"KAWTHOUNG: SEA GYPSIES AND KICK ..." a Kawthoung Travel Page by Hmmmm

JUST ANOTHER BORDER TOWN? I CERTAINLY THINK NOT! KAWTHOUNG IS A FISHING TOWN SITUATED ON THE SOUTHERN MOST TIP OF MAINLAND BURMA (MYANMAR). Actually its 1hour 30 south of Yangon by plane. Kawthoung Is a bustling town, full of day tourists, Thai visa extenders, freight haulers who constantly cross the frenetic Pakchan Estuary, shop keepers, money changers, and ubiquitous, omnipresent tauts arranging trips and scams for tourists and Burmese alike. A visit to Kawthoung on a sunny day is a feast for the senses.

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Burma in Yellow, Red road to Ranong.

AN ABSOLUTELY AUTHENTIC TRAVEL EXPERIENCE

I had come to Thailand, flown into Phuket, for the sole purpose of crossing into Burma overland. I didn't have long, and I squandered a lot of what time I did have on Patong Beach, soaking up rays by day and getting almost inebriated at night.

The trip was relatively easy. I caught a local A/C bus from the Phuket City bus terminal and headed north for 5 hours to Ranong. Which by the way is a bit of a destination itself. It is well regarded by Thais as a Place to de-stress in thermal springs. How ever Ranong does tend to smack a little of a border town.

A day later, using a mixture of Mototaxis, boats and personal steam, I found my passage accross the broad Pakchan River Estuary to the Burmese Border town of Kawthoung.

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Burmese Boys. Photo: Aaron Irving

I am a New Zealander so I got a rather generous 3 days for my $5 US visa and not the usual 1 day express pass that I was expecting after reading my lonely planet and talking to other tourists. So that was great.

The trip over the Estuary itself was for me even better than arriving at my destination (See my travel Log 'Crossing Pakchan Estuary'). Ever since I can remember I have always wanted to see Burma. As a child I watched movies and read books about old stuffy English Gentlemen moaning about the heat as they surveyed Bagan. And now I was finally here. This little trip to Kawthoung is but a tiny little trip. And by no way can I profess to visiting Burma proper. But Kawthoung is in Burma, and it represents a part of Burmese culture I cannot see when I head North to the Cultural Capitals of Yangon and Mandalay. In Saying this I know I have to see Kawthoung again, because there are still a couple of things left to photograph.