Mae Sai

20° 26' 26.67" N 99° 54' 57.24" E [20.4407, 99.9159] (KML)

By bus from Chiang Rai [M] or Chiang Mai [M]. Buses from Chiang Rai are very frequent (every 10-15 min), cost 40 Baht (one way) and take about 1.5 hours, while buses from Chiang Mai take about 4 hours (210 baht one way). All public buses terminate at a bus station well south of Mae Sai [M], so you have to continue onward to the city proper with red songthaews waiting outside (20 baht per passenger fixed fare). The blue songthaews to/from the Golden Triangle [S] and Chiang Saen [M], on the other hand, leave from a stand in the city center a few hundred meters down the street from the border. The last blue songthaew that departs for Chiang Saen leaves at 2PM.

There are also day-tours taking visitors to Mae Sai [M], the Golden Triangle [S], and a couple of other places to see on the way as well. Tourist minibuses are more expensive (around 800 baht for a day tour from Chiang Mai [M] including lunch) and, if fully loaded (but this is not always the case), are much less comfortable. However, this is still an option worth considering, if you want to combine your visa run with a sightseeing tour through Chiang Rai [M] province.

By car which can be rented in Chiang Mai [M] (4 hours away) and other cities. Mae Sai [M] is 61 km from Chiang Rai [M] on Highway No. 110.

Mae Sai [M] is a one-street town and the center is easily covered on foot.

There's really only one place to visit in Mae Sai [M], but many visitors breeze past it on their way to Myanmar.

• Wat Phra That Wai Dao, (before Immigration, turn left and go through covered bazaar). Built on a small hill up a steep staircase, overlooking Mae Sai [M] and Tachileik, this temple and its stupa are unremarkable, but there are a few interesting monuments around it. Next to the stupa is a small Burmese temple [S] that gives a nice taste of what awaits on the other side. Towards the river is a multistoried monument to King Naresuan [S], a Lanna king famous for beating back several Burmese invasions and dispatching the Burmese crown prince in a duel, and just in case the message of this isn't clear enough, there's also a giant scorpion statue [S] brandishing its claws towards Tachileik. Free.  

• Take a picture with the gate marking the northern-most point of Thailand

• Cross the bridge into Tachileik, Myanmar (which the Thais call Tha Khi Lek ท่าขี้เหล็ก). As of May 2010, an entry permit valid for up to 14 days costs 500 baht. They no longer accept US dollars. Travellers using this option are given a paper entry permit and their passports are held at the immigration office until they return to Thailand. Stop at the entry point and talk with the Thai officials to organise this.It is easily done. In the Tachilek market just over the border, expect to be assaulted by any number of persons offering cheap cigarettes and viagra/cialis (if you are older!) From here, you can travel as far as Kengtung [S] (Thai Chiang Tung), 160 km away, but to travel to the rest of Myanmar, a visa in advance is needed. Transit travelers can arrange for a visa and can have their passport sent to their port of exit. Some local NGOs [1] are worth visiting to see some of their humanitarian work

There are plenty of small shops lining both sides of the street leading to the border crossing that sell:

• Cheap jewels (rubies, emerald and jade) imported from Myanmar
• Cheap curio items, many of which are imported from China
• Fresh cut fruit

== Eat == Well I hate to have to say this, but if you want a good restaurant, try the Kik Kok restaurant(no, seriously!! there is a sign outside!!!) It is about 1Km up from the border on the right as you walk in that direction and there are a few Thai restaurants about this distance along the main road away from the tourist shops near the border. It closes about 8pm, but the one immediately next door, run by Chinese descent people will give you a good feed quite cheaply even later, with beer if you want it, and the menus are easy to work on (either in English or with pictures of what you get)

There are several comfortable coffee shops on the main road leading to the immigration checkpoint.

• Thip Sukon House Hotel [S]. This hotel is probably the best of the lot on the same road as the old King Kobra hotel.From the 3rd floor you have a view right into Myanmar and the Sai River.

WANG THONG HOTEL: I stayed at the Wang Thong Hotel about 100m from the border - it is more expensive at B900 than most backpackers will like, but it is central, provides breakfast, and we got a really good Myanmar view room on floor 5. Staff do not speak much English, but you can work it out one way or another. The Songteow from the bus station stops right outside on the opposite side of the road.

• On foot across the short bridge to Tachileik, Myanmar
• By bus or car to Chiang Rai [M] and beyond

Text content was last edited at 20:49, on 19 May 2010 by Claus Hansen. Based on work by Gordon, Jani Patokallio, Dmitriy Baranov, Philipp Sch., brynus and Robert Biuk-Aghai, Wikitravel user(s) Globe-trotter and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. A list of contributors is available at the original article on Wikitravel. This text content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.