by Jean
We drove to Mae Sai on Wednesday to get our 15 day stamp on our passports by crossing into (Myanmar) Burma. Gary rented a car from a contact he has. We heard it was a 4 hour drive each way. Gary didn’t want to spend that much time sitting behind the wheel, so he hit the road aggressively, even over the windy, hilly roads. At least he had the steering wheel to hold onto! When I tried to hold on to my seat, the things in my lap would slide off and disappear underneath it.
Sometimes he passed cars over the double center line, but that’s accepted here. He did it once in a town, right in front of a motorcycle policeman, and the officer just nodded and waved us on.
Then there were the close calls with trucks or cars moving in on us from the side with cars or trucks coming head on. I tried not to suck in my breath too noisily so I wouldn’t distract Gary from his driving. Drivers get used to getting by with inches of clearance here.
We had never made this run to get a passport extension before so we didn’t know what to expect. Our friend Terry, living in Mae Sai, told us where we should park to get close enough to the entry point and still be able to park. After we parked and walked a couple of blocks, I remembered I had left my cell phone in my back pack strap in the car. Gary said we’d just have to stick together. Terry had also said something about having to hire a guide when we got through into Burma. We weren’t sure if he was kidding.
We made it through the Thai immigration side just fine and walked across the bridge to the Burma side. They took our passports and gave us a paper with our picture and passport information they had printed on it instead. Then they told us to go shopping. We didn’t want to shop, so went out and sat in some chairs just past the immigration offices.
Gary didn’t know what to do next, so while I waited for him to decide I got our camera out and took a couple of pictures. Gary said I could walk around and take some pictures if I wanted. He would hold my purse.
I went on down to the end of the bridge where it met a cross street in a big circle.
Drivers and others came around offering me rides to places or information on other places to go around there. I shook my head and tried to ignore them mostly. I took a few pictures of the street at the end and then went down into the area of the shops.
When some sales men offered me a big carton of cigarettes, I told him, in Thai, that I didn’t like them. I forgot that now the language wasn’t Thai.
He understood me, though, because he said something about a lady in Thai. I saw a small monk in orange asking people, silently, for food with his food pot. Then a string of monks in red came by ringing their gong.
I had enough pictures, so I went back up to see Gary. He met me in the street very glad I wasn’t kidnapped or something. After all, I didn’t have my cell phone to use if something happened. He had called Terry and knew what to do in order to get out. We crossed the street on the bridge to get our passports in the office on the other side. Then we went back across the bridge to the Thai side. Just then it began to dawn on me that they were driving on the right side of the road in Burma! When they crossed the bridge they switched to the other side of the road. I had to look at my pictures later to confirm that.
We got our 15 day stamps and came out. Terry met us about halfway to our car. He said there was a cool temple nearby on the top of the hill with a great view and a giant scorpion. He offered to take us there on his motor scooter. Gary declined. He was thinking that all three of us wouldn’t fit on that scooter. He said I might like to go, though. I did. I barely fit in behind Terry by myself. Then, part of the ride was up a steep road. That would have been tough on that scooter with all of us too.
I took a couple of pictures of the view and the scorpion and we headed down to meet up with Gary.
Terry did a good job of going along slowly as Gary followed in the truck, easing it around other traffic in the narrow side street. Linda came out to meet us as we drove in. They are living in a nice, two story, Thai house. It has tile on the floor and some nice wooden furniture the owners left in it. We visited for awhile after giving them the peanut butter and spicy cheese we brought them. They invited us out to lunch and to visit the Bible school they work in, but Gary wanted to get going. He had his stomach set on a nice buffet at the Imperial Golden Triangle Hotel and restaurant. Terry told us they were working on the roads out that way, so going that way would take us longer than going straight back.
The road construction did slow us down a little, and made us appreciate the truck (rather than a car) we were in even more than the rough roads we had already seen. The Imperial no longer ran their buffet the same way. They had everyone order off of the menu. We left and instead went down to some simple, open air restaurants by the river.
A sickly looking cat joined me on my bench seat. A jet boat like the one we took 4 years ago went by. A strange kind of house like boat went by and the new casinos look like they are popular.
Soon we were on the road again, but we weren’t sure of which one to take. Gary saw a sign pointing out a right turn for a city that he thought we needed to head for, so he took that road. We didn’t have a map, but then Gary saw some in the holder at the bottom of the door by me. One was perfect for showing the roads we needed to see. 
To be continued – next week, in Kuala Lumpur (KL).
:J
