Slow Bus To China, ok, Myanmar...

So today I stepped foot into my first military dictatorship every. Ah, the Union Of Myanmar. I even spent about 20 min! But let me back up a bit...

Sow and I went over to Thai Immigration the other day to get an extension on my 90 day visa. Can you believe it? I've almost been here that long!? After many calls and a variety of descriptions as to what I needed to bring. What I need to do. That I might need to set up a Thai bank account. We finally discovered that back in LA, yes, almost 90 days ago, they did in fact give me the wrong visa, which I'd pointed out at the time, but they swore it was alright for renewal. As it turns out, this is not the case.

So what to do, what to do? You do what I did today. What so many ex-pats living in Thailand do every month... LEAVE!!! ...and head straight for the border. No, not Taco bell!? Mae Sai. On the Thailand-Myanmar border. Luckily, leaving can be as easy as hopping on a mini-bus for only 600 baht (that's 15 bucks!), and driving the four hours to the border for a new stamp in your passport. Good for another 30 days! That's easier than gaining renewal at carousel! (Common' people, Logan's Run! sheesh...)

This is so common, they have buses that leave almost every day. So this morning I got up nice and early. Got things ready. And headed down to the travel agency to wait on the mini-bus for my 8:00am pickup. And promptly stood around till 9:10am waiting.

All in all, Mae Sai was pretty uneventful. It's really one big boulevard, littered with tourist shops, that dead ends into the border. Really not much more than a really big u-turn. If you dressed it up a bit, it could be the entrance to just about any Hollywood studio, post 9/11. Only at studios they have working computers to check ID. I'm not quite sure what they look for. They quickly scan over your passport, demand 250 baht, and then hold onto it while you go to the other side to shop or whatever. Of course, of the first three things offered to me, none of them could be carried back across the border. Cigarettes, playing cards, and pornography. I told the guy I'd given up pornography when I stopped smoking while gambling. He just stared at me.

Anyhow, I didn't really get much time to look around, but I'm not sure if I missed very much. I'd actually like to go back to check out a lot of stuff along the way, like Chiang Rai and a few national parks we passed thru.

By the way, here's the website for Myanmar tourist info. Funny, they don't mention a thing about the military dictatorship?

http://www.myanmar-tourism.com/