Another River Trip

Our last few days along the border were filled with some good times. We were given a proper farewell and a bit of closure is always nice. We had two amazing meals: a Burmese soup with chicken and and quail eggs and delicious rice snacks at Laura's organization and one of our favorite dishes in Thailand (their version of sukiyaki or a sizzling hotpot with meat and vegetables). We were showered with unexpected presents as a sign of gratitude for sharing our time with the people here. It certainly was a great way to end our time and we were even given handmade traditional clothing which the ethnic group that we were working with wears. This was a truly heartfelt present and the best that we could think of. Perhaps not so practical to be worn in the USA but a gift which will be treasured.

After our final goodbyes we left on a bus on a rainy day heading south. Our destination was the Salawin River. This is one of the most important rivers in Burma and for now is also the longest undammed river in Southeast Asia. It is one of the most biologically diverse rivers in the region and provides a livelihood for the many people that live along its shores. It will not stay undamned for long however as agreements have been made to dam the river in numerous places in order to supply power to Thailand and for the new capital of Burma. This has been a highly controversial issue and many Karen and other ethnic people inside Burma where the dams are to be placed have been forcibly relocated. The military has come through destroying many villages, raping and pillaging along the way and offering no reinbursement for the relocation. This has caused many villagers to flee to Thailand or live out a miserable nomadic existence in the jungle. All in all a pretty horrible situation.

The Salawin forms the border with Thailand for only about 100 miles but there is a large national park that has been set up here and we wanted to check out the life on the river as well as do a little birding. We had stopped at the park a few weeks ago but unfortunately did not actually visit the river and only had a chance to walk through some of the nearby forest. We had heard about an interesting village that laid on the banks of the river and also a river trip to a nearby town which sounded fun. A Thai doctor on one of our visits to the hospital had told us that the birding on the river was decent as well so we were excited about the prospects.

We arrived in the town of Mae Sariang a bit too late to catch a truck to the river village and the weather was not too great anyway so we decided to bed town in this cute river town (not the Salawin but a much smaller tributary) for the night. We awoke the next morning to relatively clear skies and jumped on the first truck to Mae Sam Lap, the aforementioned Salawin river town. The scenery along the ride started with pleasant rice fields in the valley but soon changed to thick forest in a hilly landscape and unfortunately the change in scenery was accompanied by a change in weather. The hills produced a rain that did not let up for the rest of the day. So much for that seemingly pleasant weather.

As we got closer to the Salawin, small houses along the roadside started to pop up. It was clear that many of the folks in this area were originally from Burma as Burmese seemed to be the ligua de franca of our fellow passangers and the longyis (the traditional Burmese sarong) was the favored clothing of those on the side of the road. We soon came to the bank of the river and noticed that the houses were packed in precariously along the steep slope. It looked as if any second they would tumble down the hillside but what do I know. Even in the rainy weather, this place was striking and memorable. I could only imagine why many of these people had fled their homes in Burma and decided to take up life on the river banks of the Thai side of the Salawin: for more trading options, to flee persecution, or otherwise.

We eventually arrived at our destination on the banks of the river where many boats plied the river to two nearby towns. We were not quite sure of what we wanted to do but we went to check with the local staff of the national park which had an office just outside of the village. At first we thought of staying in the nice bungalows that were offered here to both bird around the river and get a bit more exposure to the life around town. When we told them our interests in birding though, they told us that it would probably be best to head upriver to stay near the town of Ta Tha Fang. So with a bit of the help we looked for a boat heading upriver and waited a few hours as the rain continued to intermittingly drench the village.

While waiting for the boat, many interesting characters came up for a small chat. I am always amazed by the quality of English spoken especially along the border. One young Karen (a large group of indigenous people which lives both in Burma and Thailand) told us that he had learned English in one of the nearby refugee camps. This is interesting since he is not a refugee and was in fact born in Thailand but it seemed like he was putting the skill to good use. A Karen tour guide who was leading two French tourists around the area asked if we wanted to join his tour. When we said that we did not he was unexpectedly not pushy at all and actually helped us quite a bit in giving pertinent information about our own plans. It is so nice to be in places which are a bit less touristed. It always seems that the people are nicer and more helpful.

After about two hours, a boat was finally heading upriver and we jumped on board. Luckily the rain held out for our half hour boat trip on this majestic, muddy river. The banks were lined with sand banks and beautiful rock formations as well a number of birds. We arrived at the national park field office and quickly jumped off the boat and settled into our nice little room. No one else was staying here and it looked as if it had been awhile since anyone had. The facilities at Thai national parks have absolutely amazed me. They are nothing short of phenomenal, especially compared with say the Philippines (where they are virtually non-existent). Some Thai parks do charge a bit exhorbantly for foreigner admission fees but it certainly seems like these fees are being used appropriately.

After settling in, we decided to head into the small nearby village to see if there was anywhere to eat. We had brought our own supply of instant noodles but wondered if there was a bit more on offer in town. Our walk was accompanied by the rain and it was not a very fruitful effort as no food was found. But the little village was cute and the surroundings were eye-pleasing. After a little wandering we found our way down to the banks of the river and the birding here proved to be decent. It was interrupted a few times by the rain but we hung out here for about an hour or so with delight.

Then the afternoon rain set in and we decided to head home. We made the fateful decision to take a different route than we had come by and head along the river. It seemed logical since our accomodation was on the river that we would quickly make our way back. We figured that it could not be too far away. We were wrong though and found that while the path started off very clear and easy to follow, it soon headed into the forest where we got a bit lost just a few times. It turned out that the trek along the river which we thought would be a short jaunt turned into a bit of an afternoon adventure. We were just about to give up and head back the way we came when the national park lodging finally came into sight. We had started to see visions of hiking in the forest at night or even worse but our intuition that if we followed the river we had to come to our lodging was correct. It just took a bit longer of hiking through pouring rain in a muddy forest than expected. But all in all no harm done and just another afternoon adventure in the books.

Upon returning we changed out of our soaking muddy clothes and cooked up our instant noodles as well as a salad with some green mangoes that we had 'foraged' from a nearby plantation. When dusk started to settle in we were ravaged by misquitos and decided to head inside but this proved to be little better even in the closed and screened off room. After dinner we settled in for a restless night filled with some of the most hardcore misquito biting ever experienced.

Unfortunately the weather did not want to cooperate. We got about an hour of decent birding in before the sky opened up and just would not quit. After an hour or so of trying to wait out the storm we decided to call it a day and hit the road. We packed our things and caught the next boat out. It had been a nice park filled with a bit of adventure and some decent birding which could have been much better if the weather had been nicer. But our schedule was tight and the rain had gotten the better of us so we decided to move on. We headed back to Mae Sariang and then to Chiang Mai and eventually to Sukothai. We were on our way back into the heart of Thailand for some more temple adventure.

On The Road Again

Well the time has come once again to say goodbye and get a move on. We have had an amazing three months here in this little pleasant corner of Thailand and it has afforded us some great opportunities. Who knows if our time here will have had much impact on our students or the others that we have come into contact with but it has impacted us for certain.

As I have said before it always seems that you get a hell of a lot more out of volunteering abroad than you are able to give back. Funny how that works. It makes me often think that I am a bit selfish for living life this way: enjoying this way of seeing the world but often disregarding family and friends and connections back home and realizing that I am not having as much impact as I could say working on issues back in the US. But I realize that this way of life makes me happy and it suits me well. So I will continue. Sure you do not make much money, but who needs money anyway?

