 45 up a steep singletrack in a WP race with a good bike (his older, fatter brother would probably take 2hr 10.) So of course I decided to do it. No, no, the woman insisted, so I appeased her by just saying I'd go to the border. Something zach and I have found out in our travels is that what is possible for in-shape people is always way more than what is told to you. If a time is given as 8 hours roundtrip, good chance it will only take 3 or 4. There are too many fat, lazy, out of shape, or out of touch with recreation tourists out there, that they have to be careful with times I guess. That's why I always prefer that things are listed in distance (such as this time) than time. B/c on rare occassion, the time is actually accurate. On this occassion I easily made it back two hours before dark, after a late start (10:30), hanging out around the border for a couple of hours, taking a small hike, and having lunch. So ya see, sometims you just gotta try it. If you don't get there...oh well.
The border was pretty interesting. I at first wanted to cross the "friendship" bridge over to burma for a bit, but in order to do that, when you come back you get a new visa. It used to be (like 3 weeks ago) that overland visas were 30 days just like the airport, but now it's only 15 days, so if i went, I'd actually lose 5 days on my visa which would be no good as I'm flying out to rangoon on the day my visa expires. Since this change in policy occurred during the closing of the big thai international airports during the protests, I'm guessing it has something to do with getting more people to fly to renew visas. THis is making lots and lots of long-stay tourists very unhappy as they used to make a border run (takes 2 days) once a month, but now every 15 days!! Not affecting me b/c I'm flying to rangoon anyways.

So I contented myself with just walking along the border market and the dividing river. Had some tempura like vegetables there and some whole deep fried shrimp which were tasty. Walking along the river you get frequently hounded by people selling you cigarettes, whiskey, opium, and sex enhancing drugs. I'd just respond by saying, don't drink, don't smoke (what do ya do...who sang that song again?), don't do drugs, don't have sex. That's the only way to get them to stop. If you just say no, they keep pestering, so ya gotta just say you don't do that. One guy to me, "where you from?" "America" "you must not have fun in America" "nope" "the movies lie then!" "nah, just watch office space" He didn't understand.

The border river was insanely polluted with trash. People would swim back and forth (currently thais and burmese are freely allowed to pass). Looking across the border, burma looked quite poor. People call Thailand a third world country, but I'd hardly call it that. 2nd world moving onto first (most people have ipods, cellphones, nice clothes, scooters, and you don't see any starving or hungry people). They are just lacking government infrastructure, clean water, plumbing etc. It's not near as bad as Mexico, which isn't nearly as bad as the poverty and starvation in east africa, especially places like uganda. The poverty in kenya and tanzania was bad enough, but eventually you become numb to it, but the small villages and even the cities in uganda have scarred me for life! So needless to say it's hard to compare thailand as 3rd world to some place like tanzania or uganda...or even somalia and zimbabwe... Thailand is quite nice, which is one of the reasons I think it's the most popular "3rd world, exotic destination". It's incredibly easy to travel in and not very uncomfortable in terms of modern commodities like other countries can be. I know burma will be much worse and I have a feeling cambodia and laos will be as well.
After walking around the border, I met a nice burmese man. He used to be a school teacher until he had to flee from the government. Now he helps tourists ease into the visa run process and guides them for their day in myanmar. We had tea together and he told me all about the atrocities of the past in burma and the ones still going on. The government isn't openly shooting people anymore, but if you do something they don't like (I.e., don't give them most of the money you make), they will not hesitate to shoot or anything. He told me about a couple good books written about events in early 2000's and late 90's about the genocide and monks just being gunned down. He said travel is now safe for tourists (as has everyone except the US government travel ministry--I always check the new zealand travel ministry website b/c it is much more in touch with reality...the US has warnings issued for every country in the world but 3, and has complete no-go travel warnings for countries considered safe by most standards like the philippines or peru. There's obviously danger wherever you go, but that includes NYC, L.A., and Caldwell, Idaho). He said it's good for tourists to go in and see it, and the country is quite beautiful. And like everyplace with issues, a few rotten apples, usually the gov't (hmm...george bush) or some small terrorist faction, ruins in for everyone else--he said the people there are so incredibly nice and friendly. He was also very happy to see an American going in. He said they really miss the americans...typically an overgenerous group of travellers, and the type of american travellers visiting places like burma aren't the ignorant, sun-seeking, we think we're the best in the world type travellers, but instead the very cultured, friendly type. I have actually found this true almost everyplace I've been around the world. The people always like the americans. I think in our own (would it be called pride), we like to think that we are disliked as travellers. It seems to me that the american travellers are the ones trying to learn the language the most, being the most jovial, and interacting the most with the locals (obviously not true if we're talking about the rich ignorant ones staying at the fancy resorts, but then again, we never see them). I often see europeans having an almost elitist air about them and treating the locals with disrespect. I don't know if this comes from the lack of diversity overall in terms of race in europe or what. When Zach and I have asked guides, guides we have become friends with and know they would be honest, they almost always say their favorite group of tourists are americans...so hmm, so much for us always thinking everyone hates us!! They've told us the aussies usually annoy them and the europeans are standoffish and won't get to know them. Part of it I wonder is that when europeans or aussies go abroad, it's just a normal vacation b/c they regularly get 5-6 weeks of paid holiday, where if an american is going to venture that far abroad, they are not doing it on paid holiday, so they feel less like a vacation and more of a feeling of immersion into a culture. dunno. And they also often associate us with aid as our country, no matter how far in debt we go, has always been incredibly generous with our foreign aid...disaster or no disaster. hmmm...kinda got off topic there, that's one for you all to explore as you go abroad, I guess.

