The border area west of Mae Sot is kinda scary, as is Mae Sot itself. When I stepped off the songthaew (which was packed with 15 adults and two children) it took me a little while to figure out the place - I thought I should be careful to figure out how you cross into Myanmar so I didn't do it accidentally.

The border area is centred on the border post - a very tall building with two archways that span the inbound and outbound lanes of highway 105 as it leaves Thailand. Think of the Arch d'Triumph in Paris, thats the kind of shape the border post is. The border post marks the beginning of a very large bridge, which spans the River Moei. The sides of the bridge have quite high fences that start at the border post.

There is a large market at the border that runs along both sides of the highway as it comes up to the bridge, and then on the lanes that flow around the sides of the bridge as well as under it. There were no westerners there other than me, and virtually everyone stopped to stare at me as I passed, or tried to sell me something. There were several Burmese guys walking around with cartons of cigarettes stuffed in their shirts which they'd whip out when they spied a potential customer. Several of them tried to offload their apparently dodgy gear on me "You! You buy cigarette!"

I was interested in the market, and wandered around it for about half-an-hour or so, but the main reason I wanted to go to Rim Moei was to see Myanmar (Burma) from across the border. As it turned out, the market is so large that this is virtually impossible. As I drove away from the border crossing though on my way back to Mae Sot, I could see a mountain range on the Burmese side.

Now I'm on a very comfortable airconditioned coach with reclining seats and everything. It's much better than the cramped mini-bus I took back from Mae Sot through the 60 km of windy roads and diesel fumes to Tak. I should reach Chiang Mai by about 9pm. From reading my guide book, I've decided I'm going to try for the Happy House guest house. It sounds okay, and it's got aircon if I decide I want it.