It is sometimes hard to leave a place that you have come to know as home, even if only for a month or two. A place that tugs on your heartstrings a bit and fills you with delight. A place such as our little corner of Thailand where we had the opportunity to learn a little bit about what life in Burma is like. A place that offered us some peace and calm and offered a chance for serious contemplation and reflection after months of constant traveling. But perhaps we have gotten too used to our nomadic lifestyle for we are both itching to move onto our next adventure.

Or perhaps it is because of our anticipation of new adventures ahead. A chance to continue our journey and learn more but this time inside Burma. The people that we met along the border helped us gain a little glimpse of what life is like but we thirst to know more. So after a bit of contemplation on whether or not to take the plunge and visit, we decided to go ahead. Some may condemn us for this decision as we are 'supporting' the regime by giving a few of our dollars to them but this is a trip for us about learning a bit more about this land. We will try our best to keep our money out of the hands of the government and do our best to take the time to meet the people of Burma. We will tell others about our experiences and what we see and discover in this forgotten place. Our bags are packed and we are ready to go.

Unfortunately we will be unable to post our experiences in Burma on this blog for fear that things may be linked between our time along the border and our time in Burma. We would not want anyone we meet in Burma to be put at risk. We have tried to be as vague as possible with people, places, etc... along the border in case that any of our students should choose to want to go back to Burma at some point. We are perhaps taking extraordinary precautions and the chances of any link being made are small with the chance that anyone from the regime reading our blog also being small but being safer is for the best in this case we think.

So look for future installments on a different blog which will be revealed to friends and family through email. Sorry about this inconvenience. We will still be traveling a bit in Thailand before heading to Burma so look for future posts on this blog. Also we will resume blogging on this site when we enter Cambodia for another volunteer stint in August. So stay tuned and good night.

Life in the Burmese Boondocks

The other day I gave my students the following assignment: write a paragraph about what you like about Burma. I figured that so often people focus on what is wrong with Burma, that they lose sight of what is good. I could tell they were a bit confused at first, so I mentioned "Everyone says they always want to go back to Burma. Why do they say this?" Most of the responses to the assignment may as well have been taken from a tourism brochure. This was not exactly what I had in mind, but what could I do.

One student's story, however, I would like to share with you. She totally dismissed the assigned topic and instead decided to write about how the State Peace and Restoration Council (SPDC) has affected the little farming community where she grew up. I have only fixed some grammar, otherwise every word is her own.

My Village
My village is a pleasant place, which is surrounded by mountains. In our village, people live simple lives and most people are farmers. People don't have extra crops to sell, they only have enough food for their families. When the SPDC started the railway project in Southern Shan State it made the local people have a difficult life. They confiscated people's farms without offering the farmers compensation. Civilians' livelihoods were stolen and it created more unemployment and made it more difficult to survive. Many people couldn't get enough food and the village had more problems. There were more thieves robbing food for survival because most people depended on their farms. Local people not only lost their lands (farms) and they were forced to build the railway without food or salary. Sometimes they had to provide food for soldiers who supervised the work. If people didn't go to work for one day, they have to pay money for two days work, so people weren't absent. In addition, people had no way of earning an income. Therefore, people have insufficient access to food and famine was a part of people's daily existence.

No Room for Change

I figure I better get these thoughts out now before I enter Burma...so sorry in advance for the cynicism.

I am currently reading an excellent book on the Burmese situation entitled Living Silence it's by Christina Fink, if anyone should want to pick up a copy.

In the book, she discusses why after everything that has happened in Burma, there is no change. Basically, she says it's because the regime has done such a good job at intimidating people that they feel like it's better to go along with it rather than fight it. For instance, if someone is to stand up against the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) they are not the only ones to get in trouble. The SPDC will go after their family, friends and even acquaintances regardless of their political activism. They have their fingers in almost every aspect of the economy so if one is looking for a nice secure job, they are practically forced into agreeing with all of the SPDC's agenda. Needless to say, parents who long to see their children financially successful (or at least secure) encourage them to align with the regime.

With the development of the United Solidarity and Development Agency (USDA) a supposedly social (not political) arm of the SPDC, many people have been forced to become a member in order to retain their jobs. Even students have been enticed to join by their teachers who threaten to lower their grades or even have them expelled for failure to join the USDA.

The education of Burmese history is horrendous in the school system, where rebellions and ideals of former leaders are left out of the curriculum (reminds me of Tienanmen Square and how China denied it). At home, the children are not taught the truth either for fear or simply because their parents think it's futile to talk about the past when nothing will change.

A case in point of all of this is one of my students. She has told me a few times that she never understood the oppression of the Burmese people until she came to Thailand. She was not too fond of the SPDC in Burma, because they were to blame for the high inflation and low standard of living, but she was completely unaware as to what kind of atrocities the government enacts in order to keep their position in power.

Another way at which the SPDC excels is in fracturing their competitors. Instead of having the opposition fight them, they have turned different opposition groups upon each other and in some cases they have caused groups to splinter and fight. Most of the minority groups have always considered the Burmans (the ethnic Burmese) untrustworthy, but now there is a lack of trust and unity among the different ethnic groups.

To emphasize this, let me tell you about a talk I had with my students. They are all a part of the same ethnic group. Most of this group comes from Shan State, which is largely comprised of the Shan ethnic group. My students assignment was to create a political party and so we were discussing their choices. At first both groups insisted that their party be only for their ethnic group. They claimed that if they let in another ethnic group (such as the Shan) then their group would not receive the same rights. They continued by adding that currently in Shan State their ethnic group is treated worse than the Shan and so they need a voice in order to gain equality.

Now, from my perspective it seems like the inequality between Shan and Pa-O could not even compare with the inequality between the Pa-O or Shan and Burmans. And that the Shan and Pa-O have much more in common, while trying to gain equality with the Burmans than they have differences. I asked how could their party possibly get anything done when they only have a few people voting for their cause. To an outsider, it makes more sense for the minorities to band together until their fight against the SPDC is over than to turn toward inter-ethnic issues. But, to them, they must first fight to keep their ethnicity intact, which can involve fighting other ethnic groups.

Almost all ethnic groups, I have been informed, are fighting for self-determination. That is, they all want to separately have control over their own government. While this is not a bad thing, it also increases the tensions between ethnic groups that intermingle because each group wants to run things their own way.

Sadly, the more I read and the more I learn about the situation in Burma, the more I think that there is no hope in store for the country. The culture of submission is exploited by the regime. The citizens are taught that only the regime can help them and that military men are heroes. Also, many people are too concerned with how to make a living and thus have little time or care to devote to making change. From all of my research and talks with Burmese, I haven't found any solutions to the current situation and this is very upsetting.

Another Run for the Border

Well the month just slipped on by us. Last weekend it was time for another run across the border to renew our non-visa entry permit. This time we had some business to take care of in Mae Sot, so we decided to head across to Myawaddy, Burma instead of Tacheleik like we did last time.

On our way down, we thought we try our hand at birdwatching along the famous Salween River. The Salween is currently (but not for long thanks to Japan, Thailand and the SPDC) the longest undamned river in SE Asia. It forms the border between Thailand and Burma for about 100 kilometers (or miles, I can't remember). While Laura was at the hospital, she had a discussion with a doctor and fellow birder about where the best birding spots around were and she recommended the Salween. Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs the entire trip down and we had to postpone our outing.

