What a sad place. I instantly went from the "land of smiles" to the "land of frowns". I know border towns aren't by any means representative of their host nations, but still - there is a strong trace of the nation's condition within them. It felt like I had stepped across 1000 km instead of the 1000 m to cross over by foot. Even the tuk-tuks looked angry.
Tachileik itself was nothing more than a huge illegal market full of ivory and Chinese counterfeit goods ranging from watches to Viagra. There was quite an impressive pagoda at a mountain top, however it became less impressive when I found out it was merely a smaller scale replica of a pagoda in Rangoon.
I didn't spend too much time here. That said, I had met a brave 19 yr old from Montreal who had backpacked across Myanmar for 2 months and had nothing but good things to say about it and its people - perhaps the countryside is a different story (let's not even talk politics here).
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