Well after tea with the nice burmese man I set off on the bike ride back to mae sot and then to the waterfalls. Had quite the steed to ride...definitely no red demon or bluebird. 3 speed with no easy gear, hefty, handlebars out of alignment with the wheel, sized to fit a thai woman, sketchy brakes, and a seat that swiveled up and down so it could decide to either poke me in the nuts or on the tail bone. Perfect though! Helps to make a ride. And guess what?? No goat heads the entire ride!! As the cliche goes it was the journey and not the end result that was the best. As most people here in mae sot are either NGO's or here for a very quick visa border run, no one really goes out to explore the area, and if they do, they probably listen to the people around here and don't bike, but trake a scooter or bus. So the villages I biked through didn't get whitey tourists passing by to often I would guess. When I'd ride through everyone would look, the kids would run outside yelling, "wello!" Everyone waved, whether sitting in their shop or driving buy in a scooter (or any of several types of unknown vehicles...one was being pulled in a trailer by a think that looked like an old shopping cart pulling aid that the guys at wal mart use to move shopping carts from the parking lots). This was definitely that thailand where it gets its motto...the land of smiles...from. The villages were almost all agricultural and I could see people out in the rice paddies with the infamous asian type hats or others plowing lots with oxen. No one spoke a lick of english, but smiles, sign language, and body expression go a long ways. One of the villages I stopped by there was lots of music and commotion. I walked into the field where it was going on, and the boys were playing soccer, and the girls some sport similar to basketball but without dribbling, and a fellow teammate holding a basket as a hoop. They were all brightly dressed, lots of parents and others watching, music, trophies on display, food everywhere. The funny thing is when I walked into the event area, basically everything stopped except for the soccer game. I was quite embarassed, but after a few minutes everything resumed to normal and I had little kids running up to me pulling on my shorts wanting high fives. Made it to the cave and hot springs easy enough as they were signed, but had trouble finding the waterfall. Asked several people for nam tok, but of course all they could do was point towards the mountains. Amazingly I somehow ended up finding it. It was cool, a waterfall coming out of a cave and some cave formations even outside of the cave.
Once back at the guesthouse, the woman couldn't believe I had biked there. We went into her garden and picked some tasty fresh starfruits!!

Tomorrow I leave for the trek out of uphang with Oom for days. We first have to drive over death pass (so called b/c back in the late 80's burmese guerrillas killed many people on the road, but now only failed breaks cause any fatalities) before we begin the trek...well actually we have to raft into where we begin the walking party.