After quite a long and wet trip we finally made it done to Mae Sot and crossed the border to go through the necessary passport stamping. The minute we ran walked across the "friendship bridge" we knew we were in different territory. As opposed to the last Burmese town we visited, this one is far less touristy. Apparently tourists feel it is too far off the beaten path to be worth a look. This meant that there was staring and gawking and not a single peddler hassling us. It was wonderful.

We wandered around the main street until we came to the local market. At first I feared that the town was a bit quiet as at first glance the market looked quite barren. But, as soon as we weaseled into the narrow halls of the market, the hustle and bustle began to reveal itself. We decided to have ourselves a little Burmese breakfast of noodles and fried tofu. The tofu was delicious, the vendor cut it open and then stuffed it with a single fresh chili, fried garlic chips and topped it with numerous unidentifiable sauces.

We wandered around the backstreets some more. One of the first things we realized was that the roads were horrible. It did not help that it had been raining for the past few days, but apart from the main road, the other roads were absolutely awful. There was yellow mud and rocks jetting out everywhere.

It's amazing how different a place can be just because of a border. I would have thought that Myawaddy would have been similar to Mae Sot. Mae Sot, after all, consists of more than 60% Burmese migrants. Essentially it is a Burmese town. When you walk in the market you see men and women wearing longgyis and their face painted with the traditional natural powder tanaka (made from sandalwood I just read). But I felt that Myawaddy had an entirely different feel. For one thing, it is a much more laid back town.

One of the things that caught our eye were the small stalls of betel nut vendors. They were everywhere! It was fun to watch them whitewash a small leaf with lime and then add betel nut and other ingredients before packaging it all up for the customer. We couldn't resist trying one of these creations. It looked pretty good with fennel seeds, tamarind and honey in the mix. We had a jolly time trying out the little Burmese that we know on the vendor and the few passersby who were awed by the foreigners buying betel nut. We realized our Burmese is horrendous, but it was a lot of fun to try.

Before heading back to Thailand we stopped in a teashop. Burma is famous for their teashops. The plain tea is free, but you must buy another drink or munch on some snacks. We had tea with canned milk, a creation very similar to the tea tarik of Malaysia that we enjoyed so much. We took our time sipping the tea and nibbling on the snacks that were splayed across the table. We were treated with some Burmese music videos filled with cheesy scenes of star crossed lovers.

It was a great experience and piqued my excitement about heading to Burma. I am very eager to learn more about the country and it's people and I'm sure we'll have a wonderful adventure.

Feisty Fighter

At the naming party, we met a feisty Karenni woman. She is from the Padaung (aka Kayan) tribe and she moved from Burma to a refugee camp with her family when she was seven. Her tribe is famous for their custom by which certain women decorate their bodies with brass rings and the ring around their neck pushes down their collar bone to give the illusion that their necks are elongated.

Her mother still wears the rings and lives in the tourist village just outside of the refugee camp. Her mother, she informed us, wears the rings our of respect for the tradition and not just because she is paid by the Thai authorities to do so.

This woman wore the rings when she was a child, but told her mother she would no longer wear the rings after arriving in Thailand because she wanted to go to school.

She attended a top secret training that lead her abroad to the UK for three months. Now she works for an international organization that assists refugees. She stated that she liked her work, but she and the other Burmese are not treated as equals to the rest of the staff. This seems ridiculous since without the Burmese workers, the organization would be useless. Sadly, she explained, that much of the discrepancies are because her and the other Burmese do not have the education credentials needed for higher positions. They have a lot of experience, but without a Thai ID card it is difficult to attend college in Thailand and without any documentation it is nearly impossible to travel abroad to get an education. Ironically, her situation is caused by the fact that she fled her homeland and it is precisely people like her that the organization she works for is assisting, yet they won't let her move up in the ranks.

In a statement not too uncommon in these parts, she announced that she does not want any children because there are so many things (such as go to college) that she wants to do. She does have one child, however, but she comically commented that it was her husband who "forced" her to have the child and as a consequence he spends more time raising the child that she does.

I hope to meet her and her husband again before we leave. She is an incredibly strong women who's not afraid to state her opinion and that's not a quality you find often in an Asian woman.

Naming the Baby

May 4, 2007

Last week we had a party to celebrate the one month birthday of the newest edition to the organization. This is the day the baby receives his name and it also marks the beginning of the end of the after birth taboos.



We forwent class in lieu of a day of cooking. We were making the traditional Burmese dish mohinga. mohinga is typically a breakfast dish. It is usually made with banana pith, fish and a lot of other things I'm not savvy of, although I can pretty much bet on MSG being a main ingredient. The soup is eaten with fresh coriander and green beans, which the diner adds to their bowl at their leisure.

To prepare we shelled copious amounts of onions and garlic and we sliced and diced buckets of coriander, banana pith and green beans. A batter of rice flour and yellow lentils was fired to a crisp as the ultimate topping for the soup.

During the actual party it rained. Thus, not many guests showed up to greet the baby boy. However, from what I gathered, the typical gathering consists mostly of the comings and goings of guests - most just stay until their bellies are warmed and full. Before they go they tie a string around the baby's hand for safety and good luck. Presents and money are also welcome contributions. The mother is still in semi-seclusion so she stays with the baby inside the hut and the people come to pay their respects to her while the party continues outside with the father acting as host.

Traditionally, the baby is not named by the parents. The naming is generally performed by a monk who takes into account the day (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc) the child was born to determine the appropriate name. The right name is said to help the child through life.

This baby boy has at least two names: the Thai name he was given at birth (by someone at the hospital). In this case, he was named after a movie star. He will also have at least one ethnic name (his parents are both from different ethnic groups) and perhaps a Burmese name as well. The Thai name he will use in school and another will be reserved for the household.

Run for the Border

Our Thai tourist visa was almost up. We had to make a run for the border to get a new 30 day non-visa tourist permit. Even though we are extremely close to Burma, there are no official crossings near our town, so we had to make the long trek up to the highest point in Thailand, where we crossed over into Burma.

The trek took a full day of travel and involved an inordinate amount of transfers. But, it went through some pretty country and it gave a chance to once again be one of the infinite number of tourists who visit the Land of Smiles.

Casey had this brilliant plan to combine business (the visa run) with pleasure (bird watching) and designed a magnificent fun-filled 4 day excursion. Since coming to Thailand Casey's bird nerdom has reached new levels due to the fact that there are so many amazing looking birds here and they are fairly easy to find. Birds are basically everywhere we go and this pleases Casey very much. Compared to the Philippines which also has a great number of bird species but a relative dearth in density, Thailand is a birding wonderland. In the Philippines it seems that most of their habitat has been destroyed or the birds are dinner (even those little tiny sparrows) which luckily is not the same in Thailand. Casey has even managed to drag Laura along in his bird excitement and she now too has her own binoculars which makes the birding a bit more enjoyable (sharing while perhaps a good idea does not work well in practice when it comes to birding as someone always inevitably misses a bird and is miffed as a result). Casey had been anticipating and planning this particular trip for the past two months and was incredibly excited to be on the way. Bird Nerds Away!!!

