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I have decided to ditch the corporate attire for 10 months(ish) and embark on the adventure of a lifetime.. being new to the world of 'blogging' you should see this journal grow and evolve along with my discovery some of the most amazing places on Earth!

Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Myanmar Visa

My time in Bangkok needs to be limited as much as possible, with a little over 2 months left in SE Asia the aim is to maximise time in each of Myanmar, Laos and China. After doing a little research on Google it turns out the process to organise a visa for Myanmar is rather straight forward, and given I can prove that I am flying out within 24 hours, an express process can be granted for a slightly higher fee.

I took the night train up to Bangkok and managed a few hours sleep in between mingling with backpackers in the restaurant carts, drunk Russians running around all night, a broken fan that I was convinced was somebody listening to bongo drums on their ipod during my Diazepam haze and a top bunk that threatened to thorw me off at every turn.Treating myself to a reasonably priced $30 hotel located just a few streets from Khao San Rd, my room was decent and included high speed wifi to cram in some last minute research about possible destinations in Myanmar.

Requirements for the express Visa were a copy of an inbound flight ticket (which I booked for $80 with Airasia), a photocopy of your passport photo page and a completed application for with two passport sized photos. The application forms can be obtained about 100m down the road from the visa office (yellow sign displaying 'copy centre') which also provides printing and copy services for a small fee.

Having read that the lines can get large quite early and wanting to ensure I got my visa the same day, I set off at 7am to get the ferry boat and sky train to the visa office which is open for applications from 9 - 11am every weekday, except Thai and Myanmar public holidays. The line was already about 30 people deep by the time I got there just after 8 and picked up another 10 or so by the time I got back from the copy office closer to 8:30am. Once inside you line up to advise what kind of visa is required and sit until your number is called. There were 3 windows collecting applications and payment, the whole process being  completed a little after 9:30am.

With a few hours to kill until collection at 3:30pm, I jumped on the sky train up to MBK which is a 7 story shopping centre in the middle of Bangkok. Here I withdrew and changed $1,200 USD notes in pristine condition as I had been warned these are the only currency accepted for most hotel and transport bookings, the highly scrutinised notes are not available once you land in Myanmar. After the disappointment that the fees and a deteriorated exchange rate had on my spending budget, I made the unwise decision to check out an all you can eat sushi restaurant. The conveyor belt offered all kinds of meats and vegetables that you cook in a large soup pot boiling in front of you, there is also a buffet selection of sushi, desserts, soft drinks and other strange looking Japanese dishes.. I walked out of the place feeling disgusted by the amount of food consumed.

Back at the visa office (which is actually located on a side street just around the corner from the embassy) I joined the other tourists taking refuge from the sweltering heat in small patches of shade across the road. The collection process was very quick and over within 15 minutes. The rest of my evening was spent mingling on Khao San road and knocking back as many last minute Thai meals that my renewed appetite  could manage. It was here I also found my new favourite juice store serving up my usual order of a banana shake (that required drinking half to be topped up again) and the best fruit, muesli and yogurt combo tasted yet, all for 2 dollars!


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