Weekends in Mae Sot

Most of the time here in Mae Sot I spend either by my desk staring at my 11" computer/notebook screen, or on my mattress under the mosquito net (the one Emma and I share) staring at my 11" computer/notebook screen. So what is there to blog about?

Small things like that the cook do not let us (Emma and me) clean our dishes; he takes them out of our hands if he has to. Why? Other people here clean their own dishes. Is it because we are guests? Does he not think that we do it right? I do not know!

And that we have introduced the mosquito zapper to the office! Stig, you know the electrical mosquito swatter that grill the bugs with electrical shock. And when you hit one it sounds like firework. Emma bought one and then Sunny went out and got one and now we are getting really skilled in mosquito zapping! Every evening is like New Years Eve:-)

What else?

You have to take of your shoes before you enter a shop.

We can buy whole wheat bagels from a Canadian who has settled here and runs a breakfast restaurant with western food for western volunteers and aid workers.

Western volunteers get drunk every weekend.

We are being woken up at about 6.15 every morning by roosters, trucks, dogs and talking from outside, singing and keyboard playing from down stairs, and radio/music/chanting broadcasting from the temple across the street.

And then there is Thai television. Each actor have two expressions they change between: confused what-is-going-on-here and devastated crying. There is one show about some tiger girls. It is full of action, and when the three heroines and one hero are fighting they are "tigers" wearing tiger masks. So they kind of live a double life, because no one knows that they are The Tigers. And then there is a fake tiger, and she is the bad one! This is all we have understood so far; there are no subtitles...

Moer to write about? We have actually been a little bit around in the weekends:

We went to a cave the first weekend. It was supposed to be one hour drive north of Mae Sot, but it took us 2 1/2 hour on our rented scooters to get there. Our behinds were aching! The entrance of the cave did not look so impressive and I was not sure if it was worth the scooter ride, but then we walked further in and it was an amazing stalactite cave. By the way, Americans have some strange food habits... We were two Norwegians (yes, I have run into a Bergenser here), one British guy and nine Americans on the trip and some of the Americans were trusted with the responsibility to bring food. The food they brought was bread, peanut butter and strawberry jelly. The important part is that both the peanut butter and the strawberry jelly goes on the bread at the same time! Mmm, or? I am not convinced... I have, by the way, learned the difference between jelly and jello. Jello is short for gelatin and is the dessert or other shaking substances, and jelly is jam without pieces of fruit in it (but it is used about jam with pieces of fruit also! (?)) So, my question it then; why is jellyfish called jellyfish?!

The Sunday after the cave trip, we (still Emma and me) were invited to a wedding in one of the camps. One of the girls working in organization got married and all the staff was going. It was a very nice opportunity to visit one of the camps on a happy occasion.

The last picture album is from a overnight trip to a national park one hour east of Mae Sot. The main attraction is a waterfall, or more correct a small river with five waterfalls. There is a nice trail following the river. We were four girls this time and we had a very relaxed weekend with some easy hiking. We spent the night in small cabins with lots of ants. The bathroom by the restaurant was so fresh and nice I had to take a picture. Notice the green plant! On our way back we had a strange waiting-for-the-bus-experience. It was a good walk down to the main road from the cabins so the resort/national park staff drove us down and took us to the bus stop. Or more specific: police road check point. This confused us a little bit... There are not so many Thais speaking English, but is seemed as if they knew what they were doing. So there we were; at a police road check point, eating our lunch from plastic bags (tasting delicious) and drinking water/coffee the police offered us for TWO HOURS! I think that the thing was that we were going with minibuses, and they fill up at the bus station and leave when they are full. Since we were getting on in the middle of nowhere there would not be any free seats for us. So the clue was that the police called the bus station and told the driver that there would be four tourists coming on so he should leave four seats free. We did not really understand why it took two hours and seven minibuses before one would pick us up (we were about 15 minutes from the bus station). But we had a good time in each others company and also got a good story about some packages that were thrown to the police from some trucks... More about that another time;-)

Tomorrow, Sunday, we have to get up at 6 o'clock because we are going to Graduation in a refugee camp six hours from here. We are joining with the excuse that Emma is going to be the English MC at the Graduation ceremony and I am going to be photographer. The next eight days are we going to five Junior College Graduations in five camps. We are very exited to go. Or, I should may not use "exited" about going to see refugee camps. But it is true, because we want to go there because we are curious about how they look like and how people are living there. I am also happy about being appointed to "photographer" so I have an excuse to bring my camera and run around taking pictures. I hope I have some clever thoughts to share about this next time I am writing. In the mean while I will recommend a film called "Enjoy poverty", directed by the Dutch artist Renzo Martens asking the question "Who owns poverty?". It is a disturbing film, but should be mandatory for all volunteers and aid workers. I do not say that he is right, but he certainly ask a question that deserve some thoughts.