Back in Chaing Mai

We left Laos on January 14 early in the morning and found ourselves in Bangkok by 11 that night. Our bus over the border took us to Ubon and within 10 minutes of being there we were on another bus headed for Bangkok.The pictures of the motos were taken from the back of our tuk tuk on the way to the bus station. The first bus was great with mostly Thais or Lao people on it. The border was a bit nutty though, very hard to figure out where you were supposed to be. Finally figured out that after getting your exit stamp from Laos you were meant to walk down a path hidden behnd a building that looked like a tiolet house and make your way to the big Thai Immigration building. The picture is of me standing buy the entrance to the path. As I've said before you never really know what you're buying a ticket for and the bus turned out to be a milk run taking much longer than it would have otherwise taken. I raced through the station to the food area and bought some bbq chicken and sticky rice and thank heavens for that because there were no real food stops and no vendors came on the bus. Just before leaving Laos we were on the back of a loaded truck and there were several pauses for food. We were bombarded by vendors sticking food through the sides at us. It was the most I had ever seen coming from all sides and lots of calling out to get our attention. This bus was very different than that.

When we arrived in Bangkok we headed to our normal hotel and there were no rooms. Bangkok had gone from almost no tourists to a zoo in two months. We were unable to book ahead because we needed to buy some minutes for our Thai sim card. Anyway the hotel had a sister hotel across the street and we were able to get a room there at a much higher cost. A breakfast buffet was included though so it made it a pretty good deal.

The next day we moved across the street and got ourselves organized and decided to go to a movie downtown. We saw the newly realeased "Girl with the Dragon Tatoo'. It was in a really trendy mall with stores like ''Fendi' and 'Gucci' etc. We've been to the movies there a few times but it was still really confusing but we managed to get to our seats in time. I really liked the movie and could follow it well as compared to the European version which I had started to watch at home and abandoned. It was really hard to watch the two rape scenes though, very graphic and realistic. When we left the theatre building we were able to check out the lavish Christmas decorations outside the mall. They were sptunning, a real spectacle Asian style. It was the last day they were up. We had seen the mall two years ago at Christmas as well and it was also amazing. When we left we had to get a taxi home as we didn't know if the boats were still running. It was very cool. There was a lineup of people waiting and an attendant asked you where you were going when your turn came up and then he used a megaphone to announce it and a taxi that was willing to go to your area came forward. Sometimes it's hard to get metered taxis because they don't want to go where you want to because they may not get another fare there or they don't want to use their meters and want to charge an exorbitant rate. Taking the water bus and sky train to get there cost just as much as getting a taxi back.

The next morning we got up at 6:30 to go to the Myanmar Embassy for our visas. We got there at 7:30 and although it doesn't open till 9, we were already about 20 people back in the line. By the time it opened there were at least 150 people in line and the first ten were from agencies and had stacks of passports. We were lucky to have a Burmese/American man on one side of us and an American who had been there many times on the other. He told us we needed copies of our passports and that Philip's pictures were no good because they had a colored background. Philip popped around the corner to a copy shop and they were set up for pictures as well. They also had copies of the applications. He came back all set and we had the paperwork filled out before we got through the door of the embassy. It was real meyhem inside. It was unclear which line to get in so we chose one and hoped for the best. They took our paperwork and then gave us a number and then we had to wait for another counter to call our number. Luckily the American got through first and told us we could pay extra and get it later that afternoon because when our turn came up the man said to come back on Wednesday and I piped up saying that we prefered today and he agreed that for a fee we could pick up between 3:30 and 4:30. We made our way back to our hotel and returned again by 3. The line was back and same thing inside, nobody knew which line to get in. We each got in one and it turned out I was in the right one and by 4 we were on our way home again. I've heard so many stories about that embassy and visas. One was that you shoud have your flight tickets first but the day we went we didn't have tickets and they seemed to feel that those who had tickets were presuming entry and it was frownded apon. Maybe everyday is different. I do know that we are thrilled to be going because there is a flood of people going there and the country is on the brink of big changes in everything including tourism.

The next day we decided to go to the bus station and buy our own bus tickets. In Thailand it's all private companies and they all are trying to get you on their bus. There were many companies for Chaing Mai and we tried a few before settling on one that was due to leave in ten minutes. The bonus was that they were offering a discount to fill the bus. I can only say that the middle to back of the bus must have been cheaper seats because we got seats second from the front and they were some of the best on the bus. How else would they not have been taken? What a shocker. It was another two story bus with a stewardess and it was the poshest bus we had ever seen. There were electrical outlets for computers, individual screens for viewing a selection of movies in a number of languages, reclining seats with footrests, massage built into the seats, lots of leg room and food served free of charge onboard. There were two seats on one side and one on the other instead of the usual two and two. It was an amazing ride and not expensive. I'm not afraid of the double buses when I know they are going on divided highways because they don't sway as much and there are no pedestrians that can get injured!


We're back in Chaing Mai to finish dental work and are off to Burma next week. It's a gorgeous sunny day here but quite chilly. We were expectng real heat!