Burma

We started off our day at 8:00 A.M with breakfast at the Dusit Hotel next to the river. It was a bit cool outside and smoke filled the air. Ton our driver told us the smoke is from Burma because they are burning trash.  Then we loaded up and drove to the Thailand/Burma border.  Nat stayed back at the hotel to rest as we have worn him smooth out and he was unable to sleep the night before. We got to the border and watched as large trucks carried bottles over the border to be washed and filled at the springs in Burma for drinking water.  Then we followed Ton in and out of checkpoint lines in Burma to have our passports stamped.  We had to leave our passports with the officer’s which freaked us out.  Then we were off to the Burma market.  Now, we have been to many markets in Thailand and we have always been safe and never felt we needed to worry about our belongings.  As we neared the market Ton told us to hold on to our bags and watch out for the little kids who will take your things.  We walked down the stairs into a new and strange world.  The streets were dirty and the poverty level is very high in this country.  Ton and Susan checked out sunglasses and the others looked at CD’s.  Susan met a cute little orange tabby kitten and loved on him (of course).  Then we all decided we were done, we didn’t really care for Burma so much.  We were ready to head back to the relative safety of Thailand.  So back over the border where we thankfully got our passports back.  We wanted to look  at Jade, so Ton took us to a jade store called Srinuan Jewelry where we purchased some beautiful jade pieces.  We had a flight to catch and it was lunch time, so we went back to the Dusit Hotel and had Dim Sum with Nat for lunch, it was yummy!  It was time to head to the airport for our flight back to Bangkok.  We were sad to leave the mountains and the rich culture and its people.  We touched down in Bangkok after a 1 hour flight.  We we’re going to check in our hotel before dinner, but the traffic was so bad, it was 5:30 rush hour and we were not going anywhere fast, so we went straight to Ho Kitchen to have dinner with Johnny, his wife Usa, and a whole handful of Nat’s other friends ranging from Doctors to Newsmen.  Dinner was awesome, wait until you get a load of the Lobster that was served, it’s a Giant.  We finished the evening by checking in at our Hotel, The Montien Riverside and going straight to bed.  Goodnight and enjoy the pics, while we sleep!

 

 

No Burma food for us, Lunch was in Chiang Rai and dinner back in Bangkok, enjoy!