Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Internet
KengtunghasnotyetcaughtupwiththerestofMyanmarintheinternetconnectiv-
ity stakes, and service regularly goes down for days or weeks on end. If you're in luck, you
shouldbeabletogetonlineatmosthotels;failingthat,trythelargeinternetcaféonthewest
bank of the lake.
MONG LA
Way out near the Chinese border,
Mong La
has a bit of a reputation. Essentially a part of
China, and even running on Beijing time, it has long been popular with (almost exclus-
ively male) Chinese tourists, whocome across thebordertothrowdowncashatthetown's
brothels and casinos. Pressure from the Chinese government forced many to close in 2005,
though in the words of one chuckling local police officer, “we just moved them all back
ten miles, and made them much larger”. Unfortunately, the border crossing here is closed
to third-party nationals, but the place does draw a few curious Westerners. Other than the
odd Myanmar-meets-Vegas-meets-Bangkok atmosphere, the most interesting sight here is
the town
market
, though it makes depressingly clear the continuing Chinese trade in en-
dangered animals - live pangolins and monkeys, as well as tiger claws, elephant skin, bear
paws and the like.
Tachileik
You'llfindyourselfpassingthroughbustling
TACHILEIK
ifmakingthetripbetweenKeng-
tung and northern Thailand. There's a palpable frontier atmosphere here - it's almost as if
a zest for foreign currency has physically yanked the place right up to the border, and Thai
baht is indeed the main currency accepted everywhere, from hotels to the tiny stores dealing
in black-market goods. That said, these days Chinese is quite possibly the second language
here - a sign of the times.
Though there's no reason to visit the place on its own merit, Tachileik has long been a pop-
ular visa-run destination for expats living in Thailand, and travellers wanting to peek inside
Myanmar without shelling out on a visa or benefiting the regime. At one point foreigners
were allowed all the way to Kengtung on a free
temporaryvisa
,
but now you're not permit-
ted to use this to stray any further than the Tachileik city limits.
