CHIANG MAI, THAILAND -> TACHILEIK, BURMA
Thailand has tourism down to a science, but it isn’t really sure what to do about all these foreigners who want to live here. Most bring in a lot of money and have helped the country immensely, but some just do a ton of drugs and have sex with prostitutes. How in the world do you separate the two? Nobody’s quite figured it out yet, but the interim solution is hold them to insanely complicated and unpredictable visa regulations. So complicated and unpredictable, in fact, that there are entire websites devoted to keeping up with them.

I’ve been in Thailand over a month (though hopefully not much longer), so I needed to leave the country to get an extension on my visa. Through mechanisms too boring to explain I would have received sixty days if I’d gone to Laos, but it’s a four day trip and my friend norovirus made sure that wasn’t happening. Luckily the Union of Myanmar is only 200km away, and even though that trip’s only worth an extra two weeks it can be done in a single day.

These photos are from the way there. Tomorrow we’ll take a dip into Burma.