Mae Sot

Mike is working at a school for Burmese refugees, and this is his 3rd 'tour of duty', helping to teach the kids about computers and the internet,and for the next 2 days he was our fantastic guide to the whole area of Mae Sot.

Our first port of call, after renting another scooter, was to visit the school itself. It was actually World Child Day, so the place was pretty crazy with kids from many local schools all running around and playing. The school is quite big (catering for 250 kids I think), with a few very solid structures, a nice new playground and playing fields nearby. Many of the kids live right next to the school in very simple, primitive houses, but it was great to see all the kids enjoying themselves and just being kids really.

We also go to see where Mike lives, which was another modern building, but very spartan (Mike's only here for 3 months this time around), and got to see the neighbour's impressive crossbow for fishing from the balcony!

After lunch at Canadian Daves, we drove out to the Burmese border. This is just a narrow river (at this time of year anyway), with a sprawling market selling all the usual nick-nacks (Mullins buying an electric mosquito-killing tennis bat thing), so after a few posed photos it was back on the bikes and back to town.

Later that night we did a bit of a pub crawl around the small town, and met some interesting local characters, like the ex-pat Cheap Charlie from Scotland - but really the town was kinda quite (even though it was Saturday night). Myself, Mike and Mullins did manage to pop out to the local food market late in the night for a snack and nightcap, but even there seemed to be shutting down.

The next day Mike brought us out to the local reservoir that is in a lovely setting, hiking up the hill there to check out the views from the Buddhist temple at the top. Then it was back to the school area where the local cock-fighting ring was holding it's weekly competitions. I wouldn't be a fan of any blood sport, but everything here was quite subdued really, all very friendly and welcoming. It was certainly interesting to see the whole thing, which is still very much legal in Thailand, and it wasn't as gruesome as I thought it was going to be (the birds have their heel claw taped up and they only fight until one gives up (as opposed to the death)).

Even if it is natural for cocks to fight in the wild, I'm certainly in favour of it's being banned - forcing any creature into an extremely stressful situation just so a group of men can satisfy their need for a bit of gambling doesn't cut it with me.

Anyway, we didn't stay long, but we did get to see the end of a fight (a single fight can go on for over an hour with rounds of 20 minutes each). It all ended very simply when one of the birds turned and walked away a little bit - within 2 seconds all the spectators were roaring and those that had won were celebrating immediately, it literally seemed over in the blink of an eye.

So after that we strolled to the local market (which was much like a market anywhere really), and Mike bought a selection of local foods which we ate watching a group of refugees playing volleyball, and playing with a couple of the local kids.

Our second night was a quieter affair, being joined for dinner by another American volunteer named Brandon, a few drinks in Trungs Bar where we were staying, and winning some American states for Irish sovereignty over the pool table.

The next morning Mullins got up at 7am to drive to the bus station to make sure we got tickets for the bus back to Bangkok, and then over breakfast in our usual cool local coffee house we said goodbye to Mike and got a songthaw back to the bus station for the trip back to Bangkok.