Southeast Asia forum

John (MAC)

Staying out of harms way is a central precept in travelling. On that I have no qualms.

However, one also needs to balance reality with fear driven campaigns.

A couple of years ago, I was at a village aside the upper Mae Nam Moei and it was quite disconcerting to be under the watchful eye of a Myanmar machine gun post.

But, that post doesn't necessarily mean anyone will get shot anytime soon.

Similarly, I was wandering along the border area near Ban Thoet Thai and was at one stage prevented from entering an area by Thai Army due to their 'activities'. That I was in a car and accidentally reversed into the guard post with a loud bang, bringing out hordes of rifle toting militia from the nearby bunkhouse, merely made for a good story. I never worried that they'd take aim.

For mine, the Thailand gov't knows the issues along the border with Myanmar. Where tourists or locals may be involved with conflict, I suggest the Thai gov't is very mindful of the circumstances and will prevent entry to those 'conflict' areas.

There are some tourists that read fear driven Travel Warning statements from their (originating) nations' foreign affairs dep't (or whatever its called in each country), and decide not to go anywhere near a cited area (like 100's of miles). To me, that's dumb (but I do like the absence of dumb tourists in these remote regions, so maybe there is merit).

As I contributed above...

Staying out of harms way is a central precept in travelling. On that I have no qualms.

However, one also needs to balance reality with fear driven campaigns.

Cheers

"There are doubtless some places with other hazards that are not human generated. Anyone know of any?"

I was out snorkelling on my own when a tsunami hit. Does that count? ;-)

Other hazards, not man made ...hmm...snakes?...I found a king cobra on the floor of my beach hut once and almost stepped on a green pit viper on the way to the restaurant one evening.

Not hiking on the Burmese border reminds me of a guy I met who was working in a GH in Burma. I asked him why he was limping and he showed me his leg, or rather lack of one. He'd stepped on a land mine on the Thai side of the border when he'd tried to get into Thailand illegally to find work.