Bus ride with touring bikes???

On the bus to Chang Mai we are.

Well, that entry didn’t get very far – the bus was too bumpy to write. Now it’s 11:30pm and I am at the Smile Guest House in Chang Mai. We had an interesting time in Mae Sot but I am glad to be here in this popular tourist town surrounded by westerners everywhere. Mae Sot was not the most welcoming to say the least. We had a lot of stares from the local Muslims. I would not be able to say that we were absolutely refused service in one restaurant but we walked in and no one made a point to look at us, greet us, or sit us down in any way – they just gave us evil stares (this was right across the street from the mosque). We left.

Our first night there we were hanging out in our hotel room just falling asleep when we heard what we thought were gunshots in the hallway of the hotel (turned out to be very loud firecrackers but we did not know it at the time). We FROZE. Kathy said, “Turn off all the lights” so I did and we just lay still and waited. Nothing. No screams, no commotion. I totally expected someone to break down the door and pummel us with gunfire. When nothing happened we just started nervously whispering to each other and a few minutes later it happened again, this time RIGHT outside our door. It was pretty scary. (Mind you, we had been stared down all day in town by local Thai-Muslims, several wearing Bin Laden shirts – the fear was surely justified.) All said, it happened 3 times and then it stopped. We never heard any voices or anything. It was not the most pleasant experience. I had a hard time falling asleep after that.

The next day (yesterday) we had breakfast at a wonderful little bungalow place that had a full menu in English! What a treat! Previously we would go into a restaurant, be handed a menu in Thai, and then I would pull out my Thai phrasebook and show the waiter my Thai phrase that says I’m a vegetarian. Basically it would be a crapshoot to see what I would get. So to have a full menu in English was something we both appreciated!

After breakfast we set out for the Myanmar border. It was a 6 km walk to the river/border crossing so we started to walk but it was very hot and so when a Thai guy pulled over and offered a ride we did not hesitate to take it. Five minutes later and we were at the border.

We had a bit of a hang up getting out of Thailand because I was missing my departure card that they stapled to my passport at the airport (turned out to be back at the hotel). So I had to go from the immigration “booth” over across the street and around the corner to the immigration “office” but it was lunchtime there so I got several “Just a Moment Please”‘s while the immigration people ate lunch, and well, things don’t exactly move fast in a country like Thailand so it took a little while to straighten it out. Overall the staff were extremely nice and helpful and they all said, “Welcome to Thailand” when I left which I though was pretty funny because I’ve been here for 10 days already.

So I got the number of the departure card from Bangkok and that was enough to clear me through customs and allow me to cross into Myanmar. We walked across the bridge and on the other side hit the Myanmar immigration booth where we had to fill out more paperwork to enter the country. Lots of stamps, paperwork, and official-looking people. Once we were cleared to go we walked through the streets of the little border town for about an hour and then decided that there wasn’t much going on there and that the shopping seemed better on the Thai side so we left, having to go through Myanmar immigration again to get out and then Thai immigration on the other side to re-enter Thailand.

So, back to today…we took a 6-hour bus from Mae Sot to Chang Mai with our bikes tied to the roof of the bus. (With Kathy’s limited time in Thailand and both of our lack of desire to ride out through the mountains, taking a bus the remaining distance seemed the best plan.) There were quite a few mountains along the way and it was a hot, sunny day so I was glad to not be riding.

We arrived in Chang Mai late in the afternoon and found this hotel/guesthouse. We were instantly amazed at the site of so many “farang” (Thai for “foreigners”) EVERYWHERE. We had been so used to being the only ones in town and having everyone stare at us. Now we were staring at the other westerners just like the Thai! There really are a lot of tourists here. But so far it seems like a pretty cool place. There are yoga/meditation/massage places everywhere, vegetarian restaurants, internet cafes, and believe it or not even a Starbucks in Chang Mai! The town suits me well.

Tonight for dinner we went to a Jewish restaurant and had falafel, hummus, and babaganoush and it was EXCELLENT! I was in heaven. Then we hit the famous night bazaar of Chang Mai – a huge maze of vendors selling all types of hill tribe crafts, Thai silk, clothing, jewelry – you name it. I mainly scoped it out tonight but I will be back again to haggle and shop for sure.

The Thai border at Mae Sot (heading into Myanmar)

First glimse of Burma (walking over the bridge)

Add comment October 27th, 2001