Travel

Mae Ra Moe Refugee Camp

maeramoe_thumb We spent a week in Mae Ra Moe, the ‘Club Med’ of the Karen refugee camps. The location is breathtaking; it’s in the middle of the jungle with a river through the middle of it and, compared to the other camps, pretty spacious.

Thai Boxing training begins

Travel - Thailand

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It’s tough as the trainer and the rest of the students don’t really speak English so well and my Thai is, well, pretty ropey if you don’t count ordering beers and counting to ten. Most of what is taught is demonstrated. Injuries and throwing up from over-exertion aside, it’s great.

Mae La Oon - camp Thai Burma border

Travel - Thailand

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The site’s a pretty bad one – incredibly beautiful but impossibly impractical. It’s situated on a river with steep, densly-jungled sides. At first, huts were slipping into the river and still do during the rainy season. They’ve managed to build houses, schools, hospitals and clinics and are building and developing further.

Crossing the border to Burma from Mae Sot

Travel - Thailand

burmaborder_thumb after looking round the stalls in Mae Sot you find they are filled with the most amazing artifacts. Abby spotted a field telephone from 1941 that we would have loved to have brought back but the thing was so heavy, we could never have got it home.

Bangkok and the Khao San Road

Travel - Thailand

bangkok_thumb “The only downer is everyone’s got the same idea, we all travel thousands of miles just to watch TV and check into somewhere with all the comforts of home. And you you’ve got to ask yourself, what’s the point.”

Golawa (westerners) skin is white

Travel - Thailand

“Golawa (westerners) skin is white because when god made you, he had dust on his hands from pounding rice. When he made Asian people he had charcoal on his hands from tending the fire”(Karen women, Village).

Huay Xia to Pak Beng - Thai/Lao Border

Travel - Thailand

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We left Thailand from Chiang Khong, and after a five minute ferry across the Mekong River, we were in Huay Xia, Laos. We spent our first night here. You instantly notice the difference once you leave Thailand; Laos is a lot poorer - the infrastructure crumbling, colonial buildings everywhere.

Carabao Concert Mae Sariang

Travel - Thailand

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We were well looked after though, it felt like we had our own police guard one of 90 police officers there took it upon himself to follow us around, the Thai army were also standing by. I’m not sure what they were expecting.

Mae Sariang

Travel - Thailand

maesariang_thumb I’ve got four web sites to build, three interns to train, networks to set up, PCs to fix (Craig if you’re reading expect an e-mail any day soon). Can’t really say much more about what we will be doing, due to the nature of our work. Everyone has been great since we arrived, very hospitable.

Monk Chat in Chang Mai

Travel - Thailand

monkchat_thumb “do not work for money, only work in something you enjoy.”

Burns Supper in Northern Thailand

Travel - Thailand

burns_thumb “Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the pudding-race! Aboon them a' yet tak your place,”

Karen/Burmese Wedding - Thailand

Travel - Thailand

It took about thirty minutes huddled in the back until we reached our destination. Abby and I had been invited to the wedding for the daughter of a prominent member of the Karen community.

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