Last week, I noticed that my multiple-entry Visa required I leave Thailand before Nov. 17 to avoid any fees. What I thought would be a huge inconvenience turned into a spontaneous and interesting adventure to Burma (also known as Myanmar) with a few friends from my program.
Last Saturday, Sam, Abel, Kathryn, Alex and I took a 4-hour bus ride to Thailand’s town of Mae Sai on the Thai-Burma border. We arrived in the early evening but the border was already closed. Thankfully, we found a hotel room in Mae Sai that fit all of us for just $3 each!
The next morning, completely unaware of what we were going to do, where we were going to eat and spend the night, we walked over the bridge to Burma’s Shan State and watched the cars going into Burma switch from the left side of the the road to the right side. Only a short walk away, this part of Burma was much different than Thailand’s Mae Sai, with neglected roads and sidewalks, smaller buildings but more opportunities to see tall green trees and natural surroundings. It was kind of bizarre- walking such a short distance and then being in a completely different country where driving on the other side of the road was actually an indicator of such powerful differences between the two. (In the 1970s, Gen. Ne Win supposedly made the change from the left side to the right side of the road because a fortune-teller advised it, saying that the country was moving too much to the left, politically).
Trying to get over the fact that we had just walked into Burma, we cluelessly searched for food and walked right into a crowded market. A bunch of taxi drivers approached us to take us to the very few tourist attractions their town had, showing us pictures as a way to communicate. One driver though had been walking and following us since we’d gone through immigration and aggressively approached us, reassuring us in pretty good English that he could show us around and take us to a cheap place to eat. Completely unaware that he was a taxi driver though, we rejected his offer.
After lunch, we got a ride from another driver to the replica of the Shwedagon Pagoda and as we drove away, I noticed that the man who had originally approached us at the market was watching us. Then, my friend said she saw him flip us off. It was at that moment that I realized we had rejected guidance from a taxi driver. We had unintentionally insulted a man, felt that we had been over-cautious and decided that on our way back we would look for him and apologize. When we finally found him, he wanted nothing to do with us, calling us “rude Americans” and accused us of discriminating against him because of his dark skin and dirty clothes.
The five of us left him feeling quite shitty about reinforcing his feelings about Americans. I couldn't shake the idea that I had made somebody feel so badly about himself but in the end, I know that our actions were a result of complete miscommunication. Although, I do not blame us for not going with a stranger after being in the country for less than ten minutes, we concluded that when traveling its important to be cautious but not overcautious or so quickly dismissive of other people.
My friends and I decided that we just had to accept this experience as a lesson learned and after a couple of overwhelming hours, it was time to look for a hotel. In our search for a driver who could somewhat understand us, we met Sai Sai who spoke a little English and was also fluent in Thai. He took us to a near-by hotel, and kept assuring us that it was the most secure place in town. Once we settled in, Sam, Kathryn, Abel, Alex and I had no idea what to do. We had come to Burma with no plan, to a town with very little foreigners. Sai Sai waited for us though and was being so kind and helpful about showing us around. We sat with Sai Sai in front of the hotel for a bit when my friend Kathryn finally asked him to just show us his town and even asked is we could go around his house. Sai Sai started to laugh and seemed so surprised that we wanted to just hang out with him. After some contemplation, we jumped on Sai Sai’s blue tuk tuk and he took us to his house where he lived with his parents. His father greeted us with the big smile they both shared and a bottle of homemade whiskey! And before we knew it, their coffee table was filled with sticky rice, homemade soup, salad, fruit and water.
When I decided to go to Burma, I was not sure what to expect but I was happy to find a family that was so willing to show us the good they had to offer. Although we did not openly or directly discuss Burma's political situation, Sai Sai and his family expressed their desire to leave Burma and move to Thailand "because in Thailand there is a good king," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment