My Trip to Myanmar (Burma)

It was eight hours on a bus just to be in Burma (officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar) for five minutes!  Yes, I went to the town of Maesai, situated at the border that separates Myanmar and Thailand, on what is here referred to as a "visa run."  Just before the expiration date of one's visa to visit Thailand, hundreds of foreigners run for the border to get a new visa.  I should say run for a border because Thailand shares its borders with four.  To the northwest there's Myranmar (Burma); to the northeast, there's Laos; to the southeast, there's Cambodia; and to the south, there's Malaysia.

He studied me and I studied him...

The bus I caught was a big V.I.P. Bus, as the sort of bus one would board to go from Boston to San Francisco.  But for my trip back to Chiang Mai, I bordered a very local bus.  Difference in the price of a ticket?  Big VIP Bus, $10; Local Bus, $2.  Of course most foreigners will opt for the V.I.P. bus, as I certainly did.  But for the return trip, all seats on the big one were occupied. At first I was a little upset and frustrated they won't let one purchase a round-trip ticket.  But then I thought:  Didn't I come to Thailand to have such such adventures? which brings to mind the old saying, "Be careful what you wish for!"

For me, the journey was the adventure, not the details of being officially signed out of Thailand, crossing the so-called "no man's land" bridge that joins Thailand and Burma, asking for and paying the fee for a visa to enter Myanmar, then crossing the bridged back to Thailand.  Thus I took no photos of anything but the trip itself.   Here are some more photos:

All monks travel free in Thailand

Monks get reverential treatment in Thailand. Almost every Thai man enters a monastery if only for a week or a couple of years.  They take the traditional  vow to follow the 227 Precepts laid down by the Buddha for monks.  Breaking one of the Precepts (rules), is called a pacittiya, something like what a Catholic would call a venial sin.  The Precepts are practical rules of behavior in the monks daily life.  They are not like The Ten Commandments in some Western religions.  There are no commandments in Buddhism, just as there are no commandments in any philosophy of life, only practical guidelines for living the Good Life, as Socrates might espouse. 

A rice field in the land that exports the most rice in the world

This photo only hints at the beauty of a field of rice in the tropics.  The green under the tropical sun appears as silk.  Rice is the national staple food in Thailand as it is in all of Asia and Latin America.  I don't know, but I suspect that only the English-speaking people of the world do not eat rice on a regular basis.  Here, as they do in Costa Rica, people eat rice at every meal.  I recall reading somewhere that the Thais were the first people to cultivate rice hundreds of years ago.

Another encounter with the foreign. We are a curious species!

So now I have a new visa, valid until July 9th.  Then I can get a 30-day extension.  By that time, I expect to have my Retirement Visa.  No more "visa runs."