Burma

We just got back from Burma or Myanmar, as the currently military leaders of hte country prefer. We hired a motorcycle rickshaw tuk-tuk at the border to took us to some Wats and other stops. One of the highlights was a visit to a Karen (one of the "hill tribes") long-neck village. The women adorn their neck with these heavy brass rings, adding more and more over time until their necks appear to be incredibly elongated (I understand that it actually pushes down the clavicles and ribs with little ill-effect on the women). The kids thought it interesting but weren't blown away the way I thought they would be. I may just be cynical, and I didn't share this with the kids, but I couldn't help feeling that the whole experience was like going to a "human zoo." We had to pay an admission to go into the compound; the women performed some dance thing for the tourists; and then they stood around while we took pictures with them. It was kind of like going to see some exotic species at a wild animal park (although I've only seen the tigers do synchronize dance on rare occasions). There is, of course, a flipside. Civil war and economic strife have made it impossible for the women to survive in their homeland and this kind of existence allows them to survive without resorting to low-paying menial labor or something worse. We've encountered a lot of people on our travels that can't be making more than a dollar or two a day. Interestingly, you really don't see hardly any beggars at all in Thailand, however in Burma we encountered quite a few. The monks were even quite aggressive with the alms bowls, VERY different than in Thailand. The vendors in the market were also pretty in your face and a couple were selling what looked like ocelot pelts and horns from some endangered animal. For some reason the guys all wanted to sell me cigarettes and viagra, must be the receding hairline. The street kids we encountered on the bridge back into Thailand literally got into a fight over the 10 baht (30 cents) I was going to give one of them; I'm embarrassed to say I was frankly disgusted. The Burmese border city of Kachiliek is not that different than the Thai border city of Mae Sai in terms of the buildings, the markets, the food, or the physical appearance of the people, but I really picked up on a different kind of vibe. The people smiled and everything but it just didn't seem as laid back and free as Thailand. I was thinking that perhaps I was just hyper-sensitive as a result of my professional training but, interestingly, I was talking to a couple of Australian students in the passport line coming back into Thailand and they volunteered the exact same information. Kind of creepy. Anyway, we had a very interesting visit. Oddly enough, back on the Thai side we came across a statue of a giant scorpion on the grounds of a Wat; odd but not creepy. Ditto for the “yellow surprise” drinking water.