Day trip to Mong La, on the Chinese border, Shan State, Burma
February 26, 2008

Another 3 hours further afield from Kengtung to the Chinese border, a very weird place....
It's controlled by the Wa, one has to pay 36 yuan to get in, and they accept only Chinese currency--not even Burmese currency is taken--even though it is still in Burma....

characteristic Chinese scene as we approach Mong La

modern, downtown Mong La, even more developed than Kengtung

our hotel, which used to serve all the gambling tourists from China. Now it is about $8 a night
since the gambling ceased...

a weird dome in a parking lot....signs of a boom-towns better days

one of the newly re-opened casinos just outside of town, full of smoking Chinese tourists...

a Tai village on the way. Very similar to what I had seen in Yunnan, a few hours east....

high-low. easy money....

delicious and spicy hot pot, or rather , hot wok....good thing we had Jeff along to order, or who knows what we would have eaten!

the night market

tiger-something ginseng. It was over $10 a shot!

the river flowing through Mong La

wildlife trade at the morning market. a dead badger-type creature, elephant skin, tiger and bear parts, dried carcass of a slow loris (?), hornbill heads, live pangolin and turtles....the list goes on.....

the now-abandoned "Oriental Hotel"

some bear-bile concoction or something at a local pharmacy

church on a hill outside of town surrounded by rubber trees...

at the hilltop chedi looking back over Mong La town

the border crossing into Yunnan, China. Nothing but rubber plantations on those hills..

'How to make morphine from opium' exhibit in the wondrous state run 'opium museum'

soldiers out on firewood patrol

the infamous 'jatropha', being grown all over the country, along roadsides, etc. to make biodiesel....