 Wat Jom Kham overlooks Naung Tung Lake, Kengtung |
 by Philip Game
Cross the river at Mae Sai, and step back fifty years into Burma...
Walk across the bridge at the Thai Kingdom’s northernmost point, and travel north to the heartland of an ancient Thai culture. Burma, the ‘Union of Myanmar’, usually prohibits entry by land, but this route into the Eastern Shan State is an exception; your papers will be scrutinised at five or six checkpoints en route.
By the way, your ten-dollar border permit fee goes straight to the regime in Rangoon, but otherwise your greenbacks, baht and kyats go straight into the pockets of ordinary people in one of the world's poorest nations. The arguments for and against visiting Burma are not as black-and-white as many suppose.
Turn the clock back half a century in Kengtung, a sleepy town built around three lakes, dotted with golden pagodas and crumbling colonial architecture. Beyond the town, secluded in its remote valley, the hamlets of several hill tribe minority peoples cling to forested slopes; the road continues north to Mengla, the slightly surreal casino town on the border of China’s Yunnan Province.
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