One Night In Mae Sot

[YimSiam]

It was a dark night, rainy season - place was fairly quiet, I can't really visualize - but do remember that I ended up with a sweet girl Burmese girl who spoke Burmese, Thai and English very well. She had a motorbike, she got a phone call from the border crossing, a businessman or official was visiting out at the bridge and was staying in a kind of government bungalow out there and wanted a Thai girl. So we got on her bike, rode to some house, picked up a plump and young-looking Thai, and the three of us rode out to the border to drop the girl off with the guy from Burma. Drove back to my girl's place, the bottom floor in a townhouse-type building, spent a couple hours with her, then she drove me back to where I was staying (do they still have Baan Thai up there? Used to stay in the greatest little bungalow - simple but quiet and private, I really enjoyed the time I spent up there). Dropped me off, then she went out to the border to pick up the girl at the guesthouse! Probably just before dawn, I'd guess.

 

This was in the day of the mini-photo-sticker, and I actually still have a little sheet of photos of that chick with the motorbike somewhere in my stuff... Not so hot, but cute enough, smart as hell and a good little businesswoman... one of those very fun, weird, unexpected nights that stick in your mind long after (but not apparently enough for me to remember what that karaoke looked like inside...)

 

How about Y2k? That place still open? Thai disco, friendly if you're not an asshole. (Not that you're an asshole - everything suggests otherwise!)

 

YimSiam

[bust]

Yeah Ban Thai is still there. Lodging choice of all the NGO volunteers. My friend the journalist up there live in one of the bungalows right up the back. I remeber I stayed there once. He had this wonderful Karen housekeeper who sadly had her throat slit one night while they were all sleeping. As for Y2K not sure. As I said most places were closed due to the holidays.

[YimSiam]

Jesus, throat slit... Incredible. I had great experiences while I was there, and there are great charms to Mae Sot and its complex dynamics, but stay for a little while and you can just feel the evil pulsing under the surface. Slavery, human trafficking, corruption, drugs, arms, internecine violence in the Karen groups - it's all going on, all the time. Glad I spent time there, but glad I left, too!