Mongla

STAR Lifestyle > Travel & Adventure
Saturday February 12, 2011
Mongla escapade
By LIZ PRICE
Mongla can almost be described as Myanmar’s sin city with its casinos, neon lights and a flourishing trade in wildlife.
Half the fun of travelling is in exploring small towns and checking out the local markets. However, the market at Mongla was one place I didn’t want to be. I left as soon as I saw some of the things for sale.
To be fair, I had heard about it, and had been warned, but I was still curious.
Such a sad sight caught my eyes. Live bears in tiny cages, parts of dead bears on tables, crates of snakes, rabbits, pangolins, etc. I am glad I left as later on my friends saw a bear being slaughtered.

A pristine temple in Mongla. — LIZ PRICE
Having started on the negative side, I can now say that the rest of my visit to Mongla was less depressing. Mongla (Mengla, Monglar) is capital of Special Region Number Four in the eastern Shan State of Myanmar. It is a border town that neighbours China’s Yunnan Province. Because of its close proximity to China, it has a completely different feel from other parts of Myanmar.
Nicknamed the City of Lights, it is connected to the outside world by the Internet and mobile phones. Cyber cafes are common enough but when night falls, the neon lights come alive to advertise the entertainment on offer, such as casinos, bars, karaoke and discos.
These places are mostly frequented by the Chinese. I was surprised at how busy the border was, considering there hadn’t been much traffic on the road between Thailand and Mongla. As it turned out, many Chinese tour buses crossed in and out at the border. Casinos are the main draw, but the wildlife markets in Mongla also have a wide appeal.
Mongla is well known both as a symbol of the struggle for autonomy in Mynmar and for casinos and other businesses including drug trafficking. It is controlled by the local ethnic Wa group who once fought against the Yangon troops. The city is said to be built on drug money. In the 1990s, it was a boom town with the casinos frequented by Chinese citizens living and working there, but that business died when the Chinese left.

The welcome signage
In recent years, however, business has picked up again. Shops have reopened, the red light district is more alive, and there is more of a buzz in the atmosphere. In addition to the visitors from China, there are some who come from Mae Sai, Thailand. As an ordinary tourist, I saw no sign of internal problems.
Nowadays, you see more Chinese than local people. The main currency used in town is the Chinese Yuan. You almost forget you are still in Myanmar. The town is quite new. It seemed very developed after the eastern part of Myanmar that we had just seen.
We saw new buildings under construction. The town was also quite busy with traffic. There were plenty of vehicles associated with the United Wa State Army. In stark contrast to these were the tour buses, and then there were the 14-ton Chinese cargo trucks that passed through.

An arch to the boom town. — LIZ PRICE
With the ever increasing trade between China and South-East Asia, the traffic on the road has drastically increased. The eastern Shan State and also northern Laos have seen a huge increase in the number of trucks passing from China’s Yunnan Province down to Thailand. This means that the shops in Mongla are stocked with Chinese goods.
Apart from shopping, there are few tourist attractions in the town. A big golden temple with a large standing Buddha is situated on a hill overlooking the town. There is an anti-narcotics museum which features exhibits on the burning of the poppy fields and destruction of the opium refineries, and tells of the government’s attempts to stop the drug trade.
There are several pagodas dotted around the town, and as you head for the border — a mere 1.5km away — you’ll find a large decorated entrance arch that was opened in 1994. A line straddles the road marking the border and tourists pose for photos with one foot in Myanmar and the other in China.
Casinos are a big draw the world over. The ones in Mongla have had an up-and-down ride. They were bustling in the 1990s, then by about 2005, they were closed down by China. A year later they reopened, and Myanmar’s Las Vegas was once again in action. However, most of casinos are now at Wan Hsieo, which is 16km southwest of Mongla.
These days the casinos are losing out again because the Laotian town of Boten in Luang Nam Tha province is capturing the market. Boten is a border town with Mohan in China. I was told that the Wan Hseio casinos are now frequented by young Laotians who go there to learn the casino trade.
The drawback to having new roads connecting countries is that there is an increase in trade in illegal wildlife. Sadly, more and more rare and endangered wild animal and plant species are being poached in Myanmar and openly sold in Mongla or are sent through into China. With the easing of border restrictions, businessmen and customers can easily pass across plying their trade. TRAFFIC and the World Wildlife Fund have been monitoring the situation for years, but it is very hard to enforce laws.

A place to eat
Mongla is a strange place, very un-Burmese in character. As soon as you leave, you feel like you have returned to the real Myanmar. Driving through the eastern Shan state towards Kengtung and Mae Sai, you pass ethnic villages . . . but that’s another story.
Fact File
Mongla is 85km from Kengtung, in the eastern Shan State of Myanmar. It borders China’s Daluo port in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province. There are several tour companies running tours from Mae Sai in Thailand, through to Mongla and back. They will also arrange a 14-day permit.
Travel for independent tourists is not easy. Depending on the political situation, it may be possible to travel by shared taxi or pick-up truck from Kengtung to Mongla and back. But you need a proper visa for this, not the 14-day permit. And you will have to visit the immigration department in Kengtung where you will be issued with travel papers and have to leave your passport. Upon your arrival in Mongla, a taxi will take you to another immigration unit for paperwork.
And it is compulsory to have a guide. You also have to pay the guide fees by the day, and normally also for his hotel accommodation and meals.
There are a few hotels in Mongla and several restaurants, all serving Chinese food.
The Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur is located at 8C, Jalan Ampang Hilir (Tel: 03-4251 6355).
© Liz Price

