Something New
Monday, October 29th, 2007After a third set of ruins yesterday – Si Satchanalai, possibly the best of the three and certainly the best situated, in jungle-like scenery that recalls Raiders of the Lost Ark – we decided it was time for something new, and to that end we made our way to Mai Sot with the idea of taking a multi-day rafting/trekking/elephant riding/waterfalls/hot springs/hill tribe village trip.
Unfortunately it didn’t work out. For all the wonderful experiences and memories that travel has given us, it also brings out the worst sometimes. I’ve fainted while entranced from whirling dervishes in Pakistan; thrown up four times consecutively out of a bus window in India; had hemorrhoids in Morocco; the worst diarrhea imaginable in Benin … and yesterday, something new: a seizure on the side of a Thai highway. I’m not really sure how this turned from what felt like standard motion sickness as we were travelling on a minibus through some mountains to severe cramping in all four limbs with my hands involuntary compressing into a claw-like position, but that’s what happened. It was a bit frightening, but after a while the feeling came back into my hands and feet and I feel OK now.
At any rate, we decided it wouldn’t be very smart to take the 4-hour, 165km journey to Umphang, on a road that yesterday’s driver described as 10 times worse than the one we were just on, especially as we’d have to do it twice since Umphang is a dead-end. That means we’ll miss out on the multi-day trip, but we’ll make up for it by finding some elephant trekking in Laos. Besides, we save loads of money this way as it was going to be very expensive (about US$330 dollars for the two of us, when we are otherwise averaging less than US$20 per day between us in Thailand).
So, we’re spending a quiet day today in Mai Sot. We’re only 6km from the Burmese border, and we’ve already seen a few Burmese on the streets here. You can tell the Burmese because the women have a pasty substance in their faces which is common in Burma, and the men wear longyis, a sort of sarong, as regular clothes. (Thinking of longyis always makes me smile as I remember a newspaper article I read in Burma that started: ‘Most men in Western countries wear pants.’) So it’s been nice to recall our month in Burma four years ago but also sad to think about the crushing of the recent protests that was worse than what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and appears to have done little to sway the world powers to act against the junta – isn’t it funny how if Burma had oil, the US military would be bombing the country and removing the junta as I type?. (Ted, I just realised that you might be blocked from reading this post in China, now that I mentioned Tiananmen Square. Interesting test, no?)
Anyway, tomorrow we’ll probably head to Chiang Mai in our continued efforts to get to Laos, though I’m not so much looking forward to the “gap-year-faux-hippy schlock”, which is how our friend Lucy describes the city.
For me, Paris will never be able to top Rome, but it's still a beautiful city with a ... 
Nick