The land border crossing from Thailand to Myanmar at Mae Sot/Myawaddy had only been open 5 months. The sense of surprise by the border guards suggested we might have been the first family to have crossed here. Certainly we were well treated, being invited into the guard house and engaged with conversation by the officials. Very pleasant in fact, if a little time-consuming.
Crossing the border was a stark change from that comfortable familiar modern Asia we'd come to since crossing from Lao - but Myanmar is very different to Lao. Crowded, dim, smokey, active: exciting, while Lao was placid. It was clear that this part of Myanmar is very, very poor. A very crude and obvious comparison came to mind: a cross between Thailand and Bangladesh.
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| Street food in hectic Myawaddy |
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| Our ride |
I had read before, and it was confirmed by the border guards that to get from the border area to the rest of the country we had to cross a mountain range along one narrow road - so narrow in fact that traffic was allowed each way only on every second day. It wasn't clear whether the next day was one way or the other. So, having crossed the first order of business was to find out and possibly work out transport with some haste. We checked into a hotel - the best in Myawaddy I was told, but a little shoddy really, especially for the price. But on balance, I can't fault the service given that when I asked about getting transport to Yangon it was the Manager himself who invited me on the back of his scooter and took me to multiple offices all over town to negotiate a ride across the mountain.
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| Countless vehicles like this ply the awful road across the mountains |
In the end we found ourselves the next morning in an aging sedan with the driver and I in the front, and 4 in the back seat - my wife and the children. Then the fun began - that road was not only narrow, but in extremely bad condition and trafficked by outrageously overloaded pickup trucks.
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| Throughout Myanmar this mild narcotic is prepared and chewed |
After crossing the mountains, the roads were reasonable however it became clear how fundamentally early Myanmar is in its development as a modern nation. Government control doesn't extend to this zone - on the way to
Hpa-An. Instead there are frequent checkpoints staffed, frequently by children as young, I'd guess, as 12 though they looked younger armed with sub-machine guns. It seems this is a
known problem. Everyone was smiling and seemed pleased to see us - I was all smiles too of course.
Internally I had a chill though. My understanding is that this is a Karen rebel controlled area - I wasn't aware that these rebellions were so entrenched.
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| Fellow travellers |
In Hpa-An we got tickets for a "luxury bus" - as it turned out, rather decrepit and un-heated - and at night it became very cold. For some reason also it traveled slowly. We arrived, exhausted, at a Yangon at about 4am - the distance of 266km therefore taking us 20 hours. Nevertheless, somehow, that day - the New Year's Eve of 2014 - was a highlight of our trip.
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| Getting to Hpa-An |
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| Food stop on the way to Yangon |
