Our latest travel video adventures had us waking up early in Chiang Mai to board a crammed van en route to Mae Si, Thailand for a Thai Visa run border crossing with Tachilek, Myanmar (Burma). Packed tightly like sardines in this tiny little van - with faulty air conditioning - we set off on a full day trip to receive a new entry stamp back into Thailand. Audrey and I both couldn't believe our full month in Thailand had already expired; it felt just like yesterday that we arrived at Don Muang Airport in Northern Bangkok. Our van was full of other farangs (Thai for foreigners) in a similar predicament. None of us were taking this trip to explore the frontier areas of Northern Thailand/Myanmar. Our mission was quite clear; our Thai visas had expired and we had to all renew them.
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If feeling cramped and uncomfortably hot wasn't quite enough to deal with, our driver chipped in with his best efforts to accentuate the situation by driving like a kamikaze pilot on a suicide mission. We were both beyond relieved when we finally arrived at Mae Sai to cross the border over to Tachilek, Myanmar.
The process was easy as pie. I really wish all immigration procedures were this simple and efficient. After receiving our exit stamp on the Thai side we entered Myanmar immigration where we paid 500 Baht, had our photos taken and were given a temporary ID card that allowed us to roam around in this Burmese border town.
Having only one hour to complete this entire process we were rushed for time and only briefly had the opportunity to explore Burma. Touts and aggressive street vendors tried to peddle us cartons of cigarettes and Viagra. Although, I'm no longer a wet behind the ears backpacker, I hope I'm not at the stage where it appears I need a libido booster :P
Without time to have a proper sit down meal, I randomly bought some deep fried snacks from a Burmese street food vendor with limited English and/or Thai. Luckily, it only came to 10 Baht (roughly 0.33 USD).
Once we crossed the border back into Thailand we literally had only 15 minutes to grab a bite to eat. We quickly found the closest Thai restaurants which had wifi. Mistaking when my team (the Chicago Blackhawks) played in the Stanley Cup finals we were on the bus when they were taking on the Boston Bruins. With more excitement that a child ready to open a birthday present on Christmas, I rushed to check the score. Sweat dripped from my eyebrow as I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach. As the page slowly loaded an image of a celebrating Blackhawk flooded the screen. I leaped up off of my seat and did a fist pump in the air. They won the game!
On the entire ride back to Chiang Mai I was over the moon. I was excited my team won I hardly even noticed how crazy things were on the road:
nomadicsamuel.com/video-blog/t...
เรามีการผจญภัยของเราเดินทางล่าสุดวิดีโอตื่นขึ้นมาในช่วงต้นของเชียงใหม่ไปยังคณะกรรมการหนาตาเส้นทางรถตู้เพื่อเดินทางไปยังแม่ศรีไทยหนีวีซ่าชายแดนไทยข้ามกับท่าขี้เหล็กพม่า (พม่า) แน่นเหมือนปลาซาร์ดีนอยู่ในรถตู้เล็ก ๆ น้อย ๆ เล็ก ๆ นี้ - เครื่องปรับอากาศผิดพลาด - เรากำหนดออกเดินทางวันที่เต็มรูปแบบที่จะได้รับแสตมป์รายการใหม่กลับเข้ามาในประเทศไทย ออเดรย์และฉันทั้งสองไม่อยากจะเชื่อเต็มเดือนของเราในประเทศไทยได้หมดอายุแล้ว; มันให้ความรู้สึกเช่นเดียวกับเมื่อวานนี้ว่าเรามาถึงที่สนามบินดอนเมืองกรุงเทพฯตอนเหนือ รถตู้ของเราเต็มไปด้วยฝรั่งอื่น ๆ (ภาษาไทยสำหรับชาวต่างชาติ)
This is part of our Travel in Thailand series. We're making a series of videos showcasing Thai culture, Thai arts, Thai foods, Thai religion and Thai people.
Proudly presented by: nomadicsamuel.com , smilingfacestravelphotos.com , thatbackpacker.com & backpacking-travel-blog.com
19 июн 2013
