Greetings from Mae Sot!
I'll keep tonight's post short and sweet because 1) it was mostly a travel day and 2) I've been up since 2:00AM...because jet lag.
At 6AM, Matt and I ran at Benchasiri park, which is about a quarter mile from the hotel. It was a nice way to start the morning, although at that point I was already 4 hours into my day, so maybe "start the morning" is the wrong phrase.
The group ate breakfast, checked out, and met Noi, Lek, and our drivers (some of whom have been working with our program over over a decade!) for **an on-time departure**. YES, TEAM!! We technically had an on-time departure, but a few folks were slightly late getting to the lobby due to a line at check out, which meant that we got to take our first "sad selfie."
A tradition since 2017.
If you're late, we take a "sad selfie" because when you're not here, we miss you.Our destination: Mae Sot.
The van ride:
The drive itself was beautiful and without incident (read: long) but when your patronus is a camp squirrel (read: you have ADHD), you find ways to stay busy:
While on the 6 hour drive, I crocheted a peacock and I'm halfway through a friendship bracelet.
I have a love/hate relationship with peacocks that I'll describe another time.
We make frequent 7-11 stops while driving across the country.
I bet the number of hacky sack games played will be over 100 by the end of the trip.
Asian convenience stores are known for their variety of chip flavors
Selected flavor of the day(As my sleep deprivation continues to worsen, I can feel this post about to go off the rails.)
Sidebar: this is not the first, nor the second post of this blog that heavily features Pringles. I have STRONG feelings about Pringles. You can read about them here:
- The correct way to eat a Pringle
- Still passionate about Pringles
Asian Pringles are markedly smaller than US Pringles. After providing loving but corrective feedback to the students in my van about the potential to maximize their Pringle enjoyment by altering their consumption method, THEY ALL AGREED THAT COUCH-THROUGH-A-DOORFRAME METHOD IS SUPERIOR!
This picture will have significance later...a plot is afoot.
Okay, back to main quest. We got to Mae Sot around 4PM and Han gave a brief orientation to the city. Mae Sot is on the border of Thailand and Myanmar, and it is a city that houses many Myanmar refugees that have been fleeing their country since the military coup in 2021.
This BBC article does a really nice job of describing the larger political context and its implications on refugees in the city, as well as the city itself. Mae Sot is complicated.
After meeting, folks scattered for dinner. One of our students organized a large outing to a Japanese restaurant, which was very kind of him to do :), while Han and I took accompanied a few students to a Karen restaurant. The Karen people are an ethnic group dispersed throughout Southeast Asia, mostly in the mountainous regions of Thailand. I really need to do a more in-depth blog post about the Karen, but for now, I'd recommend these two sites for more info:
We ate at Tar La Paw. The ambience, service, and food were all awesome and I am marking this as a place that merits a return visit. Karen food is very earthy--lots of mushrooms and other veggies. And then a bunch of stewed meats in heavily spiced (and delicious) curries. Han discouraged us from ordering frog because apparently frogs are known for carrying a lot of parasites, but I did *try* to order the frog.
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Tar La Paw entrance
Beautiful dinner ambience!
Getting ready to order dinner
Lots of curries and garnishes. In Karen culture, you eat with your hands, so we gloved up and ate with our hands and it was great!
We ordered some curry beef, chicken, a traditional Karen soup with mushrooms and a bunch of other vegetables. While we were eating, a local Thai Instagrammer interviewed folks in the restaurant, and a singer recorded a song with a pianist. Unexpected live entertainment!
Okay, that's pretty much all I have on the day. I'll be off-grid for a few days while we stay at the Ban Nam Hom school. Should be back with updates on May 26th or close to that.
Also, it sounds like Bianca, Mia, Lily, and Isabelle have family members reading the blog--thanks for reaching and sharing your students with us :)
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