Tag: Laos and Burma

What is the rule for ticking a country off on a life-list? In the States, I categorically have declared that airports don't count for having been in a state and argue that you have to spend a night in a state to claim that you've been there. And driving through on an interstate is like being everywhere yet nowhere, so that don't count neither.


But what is the "rule" for countries? Must I spend the night?


A few days back, while staying in the Thai towns of Mae Chan and Mae Sai, we visited two countries in as many days. We took a short boat ride on the Mekong River and visited a Laoatian island. The next day, from Mae Sai, we crossed over the Myanmar border into Mae Sai's sister city.

The Laotian island was, simply and exclusively, a tourist trap. Farang tourists buy something from Laos and head back to Thailand sorta thing. Accordingly, I did, too: snake wine, which is some sort of alochol with a small cobra stuffed into it. I'm pretty sure that the vegan goddesses were upset with me but I figured that one or two people I know would very much enjoy this curiosity. I'm feeling increasingly guilty about that one...The boat ride on the Mekong was cool; apparently, due to dams upriver in China, the river is much lower than it used to be. Think the Mississippi River but not as wide and not as clean!

The Burmese city was more interesting, more real. A small river, really a creek, separates Thailand from Burma so, basically, it's a single city with a national border crossing between two halves. Lots of Thai people have businesses in Burma and tons of Thai people travel to this place to cross the border in search of cheaper produts. As Myanmar is a dictatorship and anti-Western, it doesn't respect copyrights of US companies so there are lots of very cheap, imitation designer products (think handbags that cost $100s or $1000s in the States but here cost in the $10s). My female teammates went nuts buying stuff. I prefered visiting the Burmese Buddhist temple, which was dramatically different in its artistic depictions of Buddha, had different architecture, etc.

I definitely want to return to both Laos and Burma down the road. I think I'll count them but with an asterisk.