Mae Sot Weekend

Our Canadian friends and travel buddies, Jess and Alex, were placed in Mae Sot. We decided to take a weekend and visit their neck of the woods. Mae Sot is a 9 hour bus ride or about an hour plane - again we chose fast and went with the plane. Mae Sot is in northwestern Thailand right next to the Myanmar border. Because of the location, it is one of the most diverse areas in Thailand; Burmese, Karon, Hmong, Thai and Westerners all live in the area. It is difficult to know the exact population of Mae Sot because of the constant influx of Burmese refugees. There are estimates of about 30,000 people, but there are also estimates of over 100,000 refugees in the greater Mae Sot area. Compared to Chiang Mai and Bangkok, the town feels very small in size. Having said that many areas are very busy, much busier than a town of 30,000 people should feel.



Only two flights go between Mae Sot and Bangkok daily, because of this we took a personal day on Friday to catch the cheaper flight option, this also allowed us more time. At the airport, we breezed through security again and made the long trek to our gate. At the gate, we boarded onto a minibus that drove us to the airplane. A small 25-30 passenger, propeller airplane would be taking us to Mae Sot. This made for a loud flight, and sadly we did not have a window in our row- the only row in the plane with no window, sad day!

The airplane we took to and from Mae Sot.

Love the songthaews!

We arrived and hopped in a songthaew, a pick-up truck with bench seats in the back, and rode to our hotel. We've decided that songthaew is our favorite way to travel in Thailand! We checked-in to our hotel. We loved the amenities of this hotel - hot water, a soft bed ,and fast reliable internet! Alex and Jess met up with us at the hotel, we rented bikes, and off we went for some delicious 20baht ($0.66) per plate pad thai. After lunch we hopped on our bikes and followed Jess and Alex as they gave us a tour of Mae Sot. We stopped by a little stand to get some sugarcane juice, which we were told was very good. The juice lady started using a machine to crush the sugarcane and extract the juice. We all got a bag of this green juice. It is a different taste, but as we drank more and more it started tasting better and better.

Next up was their house and school. On our way, we stopped at a little market and roamed around for a bit. Beth purchased some super comfy pants, she was very excited about them! We rode a bit to the edge of town where they live. We scoped out their huge (our new standard of huge) bright lime green house. We were quite blown away at the size of their living quarters compared to ours - one room was almost twice as big as our whole apartment. Guess that is what you get living out of the big crowded city.

Their school was next. We were excited to see how they school compares to ours. Wow - what a difference! They have a much smaller K-12 school and are the only two English teachers in the school compared to 16 foreign and another 10 Thai English teachers in our school. They took us on a little walking tour around, students stopped in their tracks when they saw two more westerners in their school. It was actually very comical to see their reactions. After the school tour, we ate some ice cream at a shop next to the school. We were very full of all the different things we tried that day!

Before supper that night we enjoyed some games and music. After games we hopped on our bikes and headed to a great restaurant, Casa Mia. Amazingly great food and huge portions!!

After a great nights sleep and breakfast we headed out on our bikes alone, while Jess and Alex were tutoring a few students from their school. The whole town is easily navigable by bike but you must remember where you turn because roads are not straight and the signs are not in English (In Bangkok they are in both English and Thai.) At one point we rode right through a herd of goats on a dirt road, it felt like were were in a completely different world in this part of town! We continued riding and made our way all the way to their house which is nearly out of town. We all grabbed lunch together, at a Canadian restaurant. We were so surprised at the amount of cute little restaurants (many offering western dishes) Mae Sot has to offer! They also have tons of little shops, and everything within a short bike ride! This is very different from what we are used to in our neighborhood, no one would dare ride a bike on our busy streets.

Woke up with this view - awesome!

After eating, we played some basketball. Beth got to show off all her basketball skills! haha. Now off to the pool to cool off. After cleaning up we relaxed a bit, and played some Farkle (dice game). Now off to the Saturday night market to find supper...and bugs ....to eat.

At the beginning of the market we saw one of Alex's students break dancing with a group of other break dancers, so they did a little performance for us. Then we started walking, stopping briefly to check out cute clothing. Then we got to the food section. First up - BUGS! We had researched earlier what each bug tastes like and the best way to eat them - we were prepared! We choose silk worms. Beth was first up, the lady handed her a free one - not bad crunchy and salty. Alex was a little more daring and ate a grasshopper. We ordered a bag of worms to share.....ok we didn't finish the bag but we munched for a bit. It really was not that bad - dry, salty, and crunchy.

To supplement our bug appetizer, we grabbed some chicken and sam tam (spicy green papaya salad). We made our way out of the market, rode our bikes to our next location - the nightlife street. We decided to finish our snacking meal with a whole fish, salted and roasted over an open fire, served with cold noodles, a variety of greens, and peanut sauce. Very tasty!!! After taking in a some live Thai music from a local band, we headed back to the hotel, time for bed.

The next day, Sunday, we all rode our bikes to grab a late breakfast, yet another cute little cafe with great food! It was time to say goodbye, until our next travels. We hopped back in the songthaew and headed back to the airport. This was the smallest commercial airport we have ever seen! We walked through minimal security, then out onto the tarmac to our plane. Got a window seat this time!!

Another great trip! :)