Shamballa Cruising Yacht Club: The Road Less Travelled (and we know why!) Part 2

Part 2 has been a long time coming. Sadly, my computer has been in hospital and the condition turned out to be terminal. A new laptop has become my Christmas present to myself.

Back to Myanmar. Dawei was the decision point for a land border crossing into Thailand. If we could not go south by road to cross the border at Kawthong/Ranong in southern Myanmar then we would have to take the more northern crossing at Phunaron/HteeKee, east of Dawei. The staff at our hotel assured us that the road was open to foreigners all the way to Kawthong so we bought bus tickets to the next town, Myeik, about 250 km south.

Land border crossings

We spent a long day cramped on a small minibus traveling over bumpy roads through very scenic countryside; past rubber plantations and small villages; over little streams and rickety bridges, and road works being done everywhere by ladies hauling stones in bamboo baskets, widening the roads. The minibus picked us up at our hotel at about 9.30 am then spent the next hour going around the back blocks of Dawei picking up more passengers. After two hours of travel we had gone only about 50 km south of Dawei. It took another 6 hours to reach Myeik.

Myeik is the gateway to the Mergui Archipelago in the Andaman Sea. This area is made up of over 800 islands and home to the Moken people, or Sea gypsies who live a semi-nomadic, sea-based life. We had hoped to perhaps visit these islands, but the cost to do so was beyond our budget. We had to content ourselves with exploring the water front and markets of the town and of course, some of the pagodas. The waterfront was a hive of activity with boats going everywhere across quite strong currents running in the channel between the mainland and nearby islands. At night this area becomes a place for street food and markets.

Waterfront - better at high tide when the rubbish is hidden

Taxi ride

Another pagoda

Bob checking out the Burmese anchors - just a bit of re-enforcing metal

Our dinner being prepared at the night markets

The situation in Myanmar is changing rapidly. The southern area of the country was opened to foreigners only three years ago. The guide books said that the road from Myeik to Kawthong was not open and one would have to take a ferry to the southernmost town. The guide books also said that there were very few ATM’s in the country and one should have a good supply of crisp, pristine US dollars. None of this advice turned out to be true. The road between Myeik and Kawthong is open and the ferry no longer runs between the two cities. Also, we found that all towns have ATMs and there was no need to bring US dollars into the country.

We spent two nights at our rather ordinary hotel in Myeik. We asked the staff to get us tickets on a ‘big bus’ to Kawthong. All the buses were overnight and we did not fancy spending a sleepless night on a cramped minibus. We showed the hotel staff a picture of a big bus, like we had ridden in to Bagan – quite comfortable. They assured us that this was the type of bus they booked. During our two days we confirmed with them several times that we had a big bus and not a minibus. Alas on the evening of our departure only a minibus was available to us, despite our efforts to get on one of the larger, more comfortable buses. This was obviously a bit of a con being run and left us a bit disappointed in Burma. But to be fair this was the only time in the three weeks that such a thing happened.

So we traveled down very rough roads for 10 hours overnight to Kawthong. We had the same driver throughout the night who was refreshed by only one stop, where he pulled over in a mosquito infested field for a 45 minute nap. Finally in the pre-dawn light the groggy passengers stumbled out of the minibus at the ferry wharf in Kawthong.

Catering to the tourist

We shuffled between the street stalls just beginning to open for the day, desparately looking for coffee, with no success. Finally immigration opened up, we caught a ferry with a fellow traveler from Ireland and crossed the water into Thailand.