If someone mentioned that they were planning a trip to Thi Lo Su waterfall in the Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary or Amphoe Mae Sot in Tak province, there would be nothing very surprising about it.
But if they said they are going for a short holiday in the provincial capital, Muang Tak, you may wonder why. There is nothing very interesting there, you may think. It's just a place you pass through on your way to Lampang or Chiang Mai.
But actually, Muang Tak still has remnants and echoes of its long history that make it well worth a visit. Back in the days when people had to travel through the region by boat on the Ping River, Tak was a resting and stopover point that developed into a commercial centre.
Loaded up: Myanmar women carrying goods on their heads.
Evidence of that period survives today. The community in Trok Ban Jeen, a residential area now, was a commercial neighbourhood in the past. Evidence survives that shows it once took the form of terraced houses along a walkway, all built in traditional Thai style. Later the Ancient City museum park at Paknam took most of them and installed them in the museum's grounds as an exhibit.
But nowadays Mae Sot has such a brilliant aura around it that its importance overwhelms that of Muang Tak as a place to visit. We can start with the many interesting things set along the road that leads to Mae Sot.
First there is the Muser hilltribe market, where the Muser vendors bring temperate-climate fruit and vegetables to sell at low prices. The cantaloupes are especially famous, and they are delicious.
Another attraction along the road that you definitely shouldn't pass by is Wat Phothikun, also called Wat Toei Hawm. To find it, drive a short distance past the Phra Wo shrine and you will see the road leading in to it on the left. It is a beautiful temple, built over a period of 14 years by Somprasong Chaonarai, an artist who had graduated from Silpakorn University. Its art and architecture draw on styles from various eras when Thai art flourished.
Visiting Mae Sot is like going to Myanmar without having to bother with the plane fare. It is located on the border and is connected to the neighbouring country by a bridge that crosses the Moei River at its narrowest point.
Mae Sot is a place through which goods that are being transported between the two countries pass. On the Thai side there are many factories that can take advantage of cheap Myanmar labour, and so much of the population comes from across the border that Mae Sot is like a Myanmar city, complete with that country's cuisine, traditions and culture.
A taste of home: Fresh chicken coloured yellow in the market, giving visitors a glimpse of what is available across the border in Myanmar.
The places where the full flavour of the city's Myanmar culture can be enjoyed most fully are, of course, the fresh markets. The one to go to is the municipal market, which is open in the morning and on into the afternoon.
As you walk into it you will feel that you are actually in Myanmar. The women, dressed in sarongs, carry goods in baskets balanced on their heads, their faces tinted yellow by dried turmeric paste. The mouths of many people are red from chewing betel nuts.
Many of the prepared foods sold there are strange to Thai eyes, but there is one that will be familiar, called suay tha min. Suay tha min is coconut khao nio moon — sweetened sticky rice with coconut cream of the type eaten with mango as khao nio mamuang in Thailand. Thick coconut cream is put on top and the rice is baked or grilled over charcoal until the coconut cream on top browns. The taste is nutty and salty-sweet. A variant, paeng moang, uses a starchy mixture for the lower part instead of sticky rice.
In the past, I thought these two puddings were specialities of the Thai Yai people because they are local items associated with Mae Hong Son province. But seeing it here gave me the impression that they might have a wider lineage.
Two good reasons to visit: ‘Khanom suay tha min’ and ‘paeng moang’.
There are other interesting sweet dishes sold at the Mae Sot market. One is made by cutting sticky rice into pieces and deep-frying them, another by dipping a kind of local bean in batter and deep-frying it. Vendors also sell tapes and CDs of Myanmar songs, pictures of film stars, calendars and strings of beads, as well as packets of betel for chewing.
Plenty of fresh food is available. There are chickens, slaughtered and plucked, that have been coloured yellow; maybe the customers prefer them that way. The fish stalls are intriguing, with both freshwater and saltwater fish on display. Since the Myanmar deep-sea fishing area is not far from here, very large and fresh sea bass can be bought at the market. Another interesting offering is the freshwater pla yeesok (Jullien's golden carp). Those from Myanmar are caught in the wild, not raised on farms like those sold in Thai markets.
One more kind of fish you can buy at the Mae Sot market is the pla kraho (Siamese giant carp), a freshwater fish with large scales that looks something like a sea bass. If one of these were caught in Thailand it would be big news, because they have long-since disappeared from this country. The vendor who sells them said that they are always available there.
Don't leave the market without investigating the prepared food section, where different dishes are arrayed in pots to take home or eat right there. Most of the offerings are curries and soups. There is the mild, yellow fish curry called kaeng karee in Thai, here made with aubergine and okra. There is also a red coconut cream-based curry made with hard-boiled eggs and a rather intense one made from chicken offal. This last is a purely Myanmar dish that you won't find in Bangkok.
There are plenty of household items and kitchen utensils, too, especially the round aluminium pots called maw khaek in Thailand. They are inexpensive, but the quality of the metal isn't very good. Cutters for betel, an item that has not been sold in Thailand for many years, are there, too. In Thailand they are seen mostly in museum displays of tools used in Thai households in the past.
In the late afternoon, Myanmar vendors congregate along the banks of the Moei River to sell sea crabs. They are available in quantity because the sea is nearby and the crabs are caught in great numbers.
Soft-shell crab farms in Chanthaburi and Trat order all of the young crabs that are about to shed their shells from Mae Sot. The distance from Trat to Mae Sot is almost 700km, but transport trucks cover it daily at high speed, to deliver the crabs before they die.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to interesting things to see and to eat in Mae Sot. The area is a fascinating place on the edge of Thailand with a character all its own, where any short walk will lead to a discovery. Don't pass it by when heading north. n