Our plan was to stop at Doi Chang Dao, a mountain between here and the border crossing, where the birding is known to be superb. This detour was to last 1.5 days. We had planned to hire a motorbike for the ascent up the mountain but the night before leaving Laura has some misgivings about 2 hefty Americans riding a dinky motorbike up a steep slope with their packs. Even though Laura kept saying she was going learn how to ride a manual motorbike, the skill never materialized, thus we were unable to rent two bikes. We weren't completely convinced that this would be an issue, until we tried to rent a motorbike and the owner suggested we find another means of transportation up the perilous mountainside. This sent Laura into a frenzy as visions of people flying over cliffs filled her head. She decided (again) that a motor was a terrible idea and made it quite clear that the plans should be altered. Unfortunately, Laura was not adamant about her views until we were AT our desired location. If she had made her views more clear before, we could have easily changed our plans. But it was already close to 7pm and we were in a small town and didn't know what to do.

Thank goodness the last northbound bus drove by and we were able to catch this to carry us 2 hours further north. We thus decided to head to the border and swing back around to the mountain before heading home. This would mean going about 2 hours out of the way later and would cost us considerably more money since we were to rent a car instead of a motorbike, but it seemed like the best option to make both of us happy.

The next morning we awoke before the crack of dawn to catch the mysterious 5:30 or 6 am bus to the border town. Trusty ole Lonely Planet once again turned its back on us. This wasn't too big of a deal, it just meant that instead of a nice long ride in one bus, we had many short trips on various different modes of transportation to take us to our destination.


The Border and Burma
Once at the border, we were thrilled with how easy everything went. We were a tad bit nervous because of the new Thai immigration laws that no one can seem to keep straight, but everything was a smooth as silk. We were a bit annoyed at the Burmese government for charging foreigners $10 for a day permit. Actually, they said it was ten dollars, but they asked for 500 Baht and it wasn't until we were inside the country did we realize they had jiped us for about $4.50 each. Needless to say, we were not happy about supplying the military junta with any more money that was absolutely necessary to get the job done.

The town on the other side, Tachilek, looked, not surprisingly, much like the Thai town across the river. The main difference being the type of lettering used on the signs - one was Burmese,the other Thai. But, we heard Thai and English spoken way more than Burmese and the border market seemed to be full of Thai paraphernalia. I imagined the vendors smuggling Thai-dubbed English VCD's over from Thailand in order to sell them back to Thai tourists. There were also an inordinate number of walking vendors selling a variety of products (mind you, not too wide though). The hot ticket items were 'Marlboro' cigarettes which were definitely not Marlboros, little electric hand held fans, gag playing cards with pictures of Saddam Hussein or half naked girls on them and viagra. Yes, viagra.


The market had one other notable mention. One of the first stalls we came across was a woman eagerly selling endangered animal parts. Monkey skulls, patches of tiger fur, bear's gall bladders, antelope and rhinoceros horns were all what she had on display. Now, I have a hard time believing that the more exotic items were authentic. Why would she be selling a pair of tiger teeth for only 200 Baht? This seemed a too good to be true. We gawked long and hard before running in the other direction.

After about 2 hours in Burma we decided we had had enough and jetted back across the border and towards the Mekong River. Near a small town along the river is Chiang Saen Lake. We had come to do some birding and to admire the scenery. We were excited because we have not had much opportunity in seeing waterbirds, so this was the time to get some "lifers" and to practice birding over water.


Lakeside Birding
While in Chiang Saen, we stayed at this nice little Western-style guesthouse. By western-style I do not be like people from Western countries. I mean in the style of the old wild west and Rawhide (for those Phoenicians). This seems to be a fairly common theme in Thailand, though we can't figure out why. The woman who runs the place is very informative and nice. We rented a motorbike from her and puttered along to the lake, stopping along the way for bird sightings.

The lake was gorgeous. There was a nice boardwalk above lilies and other wetland vegetation which harbored all sorts of wildlife. We birded until just before dark. All the while we kept hearing this loud unusual sound, which we expected to be a great water bird, but in fact belonged to the resident peacocks. Why there were exotic resident peacocks at a protected wetland, we'll never know. But they did make for a nice photo-op.



The next morning we got up bright and early to do some more birding around the lake. We did a little touring around the pleasant little town of Chiang Saen. Hundreds of years ago this was the center of an important kingdom and as a result the town and the surrounding area are littered with ruins. It reminded us much of Ayutthaya or the many other towns in Thailand where ruins (some just piles of rocks and others extremely impressive) are so commonplace. This town also had the further appeal of being situated on the Mekong River. I do not know why but I have always heard a lot about the Mekong (although I am not really sure in what context). Well part of the reason to come to Chiang Saen was to see this mighty river for ourselves. Upon arriving it looked like a big brown river and we said, "Well, there it is. It's the Mekong." I do not know what I was really expecting but next time I get a chance maybe I will take a ride on the river. But we did not have time on this trip. We could have stayed longer as this town certainly pleased us but we had already racked up about 40 species of birds already and we still had another destination on our minds.


Yet Another Transportation Misadventure

So we reluctantly packed our things and moved on. At noon we left for Chiang Rai and then planned to head to Chiang Mai where we would rent a car for the trek up Doi Chiang Dao. Unfortunately upon arrival at Chiang Rai we discovered that all of the buses to Chiang Mai for the next 3 hours were fully booked. We did not expect this. It is times like these when one begins to appreciate the overcrowded buses that never pass by a potential customer just because they ran out of seats. Everything has a good side. Laura tried asking if we could sit in the aisle, but her pleading was to no avail. So we whiled away the three hours doing absolutely nothing but worrying that we would not make it to Chiang Mai before all car rental agencies closed and then our plans really would be screwed.

Lucky for us, we did make it in time to rent a car. Not from the place we had expected to mind you. They were too expensive, so we went running down the street in search of a company that had yet to padlock their doors. We did find a shop that had closed almost 1.5 hours previously, but had left their door open a crack, which gave me the opportunity to barge in a request a vehicle. The clerk was kind enough to call the owner, who came to the store to supply us with the proper vehicle.

What should we do now? We wondered. It was getting late, but we wanted to be at the mountain in time for the prime birding hours of the early morning. We tried phoning a guesthouse at the base of the mountain, but the owner didn't seem to thrilled with staying up until midnight just for us, so we scrapped that plan. We tried to find a cheap guesthouse in Chiang Mai, but the neighborhood we were looking in shuts down early and so we were left wandering deserted side streets.

Finally we decided to head for the mountain and sleep in the car. We thought for sure that we would be able to find a nice hide-away to spend the remainder of the night. We did find a nice place, until Laura decided she REALLY had to go to the bathroom and proceeded to wander about looking for a place to relieve herself. This did NOT make the resident dogs happy and they began howling like banshees. This did NOT make Casey happy who thought that some angry Thai would come running after us because his dog woke him up. After some debate, we decided to hit the road once more in search of another quiet place to park. At the end of the road, on the grounds of the monastery where we were planning to bird in the morning we found just the right spot. It was quiet and there were no barking dogs to ruin the night calm. We tried to sleep until daybreak, when we got up to begin a day of bird searching.


Mountain View Birding
The day was great. We wandered around the temple and monastery for the morning looking at birds and watching the monks go to and from collecting alms. The monastery is set on the slopes of Doi Chiang Dao, nestled in between some gorgeous scenery. It was quite a hike to get up to the temple, but it was well worth the view. We ate lunch at a spot recommended to us by other birders. The woman spoke beautiful English and we chatted with her for a bit.

