We have been on a ticking clock ever since we arrived in Thailand. Thailand recently has changed a lot of its border policies. Americans happily get a 30 day visa on arrival by both land and by air. Australians get only a 15 day visa on arrival by land and a 30 day visa by air. Most backpackers subject to these 15 day visas conduct at least one "visa run," exiting Thailand into one of its neighboring countries and then returning back to Thailand with a new 15 day visa on the same day. We knew these visa limitations prior to deciding our mode of transport into Thailand, and decided travelling by land was the more economical and doing a visa run was the more economical option for us.
Lonely Planet outlines all of the various visa run options and, after some research, we decided that the visa run that suited our schedule and timing best was the one that exists on the border of Mae Sot, Thailand and Myawaddy, Myanmar.
We arrived in Mae Sot after travelling on an overnight bus and figured we'd just get this visa thing done and over with, then go and sleep in a hotel. First things first though, let's go and find a hotel to dump all of our stuff at. The internet had told us to just walk about 1 km and then you'll start finding places. Pallavi had wanted to book a place the night before and I figured we'd just wing it. Mistake! We walked and we walked and we walked. No places to be found. We found a map and tried to ask a local tuk tuk driver - who didn't speak even a bit of English. No place to be found. We walked and we walked and we walked....we must have walked 3 kms (in my head it was farther, but I'm dramatic) before we finally just took a place up.
Up until now, we really have been spoiled with being able to use English to get around. Most people speak just enough English for us to function. Simple things like 'how much?' or 'room?' seems to work. Not here in Mae Sot! It took us taking out monetary notes and fake counting them to the bus driver for him to show us a 100 baht note to indicate how much we needed to pay per ticket. At the hotel, in what I think was my finest charades moment, it took mimicking the sound of the drill that was working outside of our drill and disturbing our sleep and pointing to my watch, to get them to tell me 5:00 p.m. was the time that drill would finish (and then they kindly moved us to a different room). Okay, maybe that one was complicated, but getting the room also involved a bit of holding up fingers, indicting people, and making some hand gestures towards money to get a price. If you want authentic non-touristy Thailand, Mae Sot is certainly it.
We got ourselves sorted and Pallavi became the only non-Burmese/non-Thai person in the immigration queue at the border. It costs $10 USD for a one-day temporary visitor permit to the town of Myawaddy, so we decided I would stay in Thailand and Pallavi would cross over for 90 minutes or so and then return. I waited and people watched. This area was quite an active border crossing. Lots of Burmese people, wearing traditional clothing, walked by selling all sorts of new foods. People passing each other things through the mesh fence separating non-mans land between immigration and Thailand. You can see the fog-covered mountains of Myanmar in the background of the teak-built homes.
The people here seem to wear some sort of 'mud' on their face. Pallavi says they wear a similar mud pack sort of thing in India to help protect the skin from the sun. Apparently it is quite good for the skin. We hadn't seen it anywhere else in Thailand, but we see it everywhere here! Men, women, children, and adults. I'm completely fascinated. I think I might need some 'mud' on my face too! I already stand out, why not stand out a bit more.
Pallavi made it back from her adventure, which involved the Thai immigration almost not letting her leave the country even though her visa was over that day and somehow walking over 2 kms in Myawaddy to see the sights and still having time both to have a coconut water and to have a tea in just 90 minutes. She also apparently saw lots of blatant people smuggling across the river as well. Nothing like a good adventure.
New visa acquired, we slept the whole rest of the time. Now we have a bit of time to slow down and go and explore Northern Thailand.
Lonely Planet outlines all of the various visa run options and, after some research, we decided that the visa run that suited our schedule and timing best was the one that exists on the border of Mae Sot, Thailand and Myawaddy, Myanmar.
We arrived in Mae Sot after travelling on an overnight bus and figured we'd just get this visa thing done and over with, then go and sleep in a hotel. First things first though, let's go and find a hotel to dump all of our stuff at. The internet had told us to just walk about 1 km and then you'll start finding places. Pallavi had wanted to book a place the night before and I figured we'd just wing it. Mistake! We walked and we walked and we walked. No places to be found. We found a map and tried to ask a local tuk tuk driver - who didn't speak even a bit of English. No place to be found. We walked and we walked and we walked....we must have walked 3 kms (in my head it was farther, but I'm dramatic) before we finally just took a place up.
Up until now, we really have been spoiled with being able to use English to get around. Most people speak just enough English for us to function. Simple things like 'how much?' or 'room?' seems to work. Not here in Mae Sot! It took us taking out monetary notes and fake counting them to the bus driver for him to show us a 100 baht note to indicate how much we needed to pay per ticket. At the hotel, in what I think was my finest charades moment, it took mimicking the sound of the drill that was working outside of our drill and disturbing our sleep and pointing to my watch, to get them to tell me 5:00 p.m. was the time that drill would finish (and then they kindly moved us to a different room). Okay, maybe that one was complicated, but getting the room also involved a bit of holding up fingers, indicting people, and making some hand gestures towards money to get a price. If you want authentic non-touristy Thailand, Mae Sot is certainly it.
We got ourselves sorted and Pallavi became the only non-Burmese/non-Thai person in the immigration queue at the border. It costs $10 USD for a one-day temporary visitor permit to the town of Myawaddy, so we decided I would stay in Thailand and Pallavi would cross over for 90 minutes or so and then return. I waited and people watched. This area was quite an active border crossing. Lots of Burmese people, wearing traditional clothing, walked by selling all sorts of new foods. People passing each other things through the mesh fence separating non-mans land between immigration and Thailand. You can see the fog-covered mountains of Myanmar in the background of the teak-built homes.
The people here seem to wear some sort of 'mud' on their face. Pallavi says they wear a similar mud pack sort of thing in India to help protect the skin from the sun. Apparently it is quite good for the skin. We hadn't seen it anywhere else in Thailand, but we see it everywhere here! Men, women, children, and adults. I'm completely fascinated. I think I might need some 'mud' on my face too! I already stand out, why not stand out a bit more.
Pallavi made it back from her adventure, which involved the Thai immigration almost not letting her leave the country even though her visa was over that day and somehow walking over 2 kms in Myawaddy to see the sights and still having time both to have a coconut water and to have a tea in just 90 minutes. She also apparently saw lots of blatant people smuggling across the river as well. Nothing like a good adventure.
New visa acquired, we slept the whole rest of the time. Now we have a bit of time to slow down and go and explore Northern Thailand.
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