Green Pagodas, Golden People

If you have decided to enter despite the themes to be considered, Myanmar has many rewards to offer mainly around its colourful culture, a wonderful mix of Burmese, Indian and British themes. Their wonderful, tin roofed pagodas, maybe already seen by you in north-western Thailand are quite a change after the otherwise regularly shaped South East Asian ones; the Indians roti, sweets and chai which have became staple foods among the locals; the different ethnical groups living together - especially in the north; the local traditional industries - as coal burners’ production; all these are more than enough a reason to visit that mystic country but not the only ones. Pay attention to the makeup used by men and women as one as well as to the special kind of skirts used by men.

The contrast between the calm Burmese backwaters’ towns and their markets crowded mainly with energetic Thais searching for bargains is another point of interest, and while walking in the noisy markets, if you are careful enough, you may spot shy hill-tribes women walking stealthily among the stalls, selling fresh, odorous fruits to the busy sellers.

Quick Tips:

There are two ways of entering by land from Thailand to Myanmar: the one includes renewing your Thai visa and means that you will enter Myanmar with your passport, while the second way is by leaving your passport at the Thai immigration’s office and entering through a special registration process. Both ways cost the same, while the first gives you thirty new days in your Thai visa and allows you to enter to the Burmese territory with your passport: that is an important consideration in the unheard case that something tragic will happen there. Once there, it is sensible to spend your money at private institutions instead than at parallel governmental sites, for example by drinking tea with the locals instead than at the five stars hotel cafeteria.

You are not allowed to leave the area of the border town you are visiting in such a way and it would be really foolish to do that, the states surrounding them are out of limits for tourists. There are no obstacles to bringing back food into Thailand, you can ask a ‘take-away’ package at the shops and bring with you enough of your favourite snacks for a couple of days.

Best Way To Get Around:

You can easily walk around these small towns or hire one of the many cyclos waiting for the tourists just out from the immigration offices. If they offer you a tour around the town, it is recommendable to check with an immigration officer if the place is within the allowed limits for tourists. Importing its cars from Thailand, but driving on the opposite side results on the drivers being on the sidewalk side; it can be confusing, please be careful while crossing a street.

At the time of my visits, there were four open passes for tourists between Thailand and Myanmar, and three of them offered a stamping in your passport, thus offering a comfortable way to renew your Thai visa. Usually called a "Visa Run," the process consists of approaching one of these passes, checking out at the Thai immigration, getting entry and exit stamps from immigration at Myanmar, and then returning to Thailand, ready for a new 30-day "visa-on-arrival."

From north to south, the passes are:

Tachilek is in front of Mae Sai, the northernmost town of Thailand. By far, this is the most popular and orderly cross to Myanmar. Mainly Thais in search of cheap merchandises at the huge Tachilek market use the facilities here, but if you happen to be at Chiang Rai or Chiang Mai, it will be a very handy cross for you. From these cities, take a bus to Mae Sai, just a 1-hour trip from Chiang Rai, and from the Mae Sai bus terminal, take a 5-baht truck straight to the border, which is at the northern tip of the town. The Thai immigration office is about 1km before the bridge leading to Tachilek.

Myawaddy is in front of Mae Sot, allegedly the westernmost town of Thailand, and offers a more desolated option to be used mainly if you are touring the lower north of Thailand. It is conveniently close to Sukhothai. You must reach first the town of Tak – most buses travelling between Chiang Mai and Bangkok will leave you there or in the nearby Sukhothai. From there you have 1 hour by truck till Mae Sot, which, similar to Mae Sai, offers cheap transport to its western tip, the border with Myanmar. The Thai immigration office is just before the bridge connecting the countries, at the northern side of the road.

The Three Pagodas Pass is the closest pass to Bangkok, just further west from Kanchanaburi, but unfortunately you cannot get a visa there. From Kanchanaburi, you take another bus to Sangkhlaburi for around $2, from where is possible to cross the Three Pagodas border cross, Phra Chedi Sam Ong, to Myanmar, paying $10 to the Burmese immigration, but it is impossible to get a visa there.

Victoria Point (Kawthoung), in front of Ranong, the southernmost cross, involves a rather pricey travel in a boat between the two countries. The Thai immigration is at Saphan Pla (bridge fish) road, 500m before the port, and it is open from 8:30am to 4:30pm. A Son Tao takes some 20 minutes from the town to the pier and costs 7B. After getting an exit stamp at immigration, it is possible to get a half an hour ride by boat to Victoria Point in Burma for 300B. Once there, the Burmese will take a crispy $5 note for a fresh stamp on your passport. In Burma, it is possible to stay a few days at Kauw Thauong. At The Andaman club pier in Ranong, it is possible to get an exit stamp. Every day from 8am, there are boats to the club in Koh Son, and when coming back to the pier, an entry visa is issued. If less than 5 days are left, there's an extra 750B surcharge (looks like pure bribe, and probably the "club" is in a Thai island). The pier is some 20km north of the town.