After lunch we putzed around looking at her bird books and watching her staff come back from the road with loads of small leafy branches. Apparently, it's cocoon season and this means delicious treat! We watched as her staff carefully picked green cocoons from the leaves, which they will sell in the market for a high price. We were even privileged enough to try a few of the critters that were fried to a crisp. They must be an awfully good source of protein, but frankly I don't understand what all the fuss is about.

In the afternoon we began the ascent up the mountain. It took us awhile to find the turn off, then we realized that the car engine was awfully hot when it shouldn't have been so we turned around in search of anti-freeze. But silly us, we forgot where we were and when we asked the shop they went to the back and brought out a bucket of dirty water and filled up the radiator. Worked well enough for us! So we proceeded up hill.

We had read up a lot about Doi Chiang Dao, so you can imagine our surprise when in the middle of a road we thought was straight there was a fork. No maps we ever read even hinted at a split in the road and we were highly confused. Not understanding Thai, we crossed our fingers and picked the road that had a large sign of a mountain.

About 20km into the journey, Casey begins to get a little worried. As we looked behind us to our right the peak of the mountain came into view. Why would we be heading AWAY from the mountain we were supposedly climbing? We wondered nervously. Just before we were about to cash it all in and return from whence we came the glorious checkpoint appeared before us like a shiny beacon. Aaaahhhh!!!! Apparently, one needs to climb up and away from the mountain before one can actually climb the mountain.

We wandered a bit further then stopped for a little birding action before spending the night at a substation at the foot of the summit trail. The people in charge of the camping area were nice and even offered us a room (which we declined). We spent the night in the car (surprisingly comfortable!).

We got up early to search for the elusive magnificent Mrs. Hume's Pheasant that habituates the area. We weren't lucky, or skilled enough (or both?) to find it, but we did discover a number of other wonderful bird eye candy. We moseyed along to the summit trail, which was a real treat. Up this high, the mountain is covered in pine trees and the air remains cool all day. Even in the heat of the noon day sun there was a gentle, cool breeze. This was probably one of the nicest places that we have been in the whole of Thailand. The cool, clean air and the unparalleled views and scenery plus the birds just made for a magical experience. The hike to the summit reportedly takes 5-7 hours and it looked like it got a bit hairy near the top, so we decided against trekking all the way up. The part of the trail we did hike was on a ridge and therefore we were not forced to huff and puff on a steep incline like I supposed.

In the afternoon we slowly made our way down the hill and back to Chiang Mai where we caught the night bus to Mae Hong Son.

Though we racked up the miles on this trip and it was a condensed version of what we would have liked to do, it was well worth it and a nice break from teaching. We also surpassed both of our expectations and successfully 100 birds during our four day trip. Laura's unparalleled spotting skills and Casey's astute identification abilities combined make for a great birding team. You know what this means. We are moving up to the upper levels of bird nerdom. This trip also gave us a chance to have a little quality time together outside of our houses and to get outdoors, something we always prefer.

Motivated People

After working in the Philippines and at times getting frustrated because it seemed like few people had much motivation, let alone motivation to help other people, coming to the border has been a very refreshing experience. I will illustrate with two examples:

One of my students and one of Casey's students are both members of the Burmese Migrant Labor Union. Two years ago they, under initiative from their organization, decided to create a weekend English school for children of migrant laborers. They began by teaching in someone's house until they received funding from an international agency to build them a 3 room building. They also searched for funding to receive snacks/lunch for the students. Though there are some flaws with the program (unavoidable considering they don't have much of a background in education or much knowledge of English which is the main thing they teach to the children), the sincerity by which our students teach their students is heart warming.

Today, Casey and I met another man, who has developed an after school English program for students from 3 remote villages. It too, began from his house and he asked for the students to pay a small fee for electricity but did not like this because most families in the area cannot afford even a small fee. Eventually, he received funding from an international organization to build a school on his property. They also sponsor materials for the children and occassionally send English speaking volunteers.

In both of these cases, the educators are doing this because they realize that their children deserve a better future with a better education. While they currently make some money from the projects, they began teaching for altruistic reasons. Unlike much international development I have witnessed, where international NGO's try to force potential projects on their target communities, these projects TRULY did come from WITHIN. Only after these projects were started, did they receive resources from the outside. This IS how development should happen everytime.

Border Politics

A few weeks ago, a woman came to our house to live. She is not Burmese and is not from the area and she never met the women of my organization until the day she arrived. She came for one purpose and one purpose only: to learn English from me.

"Why is there?" you may be asking. We've been asking ourselves that very question. Here is the story, as I understand it.

Casey's organization in on very good terms with the Thai headman of the village. This is a VERY good thing, since it enables them to live and work here illegally, with the fewest amount of troubles. He visits their house often and drinks with the head of the NGO. So, of course he heard about the free English lessons that were going on in our respective organizations.

Could he just let it be? Of course not! What are the perks of being the headman if it's not to take advantange of other people's situations!! This started by sending a few villagers to Casey's classroom.

Then, one day, this woman showed up at our doorstep. If you ask the headman who she is, he will tell you she's his neice. But, if she was, in fact, his neice, why is she staying here instead of his house, which is only a few minutes down the road? If she was his neice, why isn't he taking classes with Casey's organization, which has better relations with him than my organization does? These are all questions that were asked during her first few days here.

To answer these questions, the women at my organization decided that she must be the Headman's mistress. Actually, they have informed me numerous times that he as many "wives." The other day, his wife #1 found out and began asking questions such as "what does she have that i don't have."

So, to sum up: So these organizations can continue to function as smoothly as possible, they made a deal with the Headman to allow his mistress to stay here for free and learn English from me. Don't I feel special!

On top of that, the Headman also suggested that Casey should teach the students from the village during their summer vacation. After all, he is doing the for free, so why should they pay someone in town. So far, this has not panned out yet, but summer's only just begun :)

Still Fighting On

I met a man on a Sunday afternoon while he was drinking and relaxing at the grounds of Laura's organization. He introduced himself and asked for my name and with impeccable English told me a bit about his story. He is the head of a political organization in the area which works for democracy, self-determination and freedom from the oppressive regime in Burma. This man in from Southern Shan State and has to be in his 50’s or 60’s. He has been in Thailand for 12 years which he enjoys and is grateful to the Thai royalty, as he puts it, for allowing him to be here. I think life here for him is just a bit better than it was for him in Burma.

He was a part of the political movements in the 1960’s before General U Ne Win took control of government. When the military took control, he still worked for political freedom but that was not exactly a safe way of working. He was imprisoned six times in Burma, many times for stints of over 2 years. In prison the conditions are some of the worst in the world and prisoners are often tormented and tortured. He finally decided that he could not take it anymore and fled to Thailand. It was probably a good idea since one of his close friends and political allies in now in prison with a 100 year sentence. Even while living in Thailand, he feels that he can still help his people in Burma, and perhaps to a bigger extent, while living a relatively safe life.

Since he has been in Thailand he has been imprisoned six times as well (since he is here illegally) but he says that all the Thai authorities know him now and since he is an old man, he will no longer be imprisoned. That is nice of them. The first time he was picked up by Thai authorities, they almost sent him back to Burma but he begged them not to and told them it would be better for them just to shoot him there rather than go back to Burma.

