Blogs from Mae Sot, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 4

Dear Family and Friends I am starting up my blog again before we leave for Maela Refugee Camp on the border of Thailand and Burma. This time I will be travelling with my 15 year old daughter Abbey Lindley, my colleague Kylie Martin from Sunshine Coast Childrens Development Centre, and also Dr Norli, a dentist from Cairns. We will leave on Wednesday 18th August and fly to Bangkok, and straight through to Chiangmai. The goal of this trip is to offer dental care to the refugee children in Maela Refugee camp, which is about 6 hours west of Chiangmai. We will be based in Maela and travel up to the refugee camp every day. Ian Aitcheson from Effective Aid International will be our guide. My role is to co-ordinate the team and to organise the dental ... read more

Mae Sot is an interesting boarder town. More Burmese than Thai and more "international" then some of the larger towns around. Honestly there is not alot to see in town the Wats and market are fun to visit but will take you about a day. The reason I and most other people end up here is for volunteer and NGO work. Mae Sot is home to many NGO's working with Burmese rights groups and range from political, health, human rights and educational. If you want to volunteer just a day or two some guest houses (Ban Thai ) can help but most need longer commitments and there is information online about other organizations if interested. Also since Thai police do check what people are doing many people are not very open about what they are doing ... read more

Well I finally made it. I haven't slept in a bed for two nights as instead of staying over in Bangkok I decided to take the night bus to Mae Sot. I got to know the Bangkok airport very well since I had 8 hrs and I remember from past experience that the bus terminal did not have much. I have to say it wasn't to painful as I got a foot and shoulder massage. Today my mind is mush just trying to stay sort of awake so on Thai time but really tempted to take a nap. I am at the Ban Thai guest house quiet a few volunteers and NGO workers here so need to pick some brains when I can keep a conversation going. Mae Sot seems to be quite an interesting town ... read more

Last week I traveled to the North Western town of Mae Sot to do a 3-day jungle trek near Um Phang. Mae Sot is a town on the border with Burma (Myanmar) and has been an unstable area with skirmishes between Burma and Thailand in the recent past. It's rather peaceful now and Mae Sot is now a trading post, profiting from illegal trade with Burma. Many Burmese live in this part of Thailand that have fled the country for its notorious junta regime. There are a large number of refugee camps here (see picture), housing an estimated 150.000-200.000 refugees! After my dinner in Mae Sot, I met a Dutch girl who was teaching English at one of the camps. She told me that many women are being raped by Burmese military and that the conditions ... read more

We made it home, but thought we'd do a quick entry to share a few last photos and updates. After leaving Chiang Mai we headed south and west to Mae Sot, a small town bordering Myanmar (aka Burma). The town has no real tourist attractions of its own. A few travellers come to Mae Sot to cross the border into Myanmar and then return to Thailand to obtain an automatic Thai visa renewal, or to work in one of the dozen Burmese refugee camps than line the Thai side of the border. We had planned only a few days' stop to update our visas, and to visit a sanctuary for orphaned and injured gibbons. We updated our visas in short order and then spent the rest of the day wandering around the markets and narrow streets ... read more