Myawaddy is the most expensive place to renew your visa, as the immigration in Myanmar asks for ten dollars, as opposed to the five of the other places; maybe this is the result of their being the closest point to Bangkok and very accessible from Tak, or maybe (and unprobably) it shows a will to develop this very poor place. You must pay to them with new, crispy notes or your money will not be accepted. If you want to pay with Thai Bahts, you will be asked to pay 500B, which are closer to 12.5 dollars than to ten. Even if you pay in Bahts, your receipt will show ten dollars, as the difference goes to the dedicated officers; this is a sophisticated scheme, as nobody in town will change your Bahts into dollars, so prepare yourself beforehand.

It will be difficult but useful to buy a few Kyats (pronounced 'chats'), which is the local money in Myanmar, but I must say that usually it is difficult to get the right exchange for this devaluated kind of money.

The market here is rather small, consisting mainly of shops arranged along the street leading to the border; very few Thais can be seen shopping there. If you walk straight along this road and turn right after a few blocks, you will find yourself at a huge and appealing temple with a golden stuppa. Look up for people climbing the coconut trees. Nearby is a restaurant offering samusak, at five baths per unit, and Indian chai at the same price. Chai is a cooked tea, with plenty of milk and sugar and ordering it will provide you with an extra pot of black tea to wash your mouth after the strong-flavored chai.

The people here are not used to see tourists; few of them speak any English at all and very obviously they are much poorer than those in Tachilek. Despite that the general attitude is friendly. The locals' women and children's main business apparently consists of moving on their backs merchandise to and from Thailand.

Tricycles along the main road offer cheap tours.

It is possible for tourists to cross with or without a visa and to stay up to three days on the Burmese side. To cross without a visa, you leave your passport at the Thai immigration. To the Burmese immigration, you show a photocopy of the picture's page of the document, where they put a stamp and then they provide a small permit paper without any personal details of the holder. The Burmese will charge $5, or 250 Baht, per day in a similar fashion to the one described in the Myawaddy entry.

Tachilek is a small border town in the border between Myanmar and Thailand. It is located within the Shan State, one of the seven states making the Union of Myanmar. Along the bridge there is a doubtful sign in English and Burmese claiming that Burma fights the drugs' menace, while at the traffic circle, a hundred meters after the bridge, there is another sign proclaiming that you're in the Golden Triangle city. If not the exact truth, at least the beautiful, circularly shaped Burmese letters decorate the place.

Tachilek's main feature is the big market located across the bridge over the Sai river, at the eastern side, which attracts hordes of Thai citizens crossing the border in a day trip for shopping, as the goods here are significantly cheaper than in Thailand. Cigarettes, alcoholic drinks, textiles, music disks and simple electric and electronic appliances rule; but casual shops selling fur of endangered species can be seen. Unlike Thailand, the cars drive at the right side, but since they were bought there, the driver sits at the sidewalk side of the car.

Along the main road, you will find touts selling tours to the surroundings; but the main temple at the top of the hill is easily reached by foot, offering a different angle of the area from the one seen from the Scorpion Temple on the Thai side.

Most women and some men use a special makeup, made from the grounded bark of a special tree, of a creamy color, which they put usually over their cheeks. The design and the area covered differ from person to person, but usually covers most of the cheeks with a pattern of parallel horizontal lines. Most men wear the traditional ankles reaching Burmese dress, with a big knot at its front.

Na Lay Indian Restaurant, just right from the traffic circle offers a passable roti for twenty Bahts and chai for ten, which is more than twice the regular price here, but the staff speaks English and is friendly.

The endless begging children in the market disappear from time to time to give way to "new" children dressed like monks, with long purple robs, and carrying the usual food bowls, which collect coins on the top of the bowl instead of rice.

5 - Na Lay

The Na Lay Indian Restaurant is a basic snacks' restaurant placed in a humble-sized room behind an Indian sweets-selling window. The place serves as an encounter place for locals searching for a chat and a variation from the ruling Thai food in the area.

To reach it, if you are entering from Thailand, continue straight with the bridge road till the traffic circle and then turn right into the main river-parallel street in Tachilek and you will see Na Lay at your right side after a few tens of meters.

The restaurant owner, dressed in a local men's skirt, will welcome you at the entrance, and besides a seat at a basic table and the menu, he will offer an opportunity for a small conversation with the locals since he speaks some basic English. He is a Burmese of Indian ancestry, and you can appreciate his past in the menu, which is mainly Indian-vegetarian.

The roti is not as good as the ones served in the Indian subcontinent, but it is accompanied with a tasty hot potatoes salad and a separate dish of chili, all for 20 Thai bahts, about half a dollar, which means it is quite an expensive dish for this side of the border.

Another interesting option is the Indian sweets, which are offered in a wide spectrum of varieties for 2 or 3 bahts each. They are incredibly sweet and should be eaten with care; there exists a takeaway option for them.

The best drink to help you swallow all the sugar is the chai, a drink made of cooked black tea with sugar that is enriched with condensed milk that, since it is denser than the tea, forms a thick, whiter separated layer at the glass bottom. The condensed milk comes from Thailand, meaning it is a mixture of milk, palm oil, and sugar, with quite a different taste from the one used elsewhere. The final result is an extra-sweet liquid that feels more as a diabetes test than a cup of tea, but the sacrifice is well worth the experience.

While at your sugar-rush peak, at the exit, you can pay in Thai bahts and use the opportunity to buy from him a few Myanmar-Kyats banknotes as souvenirs since elsewhere they are hard or expensive to get.