On his Old World Wandering website, Iain Manley has presented a terrific interview with a Kuomintang soldier, Zhan Dening, who settled in northern Thailand. The general story is one that gets told from time-to-time but the details of this particular account are well worth your attention. Zhang concludes by reflecting:

Yes, you could say we’re pretty satisfied. We take care of ourselves. Apart from taxes, the country [Thailand] doesn’t ask anything of us. It’s a different story in Burma. Burma has a complex composition of armies, every ethnic group has its own military force. This ethnic group wants you to pay tax and that one wants you to pay tax too. People there don’t have such a good life. In Thailand, it’s like this: if you look after yourself, that’s fine, you’re left alone.