Road trip: unofficial border crossing to Burma

[buksida]

There are hundreds of these dotted along the Thai-Burma border so I took a ride out to one yesterday to see if I could get across.

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The lake is on the Thai side.

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The river is well known in the area for gold panning though locals told us there was nothing left.

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A simple pole barrier separates Thailand from Burma.

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Walking into the unknown.

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Looking back into Thailand.

There were a couple of guys asleep in the hut on the Myanmar side, the road - which was a mud track - disappeared into dense impenetrable jungle. Locals told us the nearest village was a three day trek and it would not be safe for us to cross. On the Thai side we were offered passage into Burma for 500 baht.

Observations:
The Thais and Burmese don't really like each other, we had a few beers in the local village on the Thai side and chatted to the locals who told us that Thai maidens were far fairer than their Burmese counterparts and that they were dangerous people on the other side!

The Burmese, even though completely unaccustomed to westerners, could speak a basic level of English whereas there was absolutely none spoken on the Thai side.

There was absolutely no mention of visas or passports, if you had enough money you could go anywhere ... that is until you got caught by someone that wanted more money out of you for being in the country illegally!

I'd contacted the Myanmar e-visa people a few days before who told me that crossing into Burma overland from Thailand was not possible for foreigners at the current time.

[richard]

Good pics and looks interesting. Think I'd want to take Rambo with me though

[frank1957]

looks like fun, but at the same time I bet it could be hair raising if the Burmese were in anyway hostile, think I would give it a miss lol

[lomuamart]

And a machete.
Yeah, looks good, pristine and innocent. However, I's be a little loathe to walk through that barrier/border without a visa.

[charlesh]

You got more balls than I have boys. Yes noted when I went to Burma 30 years ago that English was widely spoken. That's why Burma and others will whip past LOS in the economic stakes in the foreseeable future.
Looked like a nice bike journey too!