Mae Sai

We are now in a little town called Mae Sai at the "northernmost point in Thailand" according to a sign near our guesthouse. We came up here because our entry visas for Thailand expire on February 1 so we are going to cross the border into Burma and return to get another 15 day entry visa. Since we have to come this far, we decided to spend a couple of days here and see the sites. We are staying at a cute little place on the river (the maesai guesthouse) overlooking the river separating Thailand from Burma. It’s very nice just hanging out next to the river playing a little Uno and watching a group of naked Burmese boys playing in the water and a Burmese woman wading into the river to dump her trash so it will flow downstream. Later on a group of older Burmese boys swam over to the Thai side and jumped from trees into a deep hole in the river. The next day we rented a scooter and drove down to some nearby caves. The first one (Tham Luang or Great Cave) goes a couple of kilometers into the mountain but we only made it a couple of score meters before the kids got freaked out because of the dark (even with our flashlights) and we had to leave. Being a quick learner, I took the kids to another cave (Tham Pla or Fish Cave). This one was on the grounds of a monastery with scores of monkeys running around and giant koi, carp, and catfish in a big pool fed by water flowing out of a small cave. We climbed about 300 steps to go into a cave set into the mountain. Inside was a temple to a large gold Buddha illuminated by shafts of light coming in from skylights far above and shrouded by the smoke from candles and incense lit by other penitents. The cave roof was dripping stalactites and fantastically sculpted folds of rock; very beautiful.