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Published: January 3rd 2009
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Tachileik, Burma
Lots of animal contraband is readily available in this border town. Turn Down Volume before playing (bottom of video screen, right of centre) New Year Entertainment at Night Markets
Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai
Bangkok..ChiangMai
click on photo to enlarge I flew out of Toronto Thursday November 20, 2008 at 8:30 am
and arrived in Bangkok at Friday midnight, Thailand time.
Although I can get better accommodation for the price they ask around the backpacker's Kao Sarn Rd area, it's easy to get here at night from the airport.
After a couple of hours sleep I took a bus to downtown Bangkok.
Bangkok can be interesting but because of political protests the traffic was almost at a standstill.
There was some sort of protest by the bus transport also. They didn't collect fares. Boo hoo.
The protests were to get more severe as the week went by and in a few days the international and domestic airports were
closed causing 200,000 foreigners to be stranded.
The PAD political group was objecting to the PM appointment of the brother-in-law of ousted PM Shinawatra.
Saturday night I took the bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.
By chance, a bus carrying backpackers
from Chaing
Second Class Bus rest stop on visa run
South East Asia is plagued by smoke at this time of year
because of farmers slash and burn methods. Mai
to Bangkok was robbed that night (Bangkok Post, Tues Nov 25).
Again in the Bangkok Post, Jan 12, 2009, on the second page was an article less than 10 sentences long
re: German woman was raped and murdered on Ko Phangan during the monthly full-moon party.
Incidents like that involving tourists are not widely reported by the media, unlike Canada where the extreme opposite is true. There an incident can be irresponsibly blown out of proportion by the media with disastrous consequences.. For example. the SARS epidemic by the Canadian media.
The Thais know bad publicity isn't going to help the economy of the country.
The backpacker bus always arrives in Chiang Mai at sunrise from Bangkok.
I sleep alright on buses especially when there's no one next to me. Still, the morning I arrived I took a place for the night at an upscale hotel.
After travelling in North America for the summer I see the prices over here for the bargains they are.
The next day I found monthly accommodation which is considerably more economical and in my case
more comfortable.
To extend your stay:
Last year they they limited the number
of 30 day non-visa entries to 3 in a 6 month period.
That caused a lot of disruptions with long-term expats.
This year even though tourism is down they changed it again.
You get a 30 day non-visa entry at the airport, but for renewals you get only 2 weeks.
That means every 2 weeks you have to leave the country. What a pain.
I manage to make a long day or a weekend of it.
You have to leave the country and the closest point for me is
the Mae Sai border point
It takes three and half hours to get to Chiang Rai.
Then after a brief stop it's another one and a half hours to the Mae Sai, Thailand / Tachileik, Myanmar border crossing.Then there's a "song taew" from the bus station to the border. It used to be 8 baht but when the price of oil went up the price rose to 15 baht. Needless to say that now the price of oil is below where it used to be, the price of the songtaew is still 15 baht.
You get an exit stamp from Thailand, walk a hundred metres to get your photo taken,
pay $10 (or 500 Baht equivalent to $13) and get an entry/exit stamp from Myanmar.
At the Burma (Myanmar) border point there are two clocks.
One to indicate Thai time and the other to indicate Burma time which is one half hour earlier.
If you want to travel in Burma and think that by getting a visa in Bangkok and then entering the country
at this border point you'll be able to, you're mistaken. This is not an official international crossing. The
Burmese immigration will keep your passport and you'll be required to pay the $10 for an "entry permit" like everyone else.
You can stay for up to 10 days (with no passport) and you'll find the accommodation in Tachilek more expensive and less comfortable.
Then you walk back to the Thai immigration to get a stamp for a two
week non-visa entry (unless you have a pre-arranged a visa).
I usually go into the Burmese town of Tachileik and take
a quick look at all the Chinese goods being hawked by the hoards of venders before I get back
on the bus to Chiang Mai.
Many of the venders are from Bangladesh. It's
Merry Christmas
A Christmas tree crowned by a star of David is the
annual decoration on the side of the Amora Hotel hard to believe that Buma is a step up from anywhere.
The town is mainly inhabited by Shan people with some Akha and Hmong.
At 8am at the border point they play the Thailand National Anthem.
Everyone stops what they are doing and stands at attention.
Just like at 6pm and before the movie begins at the cinema.
There are a number of Thai police check points for the traffic going and coming from the border.
On my bus, behind me was a skinny, long-haired, bearded Aussie left over from the sixties.
To make himself more noticeable he had a big black eye patch under his glasses. I didn't want
to turn around but I could hear him explaining to the soldier, "This is a bag of medicine!" and
after some more rustling of the bag, "It's spinach! really!".
All expats on the public bus are a little different.
More normal ones go in the mini-vans supplied by the hotels.
Chiang Rai has a more relaxed night market than Chiang Mai's.
It's not as crowded and has more artisania and less T shirts, videos and watches.
But the Sunday "walking street marktet" in Chiang Mai
Home Sweet Home
You got to live somewhere. is better than either.
Go early.
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Alex Mumzhiu
non-member comment
Cheers
Hi John, Now, as a subscriber to your blog I was noticed on your new post. It is nice to get update on where you are and what you are doing, pictures and movie are also quite interesting. I am preparing myself for the trip to East Africa. From what I learned it should be quite touristy and expensive, compare with West Africa, which I visited two years ago Best Wishes Alex