Our promise to ourselves was quickly broken (ok, not so quickly…we spent an entire day in isolation) as we headed to the ancient old city. Covered in 13th century ruins, this town was made for bicycling: we hopped on and pedaled our way around old wat, crumbling chedi and massive stone statues of Buddha. The experience was calming and surreal; we had stepped back in time and didn’t want to return to 2010.
Eventually, dinner beckoned and we found ourselves eating eggplant and pumpkin, two vegetables we missed very, very much. The next day was spent watching a lightning storm from the confines of a plush air conditioned bus. The sky lit up every ten seconds, revealing its purple undertones and the bolts of lighting in the distance. We arrived at our destination, Mae Sot, many hours later and were thrilled to find another Western-style restaurant next to our guesthouse. We ordered salads, burgers and pizza. The following morning, still on a food kick from the night before, we discovered a Canadian restaurant and decided to break their record for the most food two people had ever ordered. This included: bagels, rye toast, an egg sandwich, a tuna sandwich, a chocolate cheesecake milkshake, an oreo milkshake, vegetable enchiladas, garlic cheese fries and two coke zeros (zero calories, of course, as we’re trying to watch our figures).
After lunch we headed to the border of Thailand and Burma in an attempt to renew our visas. They would expire that night and the only way to extend them was to leave Thailand and re-enter, gaining another 15 days on your passport. When we arrived at the border we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the border was closed and had been for several months. And no one thought it would be a good idea to let us know? Not to mention, our visas would still expire that night.
After lunch we headed to the border of Thailand and Burma in an attempt to renew our visas. They would expire that night and the only way to extend them was to leave Thailand and re-enter, gaining another 15 days on your passport. When we arrived at the border we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the border was closed and had been for several months. And no one thought it would be a good idea to let us know? Not to mention, our visas would still expire that night.
We visited the Thai customs house next to the border, waited an exorbitant amount of time, paid an exorbitant number of baht, and received a 7-day extension. We thought if we were “extra nice,” hint, hint, nudge, nudge, they’d give us a discount. But, to no avail. Aside from this let down and the creepy border official who snuck pictures of us with his computer’s camera, we were relieved and ready to continue on.
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| Teeheehee! |
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