Spent a good 2 hours riding and taking photos before going to 'Saphan Pla' which is the local fisheries market and also the gateway to Kawthoung, Myanmar.
As I approached the place, I was 'assisted' by the local 'tout' and was quoted 500B for a return long tail boat ride over the river. I understand that I also needed to pay US$10 to enter Myanmar. That makes it a total of 800B for a day trip over. Very costly compared to my 2 nights of accommodation for 780B.
The jetty and immigration area was crowded and dirty. I see many Burmese people there. My main consideration was safety, I had to leave my bike behind at the jetty area and also my personal safety as I'm carrying quite alot of cash. I thought really long and hard about it.
In the end, I went back my room think more about it and also to answer the call of nature. So I'm typing this in my room at 11am and still haven't had breakfast..zzz..
Most likely I will enter Myanmar from Mae Sai and go to Tachilek instead. At least I can ride my bike into Myanmar and will have a guide to show me around. I much prefer this.
12pm went out in the crazy hot sun to look for lunch. Had very familiar tasting wanton mee, corn waffles and ice cream.. All for 70B only.
After lunch went around to explore the local market. Feel that there is an overwhelming Chinese influence in this town. Many of the local businesses are Chinese owned and the workers are mainly Burmese. I thought I was supposed to be in Thailand?
Weather is too damn hot. Need to hide in my room and sleep.
Slept till 7pm den crawled out of bed to do some basic bike maintainence, showered and headed out for dinner,
Went to a nice restaurant 'Some Time' to have seafood fried rice, fried yam balls with salted egg and a large Heineken. All for 235B. The service was really good and the singer was fantastic.
After dinner go back camp in my room to plan tomorrow's riding route and pack up my stuff.
Expenses:
Hotel - 390B
Petrol - 200B
F&B - 360B
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