TACHILEIK, BURMA
Well, Shan food technically. Snakehead curry, crazy-spicy side dishes and a pile of vegetables. All you can eat for about US$2.

TACHILEIK, BURMA
Mae Sai is a pretty average Northern Thai town, but just across the border is an entirely different world. The sidewalks are covered in brick-colored betel nut spit, old toothless women smoke green cheroots and, perhaps most strikingly, everybody looks completely different. Cosmopolitan Thailand is fairly homogeneous (mostly due to the success of Thaification), but the population of Tachileik is a bizarre mix of Shan, Bamar, Lahu, Akha, Muslim groups and Indians from all over the place.

Also, everything is in Burmese. That sounds obvious, but you’ll find some familiar script almost anywhere you go in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam. In Tachileik even the license plates are written in a language you’ve never seen before.

TACHILEIK, BURMA
We’ve visited Tachileik before, but the failed expedition to Mong La necessitated another three hours in the town. It’s much the same, but I did find out something interesting – the endangered animal parts they sell in the market are real. Being about two hundred meters from Thailand I always figured they were fake, but the general consensus is that Burma doesn’t have any problem with openly selling rhino assholes.

God help you if you bring that crap back into Thailand, though.

TACHILEIK, BURMA
The Chinese will counterfeit anything. A lot of this junk filters into neighboring countries through border towns like Tachileik, and people buy it even though they know it’s fake. This is less of a problem with Playstations than, say, medicine.

Thailand, which is intent on something approaching development, wants nothing to do with any of this and searches buses returning from the border. They’re cool with things like Myanmar Rum and fake sunglasses, but god forbid you should be caught with any of this:

TACHILEIK, BURMA
I’m sure Tachileik isn’t at all representative of Burma – it really only exists as a market for Thais to buy cheap merchandise from China. Still, it’s a whole different world from the Land of Smiles and makes for a pretty interesting daytrip (especially since it’s mandatory).

After the Thai authorities check your departure card and stamp your passport, you’re herded across the Ruak River under the watch of dour Burmese soldiers in ill-fitting uniforms. The immigration office extends a warm welcome with peeling paint the color of vomit, a portrait of Than Shwe and clocks reminding you that, for some reason, Burma is half an hour behind Thailand (though I’d argue it’s more like three decades). Your passport is taken and replaced by an entry permit with your name misspelled.

The town of Tachileik is dominated by the area immediately across the river, a dingy marketplace selling counterfeit versions of pretty much everything (future post). The rest is a squat expanse of crumbling buildings and MacGyvered vehicles with absolutely nothing in Roman script (even the license plates have Burmese numbers), punctuated by a few impressive temples and Myanmar Rum advertisements.

It’s impossible to travel on to Burma proper from here, but you can continue further up to the Chinese border. Those entry permits are good for two weeks, so maybe I’ll stay a while on the next visa run.

by the way, if you’re wondering why I keep saying “Burma” instead of “Myanmar” it’s just because I think it sounds cooler. wikipedia uses “Burma” too, but if you look at the talk page apparently they’ve thought about it a lot more than I have.

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND -> TACHILEIK, BURMA
Thailand has tourism down to a science, but it isn’t really sure what to do about all these foreigners who want to live here. Most bring in a lot of money and have helped the country immensely, but some just do a ton of drugs and have sex with prostitutes. How in the world do you separate the two? Nobody’s quite figured it out yet, but the interim solution is hold them to insanely complicated and unpredictable visa regulations. So complicated and unpredictable, in fact, that there are entire websites devoted to keeping up with them.

I’ve been in Thailand over a month (though hopefully not much longer), so I needed to leave the country to get an extension on my visa. Through mechanisms too boring to explain I would have received sixty days if I’d gone to Laos, but it’s a four day trip and my friend norovirus made sure that wasn’t happening. Luckily the Union of Myanmar is only 200km away, and even though that trip’s only worth an extra two weeks it can be done in a single day.

These photos are from the way there. Tomorrow we’ll take a dip into Burma.