Mae Sai to Mongla

Published on The Brunei Times (http://www.bt.com.bn/en)

A drive through Myanmar's Shan state

The beauty of Shan: The big golden temple on the hill at Mongla; The temple at Kengtung, which is a sleepy but historical capital of the Shan State's Khun culture; members of one of the ethnic groups that inhabit the Shan area. Picture: Liz Price

Liz Price
CHIANG RAI, THAILAND

Saturday, November 15, 2008

TOURISTS are normally not allowed to travel through the area of Myanmar between Thailand and China. From the Thai town of Mae Sai in Chiang Rai province, non-locals are allowed day passes to visit the Burmese border town of Tachilek by surrendering their passport. It is also possible to get a 14-day visa which allows you to travel in the local area, and continue as far as Kengtung which is 160km from Thailand and 100km short of China's Yunnan province.

I was lucky as I was on a 4WD expedition and we got special permission to drive from Thailand right through Myanmar into China. This is something few foreigners have been able to do.

Myanmar's Shan State borders China to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and is almost a quarter of the total area of Myanmar. We just bisected the eastern corner of the state.

From Chiang Rai we drove the 60km to Mae Sai, and had quite a long wait at the Thai immigration so spent the time taking photos. As soon as the papers were in order we crossed to no man's land and waited on the bridge over the Sai River which separates Thailand from Myanmar. Our cameras were clicking the whole time as we snapped the locals walking across the borders.

Once we had clearance to enter Myanmar, we set off through the town of Tachilek. We drove as a convoy the whole way through Myanmar, which made it easier for the Thai drivers to remember to now drive on the right side of the road.

Some Burmese agents joined us, presumably to keep an eye on us. And we also had an official escort. There is now a new sealed highway all the way to the Chinese border, built by a Chinese company. It is a toll road, but fortunately our group was exempt from paying the tolls. The first toll booth is close to Tachilek. It is a very scenic road, initially following a river, then going up and over some small mountains. The road follows a series of narrow steep river gorges, with high ridges on both sides and there are hill tribe villages dotted here and there on the mountainsides and rare wide spots on the valley floors.

Shan state is largely rural and takes its name from the Shan people, one of several ethnic groups that inhabit the area. The Shan are mostly Theravada Buddhists, which is one of the oldest forms of Buddhism. Shan people are believed to have migrated from Yunnan in China, which is the province that borders the Shan state. The Shan are similar to the Dai people in Yunnan.

The Shan are one of the largest minority groups in Myanmar. They have been fighting an on-and-off war with the central Myanmar government for several decades. The government allows these groups to have a high degree of autonomy, including maintraining separate armed forces. The political situation, however, remains relatively unstable.

One thing I remember is the number of security checkpoints we had to pass through. Each checkpoint marks the border between a territory (usually a Special District or a city) controlled by a different army. This area, which comes under Region 4, is actually quite safe with all the security, as the authorities want to protect the trade link between China and Thailand.

The route crosses a narrow plain before following narrow rushing rivers, and we passed through Shan, Akha, Wa and Lahu villages. We stopped for lunch at Kengtung, which is the sleepy but historical capital of the Shan State's Khun culture. It is 163km from Mae Sai and situated at the end of a long valley.

The town is built around a small lake and has crumbling British colonial architecture and aging Buddhists temples. It is probably the most interesting town in Myanmar's entire Shan State, and in fact was the only town we went through.

The Khun speak a northern Thai language related to Shan and use a writing script similar to the ancient Lanna script. Lanna was an ancient kingdom in northern Thailand. Kengtung was founded in the 13th century. The king's palace that was built in 1905 became a historic landmark, but was destroyed in 1991 by the Myanmar government.

In the centre of town is a group of striking 19th century Buddhists sites, and the Wat Ho Khong temple and monastery. After a good Chinese style lunch, we continued on our journey. We went up and over two mountain ranges. It was a pleasant ride with autumn colours, dry rice fields, and wooden or attap houses. I saw lots of hay lofts in the fields.

We stopped at a pagoda on a hill. There was a primary school across the road and we took photos of the children and it was nice to see people were wearing their traditional tribal clothes.

Late afternoon we reached the border town of Mongla, 85km from Kengtung. It's quite a new town with a big golden temple on the hill, and seemed very developed after the part of Myanmar that we had just seen.

There were lots of Chinese tour buses crossing the border, mostly to go to the casinos and wild life markets in Mongla. There are also other forms of entertainment frequented by the Chinese such as bars, karaoke and discos. The main currency used in town is the Chinese Yuan.

Mongla is controlled by the local ethnic Wa group who once fought against the Yangon troops. The city is said to be built on drug money. In the 1990s it was a real boom town with the casinos frequented by Chinese citizens living and working there, but this business has largely dropped off as the Chinese have left. Now the town relies more on tourists from China but even that trade seems to have dropped off.

There are few tourist attractions in the town. There is a large decorated entrance arch at the border which was opened in 1994 and there are several pagodas dotted around the town.

Mongla is a strange place, very un-Burmese in character. But it had been a wonderful experience being able to have the opportunity of driving through this little visited area of Myanmar.The Brunei Times

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http://www.bt.com.bn/en/en/life/2008/11/15/a_drive_through_myanmars_shan_state