A Run For The Border (and I don't mean Taco Bell)

I must start this new blog before I forget any detail!!! This past weekend my roommate, Staci, and I went on a border run. For those of you that are not familiar with this term, a border run is not the same as taking a run for the border, it is simply crossing over the border outside of Thailand. We have to leave Thailand every 90 days in order to renew our visas. This border run trip took us to Myanmar. We decided to pay a driver to take us since it would be easier and probably cheaper in the long run. Staci told the driver the places we would like to stop on the way in order for us to see everything between Chiang Mai and Myanmar.

Our first stop was a Buddhist temple. I am not sure what material it was made of, but the entire thing was white with glistening edges that reflected the sunlight. It was quite beautiful, yet the symbolic meaning gives a person mixed emotions about its beauty. At the base of the temple there were sculpted hands reaching out of the dirt in agony. They were symbolizing the souls in hell. Some of the hands were holding a bowl that you could drop money into and buy the souls out of hell. The Buddhists believe if you pray for these souls while crossing the bridge into the temple, then you can pray them out of hell. To me the signs were obvious, the emptiness and eeriness that lingered outside the Buddhist temple, along with the hands reaching from hell, made me want to stop the people as they made their way into the temple to pray to their false god and look them in the eyes and say, “Don’t you see what is before you?”

Our next stop was not near as compelling or depressing. It was a sort of monkey haven where you get to feed monkeys. I must say, for days before this trip, going to see the monkeys was all I could think of. I couldn’t wait to hold the little guys, feed them peanuts and convince Staci to let me bring one home with me. As we drove up to the place, monkeys were everywhere. They were on cars, on the gate…all over. I guess I was expecting more of a zoo like atmosphere where they would be caged in monkeys, but these were just out in the wild. I could hardly contain myself; I was eager and ready to get out of the car and go pick out my monkey. They wandered all over the grounds, waiting for the next tourist to buy a bucket of peanuts. As soon as I got the bucket in my hands, I was overwhelmingly surrounded by monkeys. They tried to reach in the basket, they wiped their poopy hands all over my pants, they tried to climb up my leg to get to the basket, and then they started fighting each other for the peanuts. All this happened within about 30 seconds of me getting the basket of peanuts. I quickly passed the basket off to Joe, another guy who came with us, and said, “Here, I don’t like this.” I spent the rest of the stop taking pictures and trying to avoid the monkeys at all costs. I think Staci was a bit disappointed at my lack of enthusiasm. So much for my dreams of owning a pet monkey.

This stop also had a cave, which was accompanied by an enormous stone staircase that led into it. We decided to venture in with only one flashlight for 5 people. The cave went back really far and was completely pitch black, and we decided that one flashlight was clearly not enough for all of us to see. We were slipping and sliding around on the muddy wet ground as we passed the random statues of Buddha that were placed throughout the cave. Sometimes it was startling as we stared off into the distance trying to decipher the glistening golden face of Buddha. We all made it through the cave safe and sound with only a little mud on our feet, until I was walking out of the cave and slipped on the muddy rocks landing right on my rear. I managed to save my camera, although I busted my butt and got completely covered in mud. I was so angry at myself, because I knew that, being this early in the day, it was going to be a long rest of the afternoon in muddy pants. There was nothing I could do but laugh at myself, along with the rest of my friends.
Finally we made it to the border of Myanmar. Those of you, who know me, know that sometimes it is hard for me to contain my excitement. Walking across the border into another country is about as exciting as it gets and I wanted to take in every detail and savor the moment. However, it was difficult to do over the snickers of the Thai’s who were behind me laughing at my dirty rear end. I don’t understand enough Thai to know what they were saying, but by the looks of it, they probably though I had just climbed down off a mountain somewhere on my journey to the border. I took comfort in knowing I would probably not see any of them ever again. Between the two borders we saw children begging for money. Staci told us that if you give any one of them money, you will be swarmed by children, so we should just keep walking. As hard as it was to do, I just kept walking, while talking pictures of their little faces. On the way back into Thailand, after getting our passports stamped, there was one little boy who continued to follow us, asking us for money. Staci looked around for any other children. She didn’t see any so she slipped him a few baht (Thai money). Within moments we were surrounded by children asking for money. I am not sure where they came from, but it was pretty incredible. We emptied our wallets of change for the children, which neither of us minded, plus it made them feel more obligated to pose for pictures.

After crossing the border, we found me some new pants. Although they were unlike anything I have ever owned. They are called fisherman pants and rather than a zipper and button, they fold in the front, tie and then fold again over the knot. I looked like a total hippie, but blended in well with the rest of the people in Thailand.
Our next stop was crossing the border in to Laos. This was probably the most exciting part of the day since it required a boat ride. As we headed to our rickety boat, they handed us life jackets, which to me seemed odd, since I had not seen one safety precaution since I arrived here in Thailand. I said to the others, “Lifejackets, they don’t even wear helmets or seatbelts, why require lifejackets…and why is mine wet?” It didn’t take long in the boat for me to appreciate the fact that I had the lifejacket on. It was a very fast, very bumpy ride in that tiny, little, pointy wooden boat. Once arriving in Laos we experienced some great cultural things, such as rattlesnake whiskey (just looked, didn’t touch). We saw great little handmade items, but probably the highlight of it all was the little children. I asked a few if I could take their picture, so they posed for me. After I took the pictures, I showed them the picture on my camera. They were so excited and just pointed and laughed at their picture. I asked them if they would like to try and take a picture. Mind you, this entire conversation is me speaking very slowly in English and doing a lot of pointing. One little boy was so excited when I slipped the camera over his head to take a picture of me and the other children. It didn’t take long before I was once again surrounded by children laughing and hollering who knows what to each other. Each one of them took their turn trying to take a picture, and then we would show the picture to the entire group. They were adorable!

Finally, it was time to head back home. It was a three hour trip and I had drunk way too much water all day trying to stay hydrated. Our driver, I am sure was tired of me asking to stop for a bathroom, not to mention we were about four hours behind the schedule which he had planned for the day. It was such a memorable day for me, I will never forget my first border run, my first time to feed monkeys, my first pair of fisherman pants, my first time to see Myanmar and Laos, yet probably not my first or last time to fall in the mud though.