The easiest way to do this from Chiang Mai is a trip up to Mae Sai, a town to the northwest of me on the Thailand/Burma border. By bus it takes about 4.5 hours, so after leaving Chaing Mai at 8, I found myself there shortly after lunchtime. I had read in a few travel blogs to buy your return bus ticket right when you got in, but after heading to the window, was told the only bus that had seats was the next one, leaving at 2pm. So I had a little over an hour and half to go through the Thai exit/Burma entrance and then return through the Burma exit/Thai entry. (Leaving a country is not like crossing a state line. Governments like to keep track of the people coming and going, and this usually leads to lines and frustration.) Further complicating my task was the fact that the Burma immigration officers supposedly take a very dim view of people who walk into their country, get their passport stamped, and turn around and try and leave right away. As in, they don't let you do it.
The reason they don't let you do that is because they want you to spend money. Immediately inside the border is a huge market. Walking down the steps off the bridge, I was immediately besieged by Burmese (Burmian?) men trying to sell me things. Cartons of cigarettes, booze, packs of Viagra, and porn ('sex movie - Asian') were the most prolific offerings, but I'm sure there were many more that my virgin eyes missed. Pushing (literally) through these men with baskets of vices hanging around their necks, I made my way into the market. Tent after tent of knockoff clothes, purses, watches, jewelry, DVD's...pretty much anything you could ask for. Since one of the reasons the Myanmar border people won't give you your passport right away is that they want you to spend money in this market, I figured if I bought something, even if they gave me crap about trying to leave too soon, I could show them my purchases and have a better chance of getting my passport (and thus a better chance of making it to my return bus on time). And even though I have a need for a watch, some work shoes and a few other things, my dislike of shopping, aversion to spending any real amount of money and time crunch meant that I was mainly focused on the DVD's. Brand new movies for 60 cents, seasons of television for as low as $2. After loading my arms with about a dozen seasons of TV spanning about 4 different shows, I realized that it was silly of me to spend all this money when A) I haven't even watched the first season of Mad Men I have with me, B) its not like I have a lot of time to sit around and watch seasons of television, I am gone from 7-6 every day, and C) the quality with stuff like this is pretty hit or miss, so it was silly to spend like $30 on shows that might be kind of blurry or not even work in my computer/a US DVD player. I finally settled on just the 4th season of Dexter, which cost me $3.30. (On sale for $31.99 at Amazon.) And even that, I splurged for the 'originals' - I could have bought the 'copies' for only about 2 bucks.
My purchase and reentry into Thailand went smoothly. They had my passport waiting for me and didn't say a word. (So I guess about 45 min is enough time in the country.) And I hopped on my bus with 3 minutes to spare. It was a cheaper, lower class bus, so while the trip up had made me glad I brought my hoodie and a pair of socks to combat the AC (such an experienced SE Asian bus traveler by now), the trip back left me sweating and trying not to stick to the vinyl of the seat. Got back around dinner time, grabbed some garlic pork at my favorite stand and have just been laying around trying to fully recover from the throat infection I've been dealing with.
Overall, it was an interesting day. Not many people can say they've been to Burma/Myanmar, so I've got that going for me, which is nice. (Even if it was only 45 minutes.) Just interesting to see the whole set up they have in Mae Sai. I found out you can't actually get a real visa for Burma there, just a one day pass. So Thai people will basically travel up for the day, do all their shopping and come back. Pretty much the whole economy of the town, on both sides of the border, is set up for this. Why things are so much cheaper over there, I have no idea. (All that stuff I mentioned I saw there is definitely available in the markets here, but its not nearly as cheap. My season of Dexter prob would have cost me about $12 here. So a pretty big savings.) But it might not be a bad idea to take another trip up there before I come home, throw down $30 or $40 and stock up on some shows I've wanted to see. And on unrelated note, even though the trips were alternately freezing cold and sweltering hot, driving through the forested, jungled mountains of northern Thailand is still pretty breathtaking, and hopefully something I don't ever become too accustomed to to appreciate. (Too many 'to's' in that sentence, its 12:30, couldn't figure out how else to say it.) Hope everyone is doing well back home and enjoying the weather getting nice. Though I don't want to hear any complaints about the heat. High of 100 today, and I thought it was cool out. And go hawks!
TPWWLT - Lil Wayne - 'Every Girl' Worst song ever to have stuck in your head? Not because its annoying, but because of the awkwardness of singing the chorus out loud. Luckily I don't think anyone on the bus understood when I caught myself absentmindedly singing it under my breath today.
PS - The quality on Dexter is great. Hope all the discs/episodes work!
I hope one of those shows is Lost ;-)
ReplyDeletePS I found a proxy that lets me post comments! But I think I'm still going to pretend that I can't access facebook