high tide
thailand | travelled in 2013 | posted on aug 16, 2013
july and august in thailand, it is rainy season. so it rains almost every day. usually not longer than an hour, and after the rain, it is again tropical hot and very humid.
in contrast to our trip to thailand in 2012, the heat now is quite bearable, even pleasant. and despite the rain, we were quite lucky in the last weeks. except for those three days when we went to mae sot, a town located at the border between thailand and myanmar. already during the drive to mae sot, it was raining cats and dogs. when we arrived in mae sot, still everything seemed to be normal. however, only a few hours later, the first streets were flooded. the next day, the whole town was under water.
mae sot's main attraction is the border market, a huge burmese-influenced market area located directly at the border which here follows the moei river. mostly burmese, thai and chinese goods are sold here, many being black-market stuff. well, i can't say, if the market really is like that, because when we arrived there, the whole market area had disappeared in the river which had become a huge stream - here and there only the rooftops of the market stalls peeked out of the flood.
well, you could say this trip literally had fallen into the water - but it hadn't. we may not have seen what we travelled to mae sot for, but our stay in this town definitely has been a unique experience. it was amazing how experienced and relaxed the people dealt with the situation. there was no panicking or complaining at all.
three days later, when we left mae sot, almost all of the water was gone, and it seemed that nothing has ever happened.