Lusty Posted October 23, 2003 Report Share Posted October 23, 2003 This place sounds interesting.Anyone been? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 24, 2003 Report Share Posted October 24, 2003 mong na is in china. what you meant is called mong la. yes, i have been there. and yes, an incredibly interesting place, but not a place to be a fool as it can be rather rough. just as an example: the punishment for cheating in one of the casinos is having your hands hacked off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redbaron Posted October 24, 2003 Report Share Posted October 24, 2003 Rusty, if what fly says is true, please don't go cos I just looked up "fool" in the dictionary... and there's a photo of you and me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted October 26, 2003 Report Share Posted October 26, 2003 I dunno, I am reading this book now, and it's got a good 20 pages on Mong La, which seems in Burma, just across from the chinese border. It's a playground for chinese week-enders, and families who come to gawk at snippets of hilltribe culture put on show, ladyboy shows, or indulge in the sex on offer. The author say the place is known as the "anus of China" (zhongguo de gangmen). Chinese Pattaya in the midst of drug-trafficking region, I guess. The place is run by a Lin Mingxian guy, a shan-chinese drug and warlord who was granted full autonomy in the region by the junta, in exchange for not taking them on with his 3500 soldier private army. The book is "the trouser people" by Andrew Marshall. Funny i read this when someone decides to mention Mong La, because i never heard of this place before, or if i did, i forgot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 26, 2003 Report Share Posted October 26, 2003 [color:"blue"]The book is "the trouser people" [/color] Sounds like the title for another Turk Fist story. Presume this is contemorary ? here's a link about Lin Lin Mingxian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 Don't tell LP or Yethmae, it was published way back in ...2002! Very good travelogue, just started it. The guy traveled many times to Burma, and in this book, talks about tracing the steps of a british journalist cum HM's servant thru the Shan States, georges Scott. One of these characters who are almost forgotten but were instrumental in creating the lore that is Asia for us. He wrote the book "the Burman", some 120 years ago, and introduced the country to soccer. Indefatiguable traveler, mostly. Just think: Burma in the 70s...the 1870s!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 <<Don't tell LP or Yethmae, it was published way back in ...2002!>> We're are the self appointed 'Nana Time Cops' :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 found this online about the author: Andrew Marshall is also co-author of The Cult at the End of the World, an account of the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday cult. He started his career in journalism at age 21 as a features editor and writer at the Daily Telegraph. He then worked on freelance assignments in post-revolutionary Romania and Albania, before joining Tokyo's leading English-language magazine as deputy editor. Since 1993, he has traveled across Asia on assignments which include hunting a mythical yeti in the forests of central China; joining successionist rebels on the Pacific island of Bougainville; exploring the corrupt world of match-rigging in Japanese sumo wrestling; and interviewing contract killers in Thailand. He now lives in Bangkok, Thailand, and contributes to magazines and newspapers worldwide. ___________ PS: wonder if anyone has met him, here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 >>>The place is run by a Lin Mingxian guy, a shan-chinese drug and warlord who was granted full autonomy in the region by the junta, in exchange for not taking them on with his 3500 soldier private army.<<< rather interesting is also the location of his house: it is between the burmese and the chinese border posts, so, if something goes wrong on his side of the border he just jumps over to to china into safety. it is though a bit more complicated than just classifying him only as a drugbaron who is supported by the junta. there are serious changes going on in the golden triangle now. in his territory, where previously lots of opium was planted you won't see much of it anymore. proper roads have been built, rice is planted instead of opium, and there is peace. mong la's heyday of a real wild west town is coming to an end soon as also very serious drugeradication programs are going on in wa state, and a lot less trafficers are seen spending their moneys in the casinos there (but still there are some very weird tribes people from the upper regions of the triangle around you do not want to fuck with). there are though other towns further up which are still very wild west, but to get there is nearly impossible (but if one can get there it is incredibly fascinating - straight back into a bygone aera of gunfighters and the law of the strongest). but as i said, this is not a place to be a fool, people won't fall over and excuse affronts just because someone is a western tourist. this is not pattaya or bangkok. by the way - the only accepted currency there are chinese yuan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 rather interesting is also the location of his house: it is between the burmese and the chinese border posts, so, if something goes wrong on his side of the border he just jumps over to to china into safety. ----------------------- A la Voltaire! mong la's heyday of a real wild west town is coming to an end soon as also very serious drugeradication programs are going on in wa state ------------------------- That helps me understand why the author speaks of various US congressmen coming to Mong La on fact-finding missions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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