Night food bazaar in Mae Sot

Actually really good food here, not like the junk you get at the Saturday night market. Here, you DON'T want bugs in your food. Lots of different stands serving noodles, soups, and stir-fried dishes. A meal here will set you back about 50 cents.

Day market in Mae Sot

An assortment of culinary pleasures await at the Mae Sot day market. Eels, toads, frogs, bugs, grubs, meats with flies buzzing around, dried up fish, curries, vegetables, and oh so yummy fish paste. I'm getting fat from all the food I've been eating!

Cattle crossing in Mae Pa

No speeding on the roads around here! Herds of cattle have the right of way.

Playing jacks with stones

The same kids playing with stones. I think these are both girls. I heard that they cut their hair short so that it will grow in thick and beautiful. It's either that or to make it easier to pick out the lice.

No, not married...

Here I am showing off Alexa in her traditional Burmese outfit with the longyi wrap, blouse, and thannaka on her cheeks. Longyi's are a thick embroidered fabric sewn into a tube, that you step into and then wrap or tuck to keep it snug. She looks better than me, but I stayed cooler in my fisherman clothes. Men wear longyi's too, but they tie them in front instead of a side tuck. These wraps don't have pockets, so they wedge their wallets in the back.

Silhouetted kids in the doorway

I went to a wedding reception with some friends. Sorry, I can't post any pictures of the Burmese people that were there; it could endanger their lives. These were some cute kids whose lives I couldn't care less about. At one point, a Thai police officer pulled up in his pickup truck to ask for passports. A quick negotiation of the amount of a bribe and a bottle of whisky sent him back on his way.

A visit to the Saturday night market

Melanie, Alexa, and Jenny at the night market eating pad thai (stir-fried glass noodles), drinking coconut milk out of a bamboo container. This market had some good snacks and cheap clothes.

Good snacks at the night market

Alexa loves these fried salty bugs! They are about four inches long and come with lots of chili and onions. They pop in your mouth and spill out with a creamy taste sensation! Or so I was told, I didn't try any -- she had eaten them all!

Friends in front of my guesthouse at Ban Thai

Russell, Caroline, and Hanna are teaching English. Fortunately, they come from England. I live in the building behind them on the second floor.

Sun setting behind staff at Ban Thai Guesthouse

I've been staying at this guesthouse in Mae Sot. This photo was taken before a rainshower at sunset. The wind stopped, the sky turned an eerie orange, and the air became thick. Thirty minutes later, a nice cool shower! Perfect in this heat!

All the OPD medics at Bai Fern restaurant (photo removed)

Lots of food. Even more booze. Four hours of eating and fun. Sure beats staying at the MTC compound everyday and eating fish curry and rice for each meal.

Out for a cruise on the bike

Yes, I learned how to ride a motorcycle. The bike is a Honda Wave with a 100 cc powerhouse. It purrs when you shift from second into third with its clutchless transmission. The wind hits your face at a blistering 40 km/h. Is that tuk-tuk pulling out?! Thank God for my plastic and styrofoam helmet!

The Outpatient Department takes a mental health break (photo removed)

These medics and nurses at MTC work six days a week and literally eat, sleep, and shower at the clinic (sort of an ad hoc refugee camp). They are Burmese living illegally in Thailand, but the town turns a blind eye to them. They get paid less than 1000 BHT ($25) a month. Why do I know this? I asked them if medics at the big refugee camps get paid, and I was told they get paid a lot more than the MTC medics did: a whopping 1000 BHT/month. It's a crap life. (A lot of the other Burmese people work in sweat shops sewing clothes 14 hours a day with a day off every two weeks. Some of them do this so they can send money to their relatives back in Burma; others, to escape the oppression back home. They live in, what we would consider, squalor. They have left their friends, family, and home to come to this place. It makes me wonder how much life must suck back in Burma.)
My medics were in need of stress relief. We went to a local restaurant so they could try Western food and get drunk. They ate pizza, hamburgers, fish filets, and steaks, before realizing they really just preferred Thai and Burmese food. Oh, and they drank lots of booze. It was great watching them poke at food with curiosity, eating the toppings off of pizza but leaving the crust, and cutting a pork tenderloin with a spoon and knife. I was told by one of them that I should have given them an in-service on eating Western food. In the end, a medic ended up puking in the toilet from the booze. I felt like a proud parent. Am I sick or what?

Y2K, the only thumpin' place on saturday night.

Loud live music sung in Thai or English or something else I can't understand. The singers change with the songs, ranging from hip hop to metal and rock to pop. It's the only hoppin' place I've seen in this one horse town. There are even transvestites here!

The usual suspects feteing the night at Koon's bar

Nights usually begin or end at Koon's bar. Lots of expats and some locals go to this fine establishment. The booze is cheap and the place stays open later than the 1 am curfew followed by all the other watering holes in town.

El trio mas machos hombres singing something poorly.

Days are filled with volunteerism, and the nights are filled with hedonism. Here we are singing at Lucky Music Place, where they have a stage, a mirrorball, an empty dance floor, and almost no patrons...a perfect setting for humiliating yourself in front of your friends. Intoxication required.