Well just incase I hadn't gotten enough of bus rides after returning from Sukhothai, I booked a mini van trip to the northern border of Thailand. I needed to renew my visa, and this would allow me to walk across the border to Myanmar (Burma) and back.
The ride was long, with one stop each direction. The sky white with smoke the entire way; passing burning fields along the way, one did not have to guess why. Crossing the border was slightly comical. We walked towards an invisible line, where the time would change, and the side of the street we should walk on did as well. They drive on the opposite side of the road as Thailand, so somewhere in the middle of this large bridge lanes of traffic and people switched sides. I looked over the side of the bridge somewhere in the middle, there were young boys playing in the trickling water, ignoring the garbage that lined the shore on both sides.
I was given a day entry after paying $10, getting my picture taken, and using their toilet. I joined two of the people who had been on the same bus as me, and we pushed through the "tour guides" and cigarette sellers to a market area. We were looking for a quick lunch, but all we could find were trinkets, cheap DVD's, cards, cigarettes, cheap clothes, and guitars. The biggest change walking across the border was the people. Pushier and more aggressive sales people- they didn't take no as an answer. That and the food stalls found everywhere in Thailand were decidedly missing on this side of the river. As we strolled down the middle of the street I noticed one other marked difference, lack of vehicles. No cars, I think I saw one truck, a couple motorbikes, but mostly bicycles; quite a change from just the other side of the river, which the road was full of vehicles of all shapes and sizes.
Failing to find food quickly, we decided our time was running short, and so was our patience. It is hard to be nice to people when constantly being badgered to purchase something. So we headed back over the bridge, picking up our passports, crossing back to the other side of the road, and waiting to get back into Thailand. A long bus ride for less than a half hour of actually walking around the border town. It did succeed it softening up the edges of Thailand a bit though.