His organization works at trying to spread democracy in the country as well as unifying the ethnic minorities in Burma. He is also a member of another major political organization which represents many different minority groups and is working with the major opposition group in Burma headed by Aung San Su Kyi and continually trying to figure out best way to achieve ‘final destination’ of freedom, unification and democracy. He states that it is extremely important to unify the Shan State, with its many ethnic groups and if this occurs, the unification of Burma will be easy. He also says that it is not a good idea to rely on the Burmese (i.e. perhaps the major opposition group to the regime that is headed by Su Kyi) to provide salvation for aunified Burma as the Burmese have not shown that they can be trusted. History has shown that the Burmese have been pretty shitty to ethnic minorities.

The strength of his words, character and determination are inspirational. He is here all alone in Mae Hong Song. His wife divorced him due to his political situation and his sons have their own life in Burma. He has committed himself to the cause and even though it has caused him innumerable hardships, he stays on course. This deserves admiration. I know that I could not do this. He is happy to still be living (luckily a bit better he in Thailand) and working for his people and ideals.

He was also a wealth of information although after numerous questions he asked to be left at peace with his drink. It was after all a Sunday afternoon and time for relaxation. So I thanked him for his time and left this strong, old man in a felt hat with his drink.

A Dedicated Man

Names and places have been omitted for security reasons.

In my first week here I met a 44 year old Pa-O man from Southern Shan State who has been in Thailand since 1989 or 1990 after fleeing Burma during the uprising in 1988. He was part of the movement to overthrow government at this time and lived in the jungle in Eastern Burma after the uprising. While on the run, he attended the Jungle University at this time for one year. The Jungle University was run by foreign teachers who taught strictly in English about a variety of topics. During this time, this man met the author of The Land of Green Ghosts Pascal Khoo The (this is a great book from the perspective of a man from the Paduang ethnic group whose women wear neck rings which you may have seen pictures of before). In the jungle, conditions were certainly not ideal with many people dying of malaria and malnourishment, not to mention the conflict with the brutal military.

He has only had contact with his family remaining in Burma two times in past 20 years. The first time was shortly after arriving in Thailand. He crossed the border and it took him half a month to walk to his home. He had to always watch out and travel secretly in fear that the government might catch wind of him. When he got close to home he met his mother and brother near his town, but in an outlying village. His mother told the authorities that she was going to visit family (you must tell government if you go anywhere overnight) but they found out that ex-rebel leader was there and the meeting only lasted 2 hours. He was informed that the government was on the way and he had to flee back to the border. This is the only time that he has seen any of his family in past twenty years. He contacted them one other time by phone a few years ago but has not done so since because he fears for their safety. When I heard this whole story, it nearly made me cry.

He lived in a refugee camp in near the border for about 6 years where life was never easy. Some of these refugee camps are quite large (the biggest is about 100,000 people) and the living conditions are not so nice. Most families do not have enough to eat or other adequate neccessities and currently it is prohibited for them to look for ork outside the camps. At this time he did however get work (hard labor) but got paid extremely low wages. Thai business people and contractors take advantage of the situation by paying Burmese who do not have work permit much lower wages than their Thai counterparts (sounds familiar no?). While in the camp he was involved in community groups and worked as a translator for organizations who came to give trainings. He knows about 6 languages which were learned through his time in the jungle and staying as a guest in many communities. He also worked as a tour guide for one month but still not being paid anywhere near as much as Thai counterparts. Other Thai tourist guides were still mad though as he was a better tour guide than them and could communicate with the hill tribes in the area and explain the Burmese situation better than them. This resulted in many tourists requesting his services which angered the Thais and led them to report his status as a refugee to the Thailand Authority of Tourism. Eventually there was an opening in an international NGO that worked in the camps and he was taken on as a translator and community worker. He moved out of camp in 1996 and one month later it was attacked by Burmese military, killing a few refugees. This link tells about a similar attack.

At the NGO he worked his way up and now holds a decent position (as high as he can go working as a person from Burma without official Thai residency or citizenship). He has relationships with many of the NGOs working in the area and tries as hard as possible to help his people (Pa-O and other people from Burma) to improve their lives here and inside Burma. He has a good head on his shoulders and good ideas about how development work should really work (not forcing it upon people but supporting them to help themselves).

I have only been here one week but already learned so much from him. He is so eager to share information about his life (as hard as it has been) and about the situation in Burma. He is a wealth of knowledge and information and just in general a top notch person. He has a good relationship with the organziation that I work with so I see him quite often I look forward to getting to know him better and learn more from this man who is a mentor not only to people in my organization but now also to me.

A Little About Burma

Our Quaint Life

So we have moved into our new home here in a nice little serene town in Northern Thailand along the Thai-Burma border. It is much more quiet and peaceful here than Mae Sot, the weather is more agreeable and the scenery is much more beautiful. It is not quite as interesting a town as Mae Sot but all in all it is a great placement. Both of our organizations are filled with great people who have really made us feel welcome. The living situation is nicer than expected and we even have internet hookup so no longer need to pay for internet cafes and can get some more updates on world news, music and everything else which is very nice. The food has been absolutely spectacular so far with tons of fresh veggies and spicy chilies. We already both feel quite at home and have settled into teaching at our respective organizations.

It is really gorgeous around here in the small village where we live and last week it was still quite cold (I could see my breath one morning). But summer is on its way and it has really begun to warm up this week. During March and April it can get really hot here which I am not exactly looking forward to it but I am used to it from the Philippines. The weather has been so nice this past month or so here in Thailand so far though it will be a little hard to get used to again. There are also lots of birds in the village and we have gone out a few times birding.

The classes that we are teaching are mostly people in their twenties and they are all very eager to learn which makes for a nice teaching environment. The classes are also small and some of the students really had basically no knowledge of English before. We were not exactly expecting this and did not know how to start at first but quickly figured it out how to teach and are hopefully doing a decent job. We are both enjoying it a lot and Casey much more so than he anticipated. I think the three months will fly by and perhaps we will wish we could stay longer (although I am not sure if this is a possibility with our visa situation).

As far as the people, they often have many interesting stories, especially those people in their 40's and 50's. I have met an extremely nice man who is originally from Burma and who works for the an international non-governmental organization that works with refugees and migrants all around the world. They have quite a large office in this town working with refugees and other organizations in the area who work with Burmese people. Most Burmese in this area are from the ethnic minorities that are found mainly in Eastern Burma and there are 135 of them in Burma. This man is from the same ethnic group that most of the people in the organizations that we work at, Pa-O. He came over in 1988 after the uprising and was in a refugee camp for about 6 years before getting a job at the NGO. He is still not a citizen or even a resident in Thailand and cannot leave this small area where he lives. He is an extremely kind man who always has time to share his story and information about the situation in Burma. He is an absolute wealth of information. He could probably give up his job here and actually get citizenship in a third country (some things are restrictive about living here and in some ways people from Burma living in Thailand are controlled by the Thai government as much as they are controlled by the Burmese government in Burma and Burmese are also heavily discriminated against here in Thailand) but he chooses to stay and do the most he can to help his people.

