Burma Border Run 3 - Chiang Mai to Mae Sai

[Phil at Progressive Alaska has linked here in his weekly blog roundup and to the fact that

he's having to travel, on the road from Chiang Mai to Mae Sai, right through the area where Richard Armitage earned his chops in the underworld of off-the-books U.S. intelligence ops, helping Khun Sa come to power in Burma, and feeding the needs of Armitage's so-called "import-export business," based between 1976 and 1978 in Bangkok.

For the record, the point where Burma, Thailand and Laos all three meet is officially, "The Golden Triangle" (upper right hand corner of the map) but this whole region was a major poppy growing area. I guess I'll need to get Armitage's book when I get home. But I haven't even gotten the posts to the border yet, so I better keep posting.]



Thursday, when we left, was an unusual day because the sky was actually blue. Haze, smoke, and other pollutants generally make the sky less the bright blue, but Thursday was as though everything had been washed clean. (It didn't last)








I'm not sure where we stopped, but the soldiers (passengers) on the bus made off quickly to where they could light up and pee. (There are decent restrooms in all the bus stations, but it does cost 3 Baht.)











As time went on, more clouds appeared and then dissipated.




The remaining clouds made for a stunning sunset.














And motorcycles are everywhere.

Where The Hell Are We?

Given the level of geographic illiteracy in the world, I should have done this long ago. I'm still pushing it, I know, by using Alaska as the reference point for the US, but it and Hawaii are the only states that show up on the same map as Thailand.





And here's Thailand and its immediate neighbors. We are in Chiang Mai. I was thinking on this trip that Mae Sai is closer to China than it is to Bangkok. But looking at the map, so is Chiang Mai.

Burma Border Run 2 - Serendipity

When we got our tickets and found we had two hours to wait, I checked in the little maroon duffel bag, and we went walking. Of course, J's umbrella was in the checked bag, but the streets were shady. We really hadn't explored this side of town at all, so it was a good chance. We lucked into a Textile Fair at the Northern Industrial Promotion Center. They had really nice stuff at reasonable prices. We were almost the only foreigners there.



Here's the motorcycle parking lot at the bus station. Well, here's one of them. It was 10 Baht for motorcycles, further down it was 40 B for cars. I didn't think to look at for how long. A day I'm guessing.



Not huge, this textile fair was still pretty big. Here's a glimpse. We ended up buying a few things - not really what you want to do when you are leaving on a trip and have to carry stuff with you. But we didn't have much.



This man is a German linguist doing research on a language in the region spoken by about half a million people if I remember correctly. And his wife and baby. They were eating next to us at the textile fair. They knew about it because they live around the corner.



Walking back to the bus station, we passed this tuk-tuk (three wheeled motorcycle taxis) customizing shop.


Here's the genius behind the red tuk-tuk. Well, he was working in the shop and said I could take the pictures.

Burma Border Run 1 - Chiang Rai, Mae Sai Busses

We're back in Chiang Mai. I just downloaded 135 new photos. Let's see if I can give you a glimpse of this trip in a series of short posts with the best of the pics (or at least the one's that tell the story best.) Let's start with getting there and back. A look at Thai buses.

There's a thriving private sector bus system across Thailand. The bus stations are major transportation hubs like airports in the US. We didn't make reservations - I know you can go to the bus station and buy tickets in advance, but don't think you can do it on the phone. Ew got our tickets to Kamphaengphet in advance because she knew someone working for the bus company. And most times the buses are trying to pick up last minute arrivals as the bus heads out of the station. And then along the way.

We thought we'd get the 11:30am bus to Mae Sai. Hah! The bus station was packed. We got tickets for the 2:15 air conditioned bus. So we had almost three hours to wait. I'll talk about that next post.

Here's our bus to Mae Sai. Although we were on the Green Bus Company, the bus was white. There is a reason to bring long sleeves - the air conditioning on the buses. I pretended I was in Alaska. Although this was an air conditioned bus, it wasn't a VIP bus. That means it makes lots of stops. It took us about four and a half hours to Chiang Rai and another hour to Mae Sai, getting us there just as it was turning dark.

This was yesterday's bus from Mae Sai (the northernmost town in Thailand, on the Burmese border). It turns out there are buses about every 15 to 35 minutes from Mae Sai to Chiang Rai. So if we hadn't wanted to wait, we might have gotten an earlier bus to Chiang Rai, and then caught a local bus the rest of the way. As you can see, the air conditioning in this bus consists of keeping the windows open. But it was also a very friendly ride. The bus driver and the woman collecting the money could have been husband and wife and there was a good deal of joking among the passengers.

There were a couple of checkpoints. I think this is because we were coming from a border area, but not totally because we had one today on the way to Chiang Mai. The police in this case, are fairly aggressive in their patting down people and going through luggage. They didn't even ask for our passports, but everyone else had to show id's. Concerns are with smuggling goods and illegal aliens. They aren't very friendly and I suspect at least some of them are getting off on their power over people. But also note the inside of this mom & pop bus company. And compare it to the VIP bus we had today from Chiang Rai back to Chiang Mai.



The bus ride gives some folks a chance to catch up on a little sleep. J snoozed too.



