From Bangkok to Hpa-an - Crossing the Southern Thai-Myanmar Border Overland, May 15-20 2015

From the Philippines we returned to our beloved Bangkok for a short 5-day visit filled with food, shopping and some essential errands in preparation for our travels ahead. We decided to upgrade to an AC room this time (the heat and humidity were becoming unbearable) and found the sweetest deal in town in Donna guesthouse (thanks to my little sister who stayed there a year ago) - 380 Baht for a doube room, no windows but still probably the cheapest air-con room in town! It is located very close to Khao San but on a small quiet street (75 Soi Damnern Klang, Rachadamnern Klang Rd., Phra Nakon, Tel: 02-281-9374). 

• Budget tip- when arriving in Bangkok airport, take the airport train instead of a taxi. It's cheap (45 Baht), quick and easy. If you're heading to Khao-San get off at Phaya-Thai station and from there you can take a taxi for around 60 Baht, it takes about 20 minutes (a direct taxi from the airport will cost you anywhere between 300-500 Baht).

Obtaining a Burmese Visa

First on our agenda was getting a visa for Myanmar (Burma), which was rather easy and pain-free. If you're planning to fly in it is even easier because you can get an e-visa online, but since we wanted to cross overland we had to go to the embassy and do it the old-fashioned way. All you need is to show up at the Myanmar embassy (Sathon Nua Road in the Bang Rak district, 9-12 AM Monday-Friday) with 2 passport photos, fill the form and pay according to how fast you want to get the visa (same day, 2 days or three days), for the same day visa I think you need to show a flight ticket but then you might as well apply for the e-visa. Then you return to the embassy to pick it up on the assigned day between 3:30-4:30 PM. The visa is valid for 3 months and for a total stay of 28 days. We were not in a rush and wanted to spend a few days in Bangkok so we picked the cheapest 3-days option (810 Baht). 

Buddhism and Big City Life

While waiting for our visa we toured the streets of Bangkok, which is becoming one of our favorite cities. Despite the heat we walked around quite a lot, and also discovered the very convenient and cheap public transport system in the city- use googlemaps' public transport option to find the bus you need, it actually works! A very pleasant surprise was that some buses were completely FREE! I mean regularly the bus fare is only 7B but still :)

When we were not stuffing our faces with delicious (and cheap) Thai food on street stalls or strolling through the endless alleys of the Chatuchak weekend market where you can buy anything from pets to second hand clothes to original artwork, we attempted to absorb some local culture by visiting the beautiful Grand Palace where you can get a taste of traditional Thai architecture at its best (a whopping 500B entrance fee, try to go early morning to avoid the crowds and the heat) and Wat Pho temple, famous for a large golden reclining Buddha, colorful pagodas and also a Thai massage school in the complex (entrance fee 100B, less crowded than the palace). Don't forget to dress modestly for both- pants or long skirts, no shorts (both men and women)!

If you're looking to explore more of Bangkok's infinite shopping possibilities, you can also try the somewhat infamous MBK, an interesting cross between a market and a mall, or the more upscale Siam and Central shopping complexes.

 

 

Near our guesthouse on what we call "the vegetarian street" we found the appropriately named "Number One vegetarian and Thai Food" restaurant, a hidden gem where we ate almost everyday! Though the menu is not all veg there is a large selection and the food was simply delicious and ridiculously cheap (30-40B a plate). We particularly liked the thick spicy curry with tofu, fried rice with cashews and the green curry, but honestly it was all great! Definitely worth a visit and a much better option than the over-priced touristy restaurants on Khao San. 

We also discovered that the area around the Burmese embassy is "Little India" with Indian shops, restaurant and even a colorful Hindu temple. Though we love Thai food, Daniel could not resist a chance to grab some Indian food and we munched on pakoras and aloo-gobi in the friendly Anapurna Restaurant.

Getting to the Border

Squeezing our last day in Bangkok to the last drop in what turned out to be an eventful (and somewhat stressful) day, we managed to: check out of our room, meet our friends from India Nona and Louis for lunch, pick up our visa after a nerve-wrecking bus ride in Bangkok's rush-hour traffic (we made it just in time!), meet our friends from home Rotem and Or for an afternoon drink, catch a motorcycle taxi and avoid more traffic (180B for the 2 of us on one bike) on the way back to Khao San to pick up our bags, and catch another taxi to the very organized Mochit 2 northeastern bus terminal (not to be confused with the BTS skytrain station also called Mochit).

On the spot we were able to book a 2nd class bus ticket (312 Baht) to Mae Sot on the Thai- Myanmar border (no reason to book a bus in Khao San, it is easy and cheaper just to show up at the bus station). We had just enough time to grab some food at the bus station (the spiciest papaya salad we ever had, I'm talking sweat and tears!) before boarding the comfortable double-decker night bus at 9 PM (you can opt for a 1st class or VIP bus for extra money but 2nd class is nice enough). 

Crossing in Mae Sot

We reached Mae Sot bus terminal around 5AM, and took a shared pick-up to the border (50 Baht, 10 minutes). We were told the border only opens at 6 and were ready to sit around and wait a while but after about 20 minutes the border opened and as foreigners we were rushed to the front of the line. Make sure you have your departing immigration card that you received in the airport while entering Thailand, you hand it in and get your passport stamped. We then walked across the bridge and before we knew it- we're in Myanmar! We filled out a short form, got another stamp in our passports and that's about it. The whole thing took maybe 15 minutes. Now comes the more complicated part.

From Myawaddy to Hpa-an

So we (Daniel) did some research beforehand and read about how the road from Myawaddy in Myanmar is open for traffic in one direction every other day and if you arrive at the border on the wrong day you have to stay the night in Myawaddy in order to continue your journey. Then we read that this is no longer relevant since the road opened for 2-way traffic on March 2015. So we casually looked for a bus heading to Hpa-an but were told that there are no buses today because, you guessed it, the road is closed. We were then approached by a taxi driver who offered to take us to Hpa-an (so the road is not actually closed??). His explanation was that taxis can go but buses do not run on this day. It smelt fishy and we tried to go ask the guy at the border patrol, hoping to get a more reliable  and official information regarding the buses and the supposedly closed road, but his English wasn't good enough or he just didn't know. So knowing we are definitely being over-charged and perhaps being scammed but not left with much other choice, we took a taxi with 2 other German girls, paying 10,000K per person (about 10$). After about 5 rainy hours of driving (and stopping at many checkpoint where our driver apparently had to bribe police officers) we finally reached Hpa-an.

• Friendly tip- if you are thinking of leaving Myanmar by crossing the northern border with Thailand (like we initially thought of doing) think again- to get to that border you have to take an expensive domestic flight inside Myanmar because there is a restricted road that is off-limits for tourists. Consider instead flying back to Bangkok (we found a cheap flight from Mandalay to Bangkok on skyscanner for 49$ a person, book in advance because prices go up!) and then taking a bus or a flight up north to Chiang Mai.