In the past few months preparing for our time here we did a little bit of reading up on Burma. Before this I really did not know much about the country or the situation. Since being here we have learned even more and from every angle the situation is pretty messed up. I know that things are messed up in many places in the world but I am here now so if you are interested in a little history lesson please read on. One thing that we have noticed is people that we have met are extremely ready and eager to talk about Burma, even if it sometimes hard to tell their sad stories, in order to get the message out about the situation there. Please read on and learn a little bit. For more reading check out this excellent series of articles and timeline done by the BBC.

Just a little history of Burma

Burma was independent until the mid 1800's when it was colonized by England extending from India because they felt that the Burmese were 'too uncivilized' to rule themselves. You see the nice British were doing them a favor. Even before this time I think that it was hard for Burma to be held together as a country due to the high number of ethnic groups all with different cultures, languages and ideas. While the Burmans are the majority and are found in the center of the country, the other ethnic groups have often been at odds with them. It has been said by certain ethnic groups that they actually liked the British colonization period because they were treated better than when the Burmans were in control. Before WW II, while Japan was on its quest to take over the world, they trained a group of 30 Burmese young soldiers to lead the revolution against England. While this worked in some ways, the Burmese soon realized the true aims of Japan and joined the allies to stop Japan domination in Asia. After the war, Burma was finally given its independence and all of the minorities were placed under the control of one central government even though they were not very happy about this.

In the 1950's I believe, the leader of the group that was trained in Japan and a leader in its fight for independence and democracy was in a position to become the new prime minister. This leader was the father of Aung San Su Kyi (the female nobel peace prize winner who is still under house arrest in Burma and who is the leader of the National League for Democracy, which is the main opposition to the military regime). Some people in the military had other ideas about him becoming the leader of a democracy and assasinated him along with his cabinet and seized control of power. Since that time Burma has been under a military dictatorship who does not like to give up any power or allow any form of democracy and rights for its citizens. The human rights violations of the regime make me sick and some are unthinkable.

So that has been 50 years and not a whole lot has changed in that time. Burma was once one of the most prosperous countries in SE Asia and it has now been crippled by the military regime. It was once the world's largest rice exporter and now it has to import rice and many farmers must sell their rice to the government for ridiculously low prices so that they do not have enough rice for themselves. They in turn have to buy rice at ridiculously high prices. The infrastructure of the country is terrible except for those places that the government and military use. The military outposts have 24 hour electricity and have used forced labor to build the dams to provide while most of the country is not provided with electricity. Many of the roads and transportation are poor but the military officials drive around in expensive cars with fancy gadgets from the West. The country is extremely rich in natural resources and therefore it should be able to provide better for its people but instead they have sold them off to China, Thailand and India raping the environment and causing associated problems for the people and using the money only for military purposes to further persecute the people. During the 1980's the government demonitized the currency not once but twice so that any savings that people held was basically useless. There are extremely high rates of inflation and goods are extremely expensive compared to what people earn. The black market system which is looked after by the government ensures that only a few people get rich while most of the common people remain very poor and without essential needs (clothing, food, shelter, etc...)

There have been two attempted uprisings by the people, both time led by students in Rangoon, the largest city and previous capital. These peaceful demonstrations have been crushed by the military with extreme brutality and force. Many times the military fired into crowds of unarmed students and even monks (this in a Buddhist country) and there are estimates of thousands of people being killed. In 1988 this uprising stirred lots of things up in the country and many students were eventually forced to leave because they were hunted by the military. Many fled to the jungle in Eastern border along Thailand and took up arms to fight the military regime here. These students joined local ethnic groups who already were in armed conflict with the Burmese along the border. The Burmese had continued their persecution of these ethnic groups, many of which want their own autonomy and state. As a result many of these ethnic groups have armies of their own to fight the Burmese military which treats them as no one should be treated, especially those which are supposed to be a part of the same country (more on that later).The uprising also stirred up many things in other areas of the country as there was a push to overthrow the regime not only in Rangoon but also in other places. Many of the students and other political leaders were forced to flee to the jungle and many died here through malnutrition, malaria or fighting. I have already met a few people who were a part of this and who eventually came to Thailand as a result of this situation.

Life for anyone in Burma who is not associated with the regime maybe is not the best but the ethnic minorities have gotten the worst end of the deal perhaps. It seems that the military wants to hold control of the land that they occupy but they do not want the people there. So as part of an ethnic cleansing they continually raid villages (raping, burning and pillaging) in the process. The people are often displaced and live the rest of their days in the jungle or at least until they can find another place to settle only to fear a similar situation in the future. The government instigates conflicts between different armed ethnic groups so that they do not have to do the work themselves. People are often captured while they are away from their village and then used as 'voluntary' porters for the army who have to be the frontlines while fighting (basically just to be a human shield) or are used as landmine locaters. The war crimes of these people are absolutely deplorable and it just makes me mad. It gives war is hell another meaning and this has been going on for 50 years and continues today. Just recently the military has been relocating Karen villages (raiding them and forcing them to move) in order to pave way for a dam of the Salawin River, one of SE Asia's longest so that it can provide electricity not for people in Burma but instead for Thais. This will wreck the environment of the area and only give more money to the regime to continue its abuses. I hold Thailand accountable for this shitty proposal as well.

There is perhaps some hope for Burma but sometimes I just see the situation as bleak. There is Aung Sun Su Kyi, the leader of the NLD and the work that she and many others have been doing to work for democracy. She lived in England and has a British husband and children in England. In the 80's around the time of the uprising, she returned to Burma to help her dying mother. At this point, she felt that she could no longer sit idle and made a speech which really unified the country against the regime. Her party gained in recognition and many people began to publicly show support, even though this support means the risk of one's life. After the uprising in 88 the head general of the government resigned and it was decided that there should be elections since it seemed like the people were a 'bit unhappy' with the government. This was a time when many people thought things were changing and there was excitement in the air. The NLD and many other parties campaigned and many people showed support for the possibility of democracy. The military regime and their party (SLORC) did not think much of it and thought that they would still win the election. They were a bit wrong and NLD won around 90% of the votes I believe. So it was pretty obvious people wanted a change but the military then said the election was just a test and not really valid. So instead they just changed a few things in the current government system and continued on screwing the country and its people over except now they got even stricter. Since that time Aung Sun Su Kyi has been under house arrest 4 times for numerous years even though if she wanted she could go back to England. This is quite inspirational as she could give up after twenty years and go home (she cannot leave her house and her family is seldom even allowed to visit) but she chooses to stay and fight on. He husband recently died of cancer and she was unable to attend to him and he was unable to visit.

Many people who have been involved in politics have been imprisoned on false charges and many remain in prison today. The prisons in Burma are reported as some of the worst in the world with tons of torment and torture. Many people have died in these prisons as a result of brutality, starvation and diseases (they force them to share needles for injections so HIV / AIDS runs rampant). I have met a number of people who have been in the prisons and it does not sound like a whole lot of fun. The prisoners are also used for forced labor and work 12 hours a day or more to build projects for the government.

There are spies everywhere in Burma and people are afraid to talk about things for the most part because who knows if your friend down at the store is actually a spy. People are not allowed to leave their homes for the evening unless they tell the government where they are going and why. Many people can just not take it anymore and run across the border to either live illegally in Thailand and always worry about being sent back or live in refugee camps where life is sometimes not that much better or even worse than in Burma.

There are still many people who fight on though for democracy and freedom from this deplorable situation. This is what is inspirational. Some are here on the border working to help their people inside the country. Others face greater risks in the country and continue to try to buck the system. Unfortunately I don't know how long it is going to take and I'm not sure if it going to happen.

