to Burma…

Thirty days have passed. It’s a hard thing to believe, but as thirty days marks one month in Thailand for me, it also marks the end of my tourist visa, so I left the country and spent the day in Burma.

A few friends and I left yesterday. There were actually two of us that needed to make a border run, so why not make a roadtrip of it? A few stops and four hours of driving placed us in Mae Sai where we stayed the night in a motel just outside of town. This morning we slept in (7:30 is sleeping in for me these days), enjoyed a Thai-style breakfast which I can’t remember what it was called – some type of rice soup, and crossed over.

Just across a bridge, and over mucky, brown river, it only takes a few steps to walk into something completely different than Thailand. Burma is poor. Instantly, you are in a market, people need money, children are begging. It smells different, feels dirtier, and you feel even more ungrateful for the life you have. There is much to see and buy – fake Louis Vouton and Coach everywhere… dvds, watches, and more ripped-off name brands. And although I enjoyed the browsing and shopping, I continued to notice the level of poverty. I walked back into Thailand with eight pirated dvds (in a Christian Dior, plastic shopping bag), and a glimse of life that I’ve only read about. It isn’t fair.

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