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December 30, 2005
Ghost Town: Mong La
At the guesthouse through out the day everyone is discussing there future travel plans—it can shorten the journey to travel as a group because the taxi drivers have fewer seats to fill and can leave earlier. Both Brittany and I are headed up for Mongla the next day and agree to try and arrange a taxi the next morning. This turned out to be an interesting exercise is patient negotiating. The original Corolla driver we approached wanted 1000 Baht each, but then offered 750 each…which works out to nearly USD$20 for a three hour ride. Too much, so after getting board around 10:30am we tell the driver ‘no’ and are prepared to just spend another day in town. This changes things with the group drivers notably and we soon are ushered into the front seat of a ‘80s Toyota Hilux pickup truck that is only half loaded for 500 Baht each—a slightly high, but fair price.
The trip north was beautiful with the many mountains that were thankfully not to steep. Road conditions were better than Laos, but worse than Thailand. The second of three (or four?) police check points was more like a boarder crossing: there were officials manning two gates in different uniforms and at the second gate we forked over 37 Chinese Yuan each. From what I can gather, this portion of the Shan state is controlled by the ethnic Chinese Wa clan and was formerly in open rebellion with the national government. Hence the border crossing feeling, the Yuan payment, etc.
When we finally arrived in town and check in at the 60 Yuan (US$8) a room hotel near teh market. It is the best $8/night hotel I’ve ever seen. I’m in room 226 and Brittany is across they was in 219. It is about 2pm and we are famished. Across from the hotel is the central market were we easily find some great Shan-style vegetarian food that is nice and spicy. After lunch we head off to explore town. It was even more spooky than Kengtung—a literal ghost town.
In Mengla a dozen years ago or so, they had set up several casinos and large hotels. Much investment clearly went into the basic infrastructure to make it attractive. It was a boom town full of Chinese tourist and lots of traders. Apparently all this came to a screeching halt a over a year ago and now things are different. Why? The Asian Times reports in CHINA MOVES ON MYANMAR: Casino town loses out "The reason can be traced back to {the summer of 2003}, when the daughter of a high-ranking cadre in the Chinese central government lost millions of yuan in Mong La's casinos." There are dozens of casinos, hotels and discothèques in various states of closure and disrepair. Some, like the Myanmar Royal Casino, are closed but still being maintained. Not a car in the parking lot but exquisitely manicured hedges that read in English ‘WELCOME’. Other buildings have paint peeling off of them, broken windows and trash littering the surrounding grounds. The streets were nearly empty of people and cars, at least in the sense that they city had the infrastructure to accommodate many multiples more people. We didn’t even bother with the side walks that much.
At the other end of town near the Chinese border is a great Wat/temple which was our goal. We accidentally took a left instead of a right and found ourselves just a few tens of meters from the Burma/China boarder. It was a bit shocking to realize that we were headed that way because there was no vehicle traffic—only a few hand pulled carts with agricultural goods by local peasants. So we backtrack a bit, take the right turn, pass a police check point where they half laugh at us and point up the road to the temple. The view from the temple was amazing…and only a few hundred meters from a hill on the Chinese side of the boarder with a large mobile phone mast. (This explains all the Chinese Telecom and Unicom shops in Mengla.) I break out my Swiss SIM and realize that I can ring my family for the obligatory holiday calls the next morning. Cool. The temple itself was very impressive and well maintained. Inside the temple there were about a dozen chronological murals starting with the enlightenment of Buddha all the way to current day justification of the current government and Chinese support of it. There was also a guest book which I signed. One has to leaf back a few pages to find the sporadic western name.
Once we left the temple and bought a bottle of water each, we headed down the mountain were we were intercepted by a young man who spoke some English. He apparently was a correspondent student of some sort of science (Chemistry?) and had ambitions of being a tour guide. He walked us down to and in the Drug Eradication Museum which we really had no intention of visiting. Brittany and I politely viewed all the displays and read the English language exhibits. It was spooky and boring, but I felt somewhat obliged to follow through with it. Once we finished, our impromptu guide was no where in sight so we quickly headed back into town.
Once back in the city, we took the scenic route and delved into the old city. This is were the heart of the current town life seems to be and we vowed to come back for dinner. Before exiting the old town we came across two young girls dressed up in stunning red outfits. I motioned that I wanted to take a picture. They were too shy, but an old lady a) made them do it, and b) made me pay them 5 Yuan. Capitalism is alive and well in Burma.
Soon we are back at the hotel to freshen up and put on warmer clothing. It has been a beautiful day in stark contrast to the cloudy drizzle of Kengtung. Once the sky starts to darken we can start to see stars more clearly than I have in months.
Back up in the old town we settle down in a restaurant that looks very popular. Brittany, having traveled much more extensively than myself, introduces me to the skill of point-n-cook. If required, one should even go into the kitchen and indicate what is acceptable, and what is not. This is a great skill for a picky vegetarian like my self. As we chow down we notice that two tables are seated mostly by men who are drinking Johnny Walker black label. There are also lots of new full sized four door sedans about. No BMWs or anything, but clearly these guys are wealthy…maybe even the movers and shakers in town. Hard to tell.
After dinner we first pick up some fried crispy things along the side of the street for Brittney and then head down to the central market which is now significantly more active than before. We settle down for a beer (Huang Guang(?) 4.2%) and observe our surroundings. There are people selling food and goods, our waitress/owner is playing Mahjong with some friends (and clearly winning some cash by nights end), there are many store fronts surrounding the market with red lights which we interpret to be infrequently visited brothels, a crowded pool hall, and a group of monks who smiled and joked as we passed.
We are very interested in finding a beer that will actually give us a buzz and after forty-five minutes of walking about town we settle on two Chinese brewed Budweiser beers each and go back to the now very chilly market. It doesn’t take long before our interest in being warm and getting some sleep overtakes our desire to finish the beers at our leisure. Bed time for Bonzo.
Posted by stu at December 30, 2005 10:00 AM