I am happy to be here though to learn about this and do a little part (very little indeed). For me it is more of a learning experience though and these people here are doing the best they can to help themselves and their fellow people.

So sorry about this long, depressing blog. But I want to share the situation as I think it is important to know. I did not know anything about it until a few months ago. I know there are many similar situations around the world with people trapped and persecuted by their government but by being here I have learned a lot more about this one.

Burma Inside Thailand

February 10 - 20

Vacation is Over...Sort of

After our time in Doi Inthanon and a one night layover in Chiang Mai, we headed back to Bangkok to see Laura's mother off for the States. It had been an enjoyable trip for her even though Thailand was not exactly what she had expected. It had been nice for Laura as well to catch up and we had all enjoyed our month together traveling in Siam. While in Bangkok we visited the National Museum which turned out to have a very well laid out display on Thai history and also many other not so nicely laid out galleries of Thai artifacts. The volume of amazing things in this museum is outstanding however they are not very well labeled or cared for. Unfortunately it seems that much of it has fallen victim to a lack of funding and care and will soon fall further victim to the tropical climate.

We only spent one night in Bangkok and then headed off to the town of Mae Sot (a town in Western Thailand), the location of an organization, where we would hope to work for the next three months. We had been planning on volunteering in Thailand for three months from the beginning of our trip. However as we began looking further into the visa situation of Thailand and recent reports from other foreigners staying in the country, we were starting to wonder if this was going to be possible. In the past Thailand has been fairly lax about letting foreigners stay in the country as long as they want, just crossing the border every time their visa runs out and returning to the country just a few hours later. But after the recent coup in late 2006 and also the nabbing of the accused killer of Jean Bonnet Ramsey in Thailand, their policy has begun to change. Some say that it is to get rid of the sex tourists and others say it is to get rid of the long term visitors that spend very little money in the country (i.e. backpacker like us). While it has changed it is hard to really get a straight answer as to how it has changed and the how it has changed seems to further change depending on who you ask and when you ask them. But from what we ascertained it seemed that they are now only allowing foreigners to stay in the country for a period of 90 days for every six months. So since we had already been in Thailand for nearly a month and the minimum requirement for the volunteer position that we wanted to get was three months, we found ourselves in a bit of a pickle.

We still however wanted to go to Mae Sot, check out the volunteer position and see what other people's experiences were so that if we could not do it at this time maybe we could do it later. In the meantime, we began to search the internet for any other possible volunteer positions in the area that might want two ex-Peace Corps volunteers. There are actually quite a few volunteer opportunities but many of them are short term and require you to pay an exhorbant amount of money (in the thousands of dollars) in order for you to work for them. I assume this money does go to a good cause but still for anyone, like us, who does not have a large bank account, these programs are quite prohibitive. We did however find one in Cambodia that sounded interesting and required us only providing for our own lodging and food which was agreeable. So we contacted them and have been shooting e-mails back and forth since.

Luckily the volunteer position did work out in Mae Sot and we just hope that we do not run into any problems when we try to get a new visa after our three month stay here. From what we hear now, since we applied and paid for a visa we should be exempt from the 90 day rule which only applies to those who get the free 30 day visa and subsequently do a border run two more times. But we are still not positive and will find out soon enough.

After arriving in Mae Sot, we met with the coordinator of the organization that we are volunteering with and we had a three day orientation on their policies and were briefed on the work that we would be doing. We would be teaching English to the members of an organization of people from Burma (well actually two: one for each of us) who carry out projects along the Thai-Burma border. When we first heard about this position and applied we were not exactly sure what it entailed and who we would be teaching but once further reviewing with the coordinator the goals of the volunteer organization and the job of volunteers, we were excited to get started. The idea is to build the capacity of the Burmese organizations so that the members cannot only improve their own lives (English does help for schooling, employment, etc…) but also the lives of the people in the communities that these organizations assist (both inside Burma and in Thailand along the border (i.e. writing proposals and grants to fund projects, getting the message about Burma out to the international community). We were excited about the potential here and even though our experience is limited for teaching English we were ready to accept the challenge.

A Different Breed of Town

While hanging out for orientation and awaiting our eventual assignment to our respective organizations we had some time to take in a bit of Mae Sot. It is a town like no other town in Thailand, or at least any other ones that we have been to. It is only a few kilometers from the Burma border and many Burmese come over for the day to buy and sell goods and many others stay for a lot longer (both legally and illegally). It is estimated in fact that the majority of the population in town is Burmese (at least 60%) but there are also many other people from many places that call this place home or at least a transitory one. There is not only the large Burmese Buddhist population with Burmese style wats which are common near the border but also a decent sized Muslim community with a mosque and many delectable tea shops which serve up somosas and roti and make their mark on Mae Sot. This town as we would soon find out is a hotbed for human, drug and gem trafficking and a base for many of the political groups fighting for freedom from the Burmese government. It is certainly not your typical town and we would only gloss the very surface of this strange but probably my favorite town of Thailand.

One of the first things that we did upon arriving in town is something that we usually do when arriving in a new place: hit up the market. We think that it was market day as the place was packed and traffic was sometimes a standstill. There were folks on motorcycles, bicycles and on foot all trying to push their way through a 6 foot wide alleyway lined on all sides by stalls selling everything imaginable. Of course you had your usual fish, meat, vegetables, fruits and many delicious looking snacks on display for those who passed by. There were even some yummy looking frogs, forest roaches, turtles and eels for sale. There were many dry goods stalls selling your usual rice and cosmetic products selection but also a few book stores and some places selling aromatic spices and lots of beans.

As an outsider I would have maybe not been able to tell from their faces that most of these people were Burmese but they made it quite obvious by the powder cream that they place on their faces (we think for sun protection and healthy skin) and the longyis that were so prevalent (Burmese national dress like a sarong). It was a fun place to be in the morning and after we satisfied our appetite for people-watching we satisfied the hunger of our stomachs with some fried rice in the market. We came back to this market every morning just to walk around and I can honestly say that it is a top five market for me.

During our time in Mae Sot we had a chance to just relax a bit in between the orientation. It was nice just to chill out and our guesthouse had a nice little courtyard to read and just enjoy some peace and quiet. It had been a good number of months now that we had just sat and rested and had not had our schedule jam packed with things to do and places to see. It was a bit of a vacation from our vacation. This was certainly welcome and the low key town of Mae Sot offered a nice respite from our fast paced travel. We caught up on sleep, some of e-mails and blog and also prepared ourselves for the next adventure of teaching.

Off Again

We had originally expected to be staying in Mae Sot for our three months but it turns out that the coordinator of the volunteer program had an assignment in another border town quite a ways north of here that she thought would fit us perfectly. Two organizations whose offices were within a 30 minute walk of each other and who both associated with the same minority group were requesting a volunteer to teach English. The coordinator seemed excited about this placement and she said that it seemed like the groups were also doing interesting development work in nearby communities and that we would possibly be able to visit some of their project sites. This sounded interesting to us and the town where the groups were also sounded nice, peaceful and beautiful. So we packed up our bags again checked out a bunch of teaching resources from the volunteer library and headed on our way a week after we had arrived. While in Mae Sot we had met some of the other volunteers in Mae Sot and even sat in on one of their classes. It sounded like they all liked their work and we were excited about getting started with our own classes.