Borders and Buddhas

Next we went to Mea Sai the border town with Burma. Thie Main Street is one big market so we browsed for awhile. The vendors seemed content to let us window shop; there was no hard sell like in Bangkok. Burma drives on the right side of the road and Thailand on the left. So there is a dance on the bridge connecting the two countries where the cars switch from one side to the other!

Lunch was a westernized buffet at The Boarderview Restaurant, overlooking the Mekong River. The village is in poor shape as the Chinese have built a casino in Laos, across the river, and that has bled out much of the traffic. Many of the storefronts were shuttered.

The Mekong is shallow and silty here. Tan blames dams upriver in China for diverting the water from the river.

Our last stop for the day was at Wat Cheri Leung, a 12th century temple ruin. The main temple has been restored. We saw many Buddhist monks. The orange robes signified a Thai monk, the rust robes were Burmese and the brown robes were monks who strictly followed the Buddha’s teachings in hopes of reaching enlightenment.

The property has many teak trees; the temple is trying to get permission to cut them down and sell the timber. Teak is making a comeback here but it takes a long time to reach maturity. We also passed many rice fields, pineapple plantations and the ubiquitous banana trees.Read more