– ODO- 16336 – 16392 km
– Location- Mae Sot, Thailand
– Weather- 27-29 Stormy
I camped out in the rainforest for my last night in Myanmar. With two bottles of water stowed in my bag I set up my stove and tent and cooked noodles in my large pan. The sun set and small zebra mosquitos swarmed around so I gathered some sticks and set a small fire burning to keep them away. It was another hot and damp night as successive showers passed and kept me awake. I woke before dawn and packed my soaked kit into my bag. With the humidity there was no chance anything would dry anytime soon.
The road up to the border climbed through a small range of hills. The new Asian Highway 1, part of China’s belt and road initiative, was newly laid and swung up the hillsides smoothly. I was soaked immediately but the cloud cover kept the temperature down. Trucks stopped at each crest to cool their radiators. I stopped to change in and out of my jacket at every shower. On the final climb I stopped at a cafe for my last Burmese fried vegetables. The family laughed and smiled as we tried to communicate using English, my three words of Burmese and Google Translate.
The border towns were busy. Either side of a large bridge were border and customs buildings. The single lane caused chaoitic queues of vans and busses and trucks. I wove in and out and was stamped out of Myanmar and entered Thailand. If you’re staying less than 28 days you can enter visa free without paying anything and the whole process took 20 minutes and I was free.
The Thai side was instantly richer than Myanmar. I was overtaken by a Mercedes as I took the 4 lane highway towards my hotel. There was still much of the day left but I’d made great progress on the plains of Myanmar so I badly wanted a shower and to dry out my piles of soaked through kit. This afternoon I’m going to clean everything through then there’s a shopping mall just 10 minutes walk away. I’ll head over and try and get a SIM card and some lunch.