Day 5. Jan 8 and 9

---

Hi to you all from The Thai/Burma border, so much to report not sure where to start, I just wish I could tansport you all here to experiance the smells. tastes. ways and so much more, little doubt this is real Thailand, the big cities feel an age and a million miles away.

Matts house is great. Bugs are big, frog in loo, chickens around us, windows have no glass just mozzy screens, bed mattress is 1inch thick, drainage, sorry there is no drainage, pipes just stick out the wall, furnitue from tables to chair are Thai size low , great on the back and low doors which is even greater for my bald head. But all said it is just lovely to be here in his home and see what he is up to.

Maw Sariang is a charmming small town with a mixture of Karen and Thai people. We started in the bar Mattt uses for meals and drinks, the verrander overlooks the Salween river and Burmese mountains about 20 miles in the distant, really stunning. Met up with more locals and few other people working for UN, VSO ( Volentry Service Overseas) and other organisations who are invoved with the Karen 9 refugee camps. You Thai foodies will be pleased to hear food is realy great for me at last, and silly cheap, beers/ food for three, maybe 4 came out at £4.00. Had long chats with intersting people who are giving their lives up for what sounds like amazing work in these camps, most are on a 1 to 2 year posting.

Day has been long and multi experianced from Chiang Maito here, that 1 inch mattress felt more like best deep down, wonderful I was asleep before my eyes were closed.

5am it started, yes 5am....... nobody told me each family around Matt (about 20 homes) have chickens and they all have.......?? yes thats right, cockrels. I have to tell you this brings a totally new meaning to dawn choras, they seem to try and out do each other for noise level and lenth of ther sound. I defy anybody to sleep through this unless you names Matt, boy must be deaf.

Matt had mentioned an earlly Saturday market which seemed like a good excape so I set off for it, maybe to watch them set up....... they were set up in full swing with everbody from miles around there it was massive and sold everthing, this was 6.00 in the morning. I walked as much as possible around it and even had people I had met the night before shouting Hi Anthony, yes I felt like a local after 10 hours of arriving, they are such a warm people.

Matt was up when I returned and set of for a meeting with Karen Department for Heath and Wefare. They have 30 doctors who have clinics and live Karen, the Burmese goverment supplies nothing medical to the Karens so charities do this instead and Matt plays a big part in this support.

Matt wanted to show me where the medical supplies went across the river into Burma so we put our 4x4 through its paces as we headed up to the Burmese border at Mai Sam Lap.

Now this place really is a cowboy town, with more guns, outpost,spies, soldiers Thai and Burmese than seemed right for a village that hangs to the green jungle mountain side . Some Karen live here in teak huts with leaf roofs( think it is a teak leaves dried out they are like a dock leaf), hope pictures show it. Long boats of all sizes carrying things I would not ask about up/ down and across the river. Strangest place sort of everbody was doing something they should not be doing. looking each other up, blind eyes for cash, tell you if James Bond sped past in a boat with the enemy in chase who ever they were it would have felt just right.

Drove back across mountain trying to fatham it all out, Matt and I had a lot to talk about that night in the bar.

---