Myanmar

Now we go back in time -- to Mae Sot. After returning from my trek I crossed the border between Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma) to get my passport stamped because I am nearing the end of my sixty day tourist visa.

The border is a river crossing -- Thai customs on one side, and Myanmar customs on the other. To get my visa renewed I had to have the passport stamped on the Thai side of the border, walk across the bridge, and give my passport and 500 baht to the Burmese official. At that point I was free to explore Burma, as long as I crossed back into Thailand before 5 pm.

During my walk across the bridge to the Myanmar side of the border, I met a man who said he was an English student at a Burmese refugee camp (on the Thai side) during the day, and a bartender in Myanmar at night. According to my friend, Myanmar beer is much better than Thai beer, so despite my aversion to all beer I took him out for a drink in Burma. Here is the picture of my friend pouring Myanmar beer, which was indeed better than Thai beer:



Over our drinks, my friend told me a bit about the political situation in Myanmar, the difficulty of getting a good education there, and the importance (yes!) of contact with the outside world for the citizens of Myanmar. In case you don't know, Myanmar has been a military dictatorship since the mid 1900s. Many travelers do not want to support the government economically, so they choose not to travel to Myanmar.

After our chat, I walked back over the bridge and noticed the many armed men sitting on military trucks, chillin' out. I asked my friend if I could take a picture of them and he emphatically shook his head no, telling me I would most likely not make it back into Thailand if I pointed my camera at these men. Instead I settled for a photo of the river.