Mae Sai

My room at the guest house with the ugly PJ's
Temple in Chiang Rai (wat jet yod...Chiang Mai also has one...)
Ugly PJ's

Last week we had yet another holiday for the Queen's birthday so my friend and I went to Mae Sae (the border of Burma and Thailand) so he could extend his visa and so I could go shopping. Well we arrived at the bus station at 6:30 and missed our bus which left at 6:00am. So we bought breakfast and took the next bus which left at 8:00am. Then, after 3.5 hours we got to Chiang Rai and took another bus to Mae Sae which took about 1.5 hours. We walked around Mae Sae and I even got half way across the border with my special VIP student pass in place of my passport (so my visa wouldn't become void) when the Burmese police tried to get me to pay 500THB to cross. Well, according to my papers I had to only pay 20THB so I went back and waited for my friend's visa extension. The Thai police said I only had to pay 20THB but the Burmese police probably charged my because I'm a foreigner. Anyways, I got some good food and a new umbrella and then we headed back. When we got to Chiang Rai, all the buses back to Chiang Mai were full until the next morning. We found a nice guesthouse with towels, soap, AC, and hot water (we traveled all day and didn't have any thing for staying over night). I had to buy a PJ's because all I had were my dirty clothes to sleep in. So the lovely pair of flowered frilly bear-faced covered PJ's you see in the photo are what I had to wear....it made me feel a little more than ridiculous. But we found a bus the next morning which we took in the same clothes we wore the day before but at least I still had time to get some work done for classes the next day.