Mekong Diaries: Day 30

Day 30

We met a man from northern Shan State. After a brief search for a better location interviewed him in one of our hotel rooms, as a silhouette. A slight man with a gentle way of talking, it was hard to imagine that he was risking his life to speak with us. All of us crammed into a tiny hotel room, with our source translating himself, recording his voice of isolation and victimization.

After the interview our source took us across the border and we took our first steps inside Burma crossing the border. We tried the local food at a alfresco diner, discovering that fried rice tastes the same everywhere! Then hiring a couple of tiny seated tuk tuks we strained their mouse-like engines in order to make it to the top of a hill where the Schwedagon Pagoda. After spending a little time milking the pagoda for all of the photos possible we bade farewell to our source.

Next to the Customs House we entered a small market where trays of pharmaceuticals were rapidly shoved before us, as well as lifetime supplies of Viagra. We strolled through the market searching for signs of a wildlife trade we knew operated here. Once we found the first glass display case we seemed to see wild animal skins and bones everywhere. Mostly deer, monkeys and smaller wild cats, we did find the skin of a tiger. All of the organs and teeth from thousands of rare and exotic animals in bags and trays, supplying the medicinal traditions and superstitions of the passing trade. We stopped at a café, strangely westernised and had some very imaginative ice cream sundaes. Then crossed back to the Thai side of the border feeling that we had uncovered little of the truth of life inside Burma.