The main purpose was to cross the closest border into Burma to get another 3 months on my visa - it was a great excuse to see some of the Chiang Rai district though. Beautiful mountains and river scenery.
I spent about 40min in Burma, walking through the markets in the border town - checking out the animal products on sale, looking at the different ethnic groups and steering clear of the children beggars and particularly the cigarette hawkers. Talk about pester value!
Myanmar border - bridge crossing View across to the Myanmar mountains
We had to stop at 3 police checkpoints between Chiang Mai and the border - lots of effort goes into making sure that refugees stay in their restricted areas. A doctor friend in Chiang Mai said that 12% of the population in the bordering Burma provence have malaria. Big problems there....
I headed back to Chiang Rai for the night, passing some terrific karst (limestone) mountain scenery - plenty of caving to do in the next trip. In Chiang Rai I learnt more about the 9 hilltribe groups in Thailand (6 main ones) - almost 1 million people at last count in 1994. I also headed to a nearby cave system to check it out. The picture below should indicate my adrenalin levels at being in a dark cave on my own with bats - no that didn't scare me - it had more to do with a close encounter with a couple of territorial alsatians on the way in.... Thai dogs can be scary, with about 6% of them at any given time being rabid.
Couldn't-quite-hold-the-camera-steady vs Chiang Rai street - minus adrenalin
.JPG)
.JPG)
