Aiya Cafe, Mae Sot, Thailand

Aiya Cafe, Mae Sot, Thailand
Originally uploaded by maujb.

We arrived in Mae Sot on Feb 6 for a month of volunteer work and Thai country living. Mae Sot is a Burmese-Chinese-Karen-Thai trading outpost consisting of legal and black-market transactions, especially gems, and is home to an extra-ordinary number of NGOs.

Riding bikes around town, we saw Thai soldiers, Karen women in traditional dress and makeup, Burmese men in longyis (sarong, lava lava), families of four riding past on a single moped, and many a paleface NGO worker swilling a fruitshake or a Singha.