I was in Burma for a minute

This is the border of Thailand (right) and Burma (left). Tourists often cross from Mae Sai on the Thai side to Tachilek on the Burmese side simply to spend 5 minutes in Burma, walk back into Thailand and get another free 30 tourist visa stamp. There's not much to see in Tachilek, except a wide variety of pirated Chinese dvds for sale. Lance had to go to the border to get his travel visa worked out, I was happy to go with and get another fun stamp in my passport to say I was in another country.

I actually had a nice afternoon chatting with the border police and a young school teacher in Tachilek -- tried a little bit to get thoughts on Aung San Suu Kyi (and the recent extention on house arrest). Noone knew who the hell I was talking about, which I attributed to my incredibly poor pronunciation rather than the fact that its a closed state. Probably a stupid thing to ask about, especially with the border police.















Yes beyond Chinese dvds, Tachilek's claim to fame is its location in the former/current "golden triangle". Hey if connecting your city with the heroin trade works for tourism, then more power to the chamer of commerce.



















Cute Burmese girl.