And here's the inside of our VIP bus coming back to Chiang Mai today. It was a little like being on an airplane - what with fold down from the ceiling flat screens and a door between the passengers and the driver. They showed Beowolf in Thai. Seemed to me the screen was mostly black and orange. And then there was the killing of the flying dragon scene. Meanwhile, we're driving through the mountains of North Thailand, and my Salman Rushdi book (The Ground Beneath Her Feet) has me in Bombay. (See, without a computer, there's time to read real books.) This bus got us to Chiang Mai in three hours from Chiang Rai. Saving about 90 minutes in travel time.

Border Run

The 30 days we got in our passports when we went to Burma from Maesod will be up on Sunday, so we're headed to Mae Sai - the northernmost town in Thailand. We'll spend a night, go over to Burma again, then spend a second night in Chiang Rai, the provincial capital of Chiang Rai.

Not much time, we have to catch the bus at 11:30, since there is no way we'll get the 9:30am bus.
(it's 9am now Thursday.) Everyone at work is in the Northeast for an exchange with other NGO's doing similar kinds of work. My passport issues got in the way of my joining them.

I'm toying with just leaving the computer at home, so there may not be any posts for a couple of days. Or I'll just hit an internet cafe. Signs of a blogging addiction that I even think of taking my computer on this trip.

Anchorage Registered Voters Exceed the Number of Residents 18 or Over

[UPDATE Aug 2010:  I've done a similar post after the Aug 2010 primary election looking at the large number of registered voters compared to voting age population.]


187,163 = The number of Anchorage registered voters as of March 3, 2008.*

42,749 = Highest number of people voting Tuesday on anything (Prop 2)

184,412 Anchorage residents 18 years and over
(2000 Census Data)


So, if we believe the Division of Elections data on the number of registered voters, then about 22% of the registered voters voted on Tuesday.

But there are 187,163 registered voters (and I'm not counting those in District 16 who are in Anchorage.) But the census bureau said there were only 184,412 people in Anchorage aged 18 or over, thus eligible to vote.

OK, that's 2000 census data compared to 2008 election data. But still we have over 100% of the eligible voters registered to vote. If we had 80% of the eligible population registered to vote, that would be a high percentage.

A 2005 US Census report on the 2004 election says that in 72% of the US population said they voted - and I'd guess that people would report higher than the real numbers. If we assume Anchorage got another 10,000 people over 18 since 2000, 80% would be 157,730 registered voters.

That means the State of Alaska Division of Elections has 30,000 more people listed as registered voters in Anchorage than there should be if 80% of the over 18 population were registered. That's almost 20% more than we should have if 80% were registered.

I'm sure it's not easy to keep the voting records up-to-date. I'm sure a lot of people on the rolls have moved away or died. But if my numbers here are even reasonably close, it would seem that the Division of Elections has some serious housecleaning to do.

But if Sean Parnell, the Lt. Governor who is in charge of elections, is out campaigning for Don Young's seat, I'd guess the division won't get a lot done on this issue.

Since the number of registered voters rolls apparently includes a lot of people who have moved or died, then the percent of people who voted is actually considerably higher than 22%.

*from adding up the totals in State Division of Elections Website from Districts 17-32 which appear to be all the Anchorage districts. Probably we should add in parts of District 16, but this is close enough.

Orchids for My True Love

I don't understand the chemistry of women's brains when they get flowers. (Or when they don't get flowers for that matter.) But I think if men gave women flowers regularly, the drug industry would take a big hit. And here in Chiang Mai you can do it so spectacularly (as Anonymous put it)for so little cost.





Two bunches of these orchids was 140 Baht. (32B/$)

Thai Keyboard

Someone from Holland got here googling "thai keyboard shipping holland online." I doubt if he/she will be back here, but just in case, last week I bought stick on letters for my keyboard. I didn't put them on that straight, but it sure makes it easier to find the letters. 20 Baht (32 B/dollar). I don't think anyone needs to ship a whole keyboard, just the stick on letters.

Karen Singers Entertain

These singers are using the same Karen language of the people in the Fire Break posts. I like Thai music, but it took a long time for my Western ear to adjust. But this Karen music is immediately accessible to Westerners.



A CD, I'm told, is coming soon. I don't have the contact information tonight, but if you are interested, you can go into my profile and email me.

Glimpses of Yesterday and Today

When I got to the office yesterday, there was a man selling silver pieces and Ew was buying. She will make bracelets and necklaces and sell them on the Thai version of E-Bay.





Yesterday, Ew asked if I'd eaten. She had to get something at Wororat Market on the other side of town. The traditional Thai Costco - anything you could imagine to buy, wholesale prices, much being sold to small shops to resell. But you don't need a membership card. We went to get some ingredients for traditional Thai drinks - basically dried flowers and fruit.






Lots of different kinds of fish - just one type here.













We went by the wholesale flower market and I found some really beautiful orchids to bring to Joan.










Our dinner yesterday was noodle soup with quail eggs.



The drinks were for a party tonight in honor of Ajaan (Teacher/Professor) Anan's 60th birthday - though I understood that he was now 61. He's been involved with a lot of community development work and so many of the NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations - or non-profits) working with farmers on land and sustainability issues were there. That's why I was there, though most of the people in my immediate office couldn't come because they were working on presentations for their exchange trip. They probably are leaving about now (11:24pm April 1). J and I will head out Thursday for Mae Sai, where we can cross into Burma again to we can start the 30 day clock on our passports again. By May 2 I'll be back in Anchorage and J makes it on the 3rd. It seems like we just got here. The next post will have a video of two Karen hill tribe singers playing some traditional music.