Thailand

All of Thailand compressed into just one blog post?  Of course it can be done. 

We started our trip in Thailand with a quick flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.  I posted on a Thailand trip post years ago that the cost of the flight is so worth the money...1 hour by plane vs 11 hours by slow train.  Do it, do it, do it.  A quick 6 hour van ride down to Mae Sot and we were settled in for a couple of days visiting the Mae La Refugee camp on the Thailand-Burma border. 

Prior to this trip I knew almost nothing about the situation in Burma aside from the sparse news clips about bombings and refugees.  Seeing these things in person is a  life changing event. 

The military government calls the country Myanmar, the refugees call it Burma.  We hear of Myanmar government oppression becoming a thing of the past in our news and we talk about lifting sanctions, yet on the Thai Burma border sit a number of refugee camps filled with over 150,000 Burmese nationals who've been forced to flee bombings and torture by their own government.  A large number of the refugees have been there for 20 years, some have been born there and many say they believe they will die there.  They are not even truly refugees who are granted refugees status where they can integrate into another country, but rather they are a people confined to a small section of land the Thai government has allowed them to live on.  Some with ID and papers can run quickly to the markets, others must depend on humanitarian aid bringing food to them. 

We hear of peace coming to that country in our news and yet in the week I was there, China intervened and said the bombing(that is not going on) must stop now that the shells and artillery are entering Chinese lands.  My heart aches for the people.  

When we were invited into Burma by a Colonel in the Karen Nation/Burma border special forces, we were ecstatic.  Looking across a river and seeing armed guards with grenades and rifles is not something I'm especially used to but these guys were the most hospitable, friendly awesome guys ever.  Seriously, ever. 

We didn't speak the same language but still we laughed, sang hymns together and shared smiles. 

Mae Sot itself is a border town whose proximity to the Burma border and the opium trade coming from Burma gives it a bit of a sketchy reputation.  Still that sketchy aspect was far removed from our little slice of Mae Sot life.

Just a regular chill morning in Mae Sot.

Markets are by far one of my favorite things to photograph.  The colors are vivid and the offerings are so visually spectacular that I have a hard time not walking around with my eye glued to the camera viewfinder. 

When I am older, I will buy a motorbike, dress Brooklyn up and ride around just like this cool lady.  Yes indeed.  

You can buy your frogs ready to cook or still fresh and alive in mesh bags.

This is the orphanage in the Mae La refugee camp.  Oh the pictures I wanted to take of the hillside upon hillside covered in side by side bamboo huts.  It was actually painful not to photograph them but the Thai government isn't the fondest of calling attention to the camps and so we kept our cameras out of site until we were inside the orphanage boundaries.  This is the photo I wanted to capture myself. 

The property houses one sleeping hut for the boys, one for the girls, a main house and a church.  The kids are a combination of traditional orphans, social orphans or children whose parents have just sent them away from the bombings and in their towns and villages.   The children in this orphanage are also sponsored through LightBridge's child sponsorship program. 

Just because durian is awesome.  I am in the 1% that thinks so. 

We  had a day in Chiang Mai for sightseeing before heading home and opted to visit the Mae-Sa Elephant Camp and Tiger Kingdom because how often do you get to hang with elephants and tigers right?  It was definitely a trip to remember. 

Yep, just hanging with tigers.