Visa Run Day

So today we woke up at 6:30, got picked up at 7:00, then spent the next five hours driving up to Mae Sai, a small town near the border with Myanmar. Like a number of things in Thailand, things don't always live up to expectations. We were promised an air-conditioned minivan. Unfortunately, with 12 people packed (and I mean packed) into the van, the driver wasn't able to run the air-con and make it up the hills at the same time (too much of a load on the engine), so we did without. Eventually we figured out how to open the windows so this was OK. Also intriguing was the driver would stop randomly at various places along the route, and get out and wander away for 5-10 minutes. Our best guess is that he was shopping for another minivan. (we're not kidding).

We got dropped off and Mae Sai, crossed over the Thai border, got our exit stamp, entered Myanmar for 5 minutes, then came straight back into Thailand and received a brand new 30-day visa. So we had an hour to spend in Mae Sai. If there is a redeeming feature to this town, we weren't able to find it in the time we were there. The main street is just a continuous series of stalls selling tourist junk. In fact, it was difficult to find a place to eat.

We then got back in the minivan for our trek back to Chiang Mai, arriving around 7PM. We had dinner again at Kanjana, and again had an early night, tired from an exhausting day of sitting on our butts.