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August 6th: Jam with Sam

Digital backpacker 2000: Thailand, Mae Sot

Ben van den Anker
2006-04-23 09:41:47

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In Chiang Rai, this "Sam" invited me to play with his band and I happily accepted his invitation. I spent some days there, I don't know if the free beer he and his wife offered me had something to do with that... I left without exactly knowing why, maybe I should have stayed a little bit longer. The people next door took me to a disco after closing time of the bar, I was the only "farang", foreigner. It was mighty interesting to watch the live band playing there, the Thais have a great sense for performance, fans in front of the stage, long hair "blowing in the wind". I will miss those people over there. Another bar was called AA, it had a happy "hour" from 11 am till 5 pm. They called it the "Alcoholic Afternoon".

Lampang was boring to me, only interesting because they use horses there for public transport. By bus I landed in Mae Sot, this town, known as the "Wild West" of Thailand is so much different. Since the Burmese government banned legal trade in 1991, the local black market is really booming. I drove to the riverside and they offered me cigarettes, Burmese whiskey and Levi’s jeans ($3). The gem market in town is "amazing Thailand" to me, Chinese, Burmese, Thai and Indian people are negotiating over the price in the shops and out on the open street.

I said hello to Hermann's girlfriend and through her I got introduced to David and his Burmese girlfriend. David started teaching in Thailand over four years ago; "You won't get rich by teaching in Thailand." His girlfriend, with whom he has lived with for two years now, tells me a lot about her life. She fled with all her family from the violence in the border region. After some years in a refugee camp she met David and started to integrate in Thai society, she still speaks little Thai. She, her English and her stories, impress me. She wants to study in Bangkok next year to be able to help her people.

When I tell her that I want to visit the refugee camps at the riverside she definitely doesn't want me to do that on my own. She asks her brother to take me there and he tells me where to find him the next day. I only had a glance at the fence as I was denied entrance. It seems that the Thai government wants to keep their existence quiet, fearing the build up of a huge refugee volunteer "industry", like in the 1970's at the Cambodian/Laos/Thai border.

Pee Eed's (Hermann's girlfriend) parents own an upmarket restaurant in town, "Bai Fern". Farang prefer eating in these kind of restaurants, not knowing that their meat was bought on the market like every meat in town. Woman at the market have a fulltime job trying to kill the flies that want to have dinner too. The food is very reliable here and I prefer eating "off the street", it's mostly good, cheap and a good chance to meet local people.

I booked a ticket on the night bus to Bangkok tonight, have to get moving to Trang, Songkla. It seems that I still have deadlines waiting for me, even when having a "year off!"