Mong La: Myanmar's Sin City

[ezzra]

Just wondering, has any or TV's intrepid members have ever traveled to Mong La, also known

as the Las vegas of Myanmar? also the last frontier place for just about any vice a person

desires, a true modern day Sodom and Gomorrah... be interesting to read feedback...

Edited April 27, 2019 by ezzra

[PatOngo]

Is it family friendly like Thailand's world class Sin City?

[ezzra]

40 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

Is it family friendly like Thailand's world class Sin City?

It's a wild den of iniquity, a wet dream of every male who like sex drugs and gambling with no one looking at you like here in our beloved Thailand... 

[dddave]

I read that it is geared exclusively to rich Chinese and that police roadblocks usually prevent Western tourists from entering.  Westerners that do manage to get there are turned away from most of the gambling dens and bars.  

Edited April 27, 2019 by dddave

[ezzra]

1 hour ago, dddave said:

I read that it is geared exclusively to rich Chinese and that police roadblocks usually prevent Western tourists from entering.  Westerners that do manage to get there are turned away from most of the gambling dens and bars.  

Not really if you enter from Burma fly to Yangon and to Kengtung in eastern Shan State you're good to go and once there no one looks at you although you'd be in minority as most if not all are hineses and also some Thai people mostly ladyboys that hawk their wares you'd be surprised...

[Stevemercer]

Check out the videos on YouTube. Makes Pattaya look like a pensioner's bed and breakfast.

[malathione]

As far as I know, individual tourists can no longer go there. You need to get a special permit.

[Briggsy]

I went there a few years back. The casinos had just been closed. I think it may not be possible now in that the permits are difficult to get.

I hope you speak Chinese, have Chinese money, understand Chinese etiquette, like Chinese food and set your watch to Chinese time. Straight up.

 

If you are interested in a 'fun' time, you may find the 'fun' is not interested in the non-Chinese.

[Briggsy]

4 hours ago, ezzra said:

Not really if you enter from Burma fly to Yangon and to Kengtung in eastern Shan State you're good to go and once there no one looks at you although you'd be in minority as most if not all are hineses and also some Thai people mostly ladyboys that hawk their wares you'd be surprised...

You will need a permit to get to Kengtung (fairly easy) and another permit for Mong La (maybe not possible). Give it a try and see how you get on.

[NanLaew]

15 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

I went there a few years back. The casinos had just been closed. I think it may not be possible now in that the permits are difficult to get.

I hope you speak Chinese, have Chinese money, understand Chinese etiquette, like Chinese food and set your watch to Chinese time. Straight up.

 

If you are interested in a 'fun' time, you may find the 'fun' is not interested in the non-Chinese.

And thus a budding 'alternatives to Pattaya Thailand' thread is summarily nipped on the proverbial.

[Burma Bill]

Yes indeed, Sin City! gambling, prostitution, drugs and the open sale of animal parts from endangered species to the Chinese.

See BBC News report by Jonah Fisher on YouTube - not for you animal lovers!

[MadMuhammad]

Travel warnings state: avoid all non essential travel.

Hmm, I reckon I’ll stick with Patts 555

[HaleySabai]

Interesting article about the virtues of Mong La...

 

https://www.mmtimes.com/opinion/19435-visiting-mong-la-this-is-why-you-shouldn-t.html

[keysersoze276]

From what I understand (my information comes from a trip to Myanmar about nine months ago talking to locals and a shady tour guide who offered me Opium, heroin and underage girls...none of which I would partake in or condone).  Mong La was taken over and shut down by the Chinese military (Yes, I know it is in Myanmar, but it happened all the same.)All roads are inaccessible, plus extremely dangerous due to the chaos and genocide (currently?) going on.    He said there was nothing there anymore other than soldiers and roadblocks stopping anyone and making it inaccessible.  No possible way to even get there.  Definitely not a tourist attraction.  And when it did exist if was full of all kinds of crime.  The lawlessness sounded interesting to me.  But apparently now there are no people, an abandoned ghost town, a shut down city, a thing of the past.  All those old stories on the internet are old and outdated.  If something changed and it somehow reopened and recovered, I would be surprised and welcome to hear any reports of anyone being there within the past year or so.  As another poster said it is possible to get to Kengtung with a permit, but you need to hire a government guide who keeps an eyes on you at all times, I'm told.  There may be a way around this, but that's as close as you will get to Mong La, which is an abandoned city with no way to get there.

[keysersoze276]

2 hours ago, HaleySabai said:

Interesting article about the virtues of Mong La...

 

https://www.mmtimes.com/opinion/19435-visiting-mong-la-this-is-why-you-shouldn-t.html

This is a repost of an article from 2016.  It doesn't exist anymore.  It's closed.

[JimmyTheMook]

Mung Bah 

[RocketDog]

14 hours ago, Briggsy said:

You will need a permit to get to Kengtung (fairly easy) and another permit for Mong La (maybe not possible). Give it a try and see how you get on.

Thanks, but.....

wandering around Burma looking to see what kind of trouble I can get in doesn't strike me as a good way to spend my time.

[ecline]

A friend and I went up there several years ago. Permit for Kengtung was easily obtained at Tachilek. We hired a taxi to take us to Kengtung. There were an unbelievable number of police checkpoints along the way. No problems, just a lot of them. Kengtung is sleepy but very charming. I don't know what it is like now, but at that time anyone driving into the town had to stop on the outskirts and wash their car before entering. That was pretty cool.

 

We hired a songthaew to take us the 80km into the mountains to Mong La. There was really nothing to the place except for a central market, a couple of big casinos and an opium museum. The museum is surprisingly good, though a bit small. We stayed two nights. We were the only westerners there at the time and place was completely full of Chinese. I speak some Mandarin and that helped break the ice with a couple of groups of Chinese drinking in the market. We actually had a pretty good time with those folks. The casinos were not very interesting. Overall the place isn't really worth a visit other than for bragging rights to say you have been there.

 

It is kind of a trippy place due to the fact that it is this little enclave controlled by some obscure ethnic militia. They were kind of suspicious of us, but let us through. Last I heard, western tourists were not allowed to go there anymore. But that may have changed by now. I would go back to Kengtung, but wouldn't bother again with Mong La.

[Mahseer]

https://coconuts.co/yangon/news/bordering-myanmar-and-china-the-town-of-mongla-is-a-wild-wild-west-of-sex-drugs-and-gambling/