Let’s Never Settle

Payathonzu, Myanmar: The border town visa run, and nothing more

A December 2019 visa run into Myanmar: a horrid drive, two tiny checkpoints, and a market running on cigarettes and cheap alcohol.

This one's an honest entry rather than a trip. Back then a border run was the standard way to keep a long stay in Thailand legal, so we drove west, crossed into Myanmar, waited out enough time on the other side to make the stamp count, and came back.

What we mostly remember is the drive, which was horrid, and how small the checkpoints were on both sides. Nothing like a proper border: a couple of little posts and a lot of dust. Everyone around us seemed to be there for the cigarettes and the cheap alcohol, which is really what the crossing runs on.

Inga standing on a dusty open lot in a Myanmar border town, corrugated stalls hung with tinsel on both sides and forested hills behind
The whole of our Myanmar: a dusty lot, corrugated stalls strung with tinsel, and hills going on behind.
Inga and Dileep taking a selfie in bright sun at the border settlement, market stalls with gold figurines behind them
Proof we were there, with a stall of little gold figures over our shoulders.

So we're counting it, but only just. We saw a market, a car park and a line of hills, and we'd happily go back and see the actual country one day.