Tachileik - “City of the Golden Triangle”

A Taste of Myanmar - No Visa Required

by Steven Stuenckel

Tachileik is nestled in the green mountains of the Golden Triangle, across the Nam Ruak River from Mae Sai, Thailand.  The Golden Triangle is that mountainous region where the borders of three nations, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, come together.  Tachileik, and the attendant trip through northern Thailand, provides a pleasant introduction to the Union of Myanmar for curious travelers.  Since one can cross the border overland, without a visa, minimal planning and expense is required for a taste of Myanmar.

A very short walk across the bridge from Mae Sai, and you’re in another world.  A lovely pagoda-style building dominates the skyline as you enter Tachileik.  Burmese men wear sarongs on the streets of this border town, the “City of the Golden Triangle.”  Lady vendors in conical hats trudge around town with loads of food suspended from wooden yokes over their shoulders.  Burmese ladies smear a yellow paste made from the powdered fragrant bark of the thanakha tree on their tan faces.  Bring your camera!  Tachileik is rich in colorful, exotic images to capture and share with the folks back home.

Transportation: Peddle-powered samlors are available to haul you around town.  These charming rickshaws are three-wheeled cycles with a convertible roof over the passenger’s head.  They’re a lot like the “cyclos” in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Saigon, Vietnam; but in Tachileik, the drivers peddle in front of their passengers.  These graceful vehicles will glide you around Tachileik for B50/$1.25 per hour, B40/$1.00 if you bargain.

For those who enjoy a faster pace, there are three-wheeled motorcycle taxis.  These also have a roof overhead, and a seat in the rear for a couple of passengers.  B100/$2.50 per hour will put one of these vehicles at your disposal.  The drivers display posters with photographs of sights they will show you.  These sights include temples, chedi, and long-necked tribeswomen with stacks of metal rings around their necks.

Shopping: The atmosphere on both sides of the bridge is that of a bazaar.  There are great deals to be had.  Don’t be shy about bargaining.  You may very well buy goods from Tachileik vendors at a third of their original asking price.  Just keep saying “no” until they hit bottom.  You don’t need to make any offers.  Their price will keep getting lower and lower the more you say no.

You may want one of the aforementioned taxis, just to get away from the hawkers near the bridge.  Tachileik can boast of having some of the most persistent vendors in the world.  I’ve heard tourists to various destinations (including Tachileik) complain about such roving entrepreneurs.  They don’t bother me.  Sure, they hit on me, like anyone else; but I’m firm with them, and they go away.  Like most border towns opposite crossings to Thailand, local folks understand the Thai language.  “Mai ow [not want],” delivered firmly, repeatedly, will get them off your back.

Myanmar is the source of Burmese pigeon-blood rubies, the finest in the world, but beware of buying gems.  If the price is low enough, and you don’t care if you’re buying synthetic stones, go for it.  However, you can be very sure there are fake stones being sold at the border.  There are real stones too.  If you can tell the difference, more power to you.  I once guided a couple of Americans through this region.  One of them was a trained gemologist who owned his own jewelry store for eighteen years.  I watched him pay three hundred dollars for a ruby that turned out to be a fake.  His expertise was diamonds.  A friend back in the US, specializing in colored stones, pronounced the ruby synthetic.

Tachileik is only two hundred fifty kilometers from China.  Inexpensive Chinese imports, on both sides of the border, are good buys.  You’ll find clothes, dried mushrooms, umbrellas, electric scooters, electronic goods, binoculars, etc., etc., etc. on both sides of the bridge.

Myanmar is the leading producer of teak wood.  Beautiful teak carvings, at good prices, are available in staggering variety.  These carvings are handcrafted by natives, and worth taking home.

Crossing the Thai/Myanmar Border: Tachileik is one of only four places where you can enter Myanmar at an overland crossing.  You can enter Myanmar at Tachileik without a Myanmar visa, and pay only $5.00, or B250/$6.25, for a one-day pass.  You leave your passport at the Thai Passport Control station on the Thai side of the border.

If don’t need to renew your Thai visa, the Thai and Burmese authorities will not stamp your passport.  It will be as if you never left Thailand, regarding entries in your passport.  In this case, you must carry a photo-copy of your passport with you.  Officials on the Thai side will coach you on this.  If you do want to renew your Thai visa, you still leave your passport with the Thai Passport Control officials.

You walk across the bridge, though it is possible to drive. (There are permit fees of $50-100 per vehicle.)  On the Burmese side of the bridge, before entering Myanmar, you stop in the Tourist Office at the immigration checkpoint.  This is where you pay $5.00, or B250/$6.25, for your one-day pass.  The Myanmar officials issue your pass, and you’re on your way.

If you prefer, you can buy a fourteen-day pass for $10.00, or B500/$12.50.  There are additional documentation fees of B150/$3.75 with the fourteen-day pass, bringing the total to $13.75, or B650/$16.25.

With a fourteen-day pass, a visitor can travel 163 kilometers north from Tachileik to Kengtung.  Another 85 kilometers north puts one in Mengla, across the border from Daluo, China.

If you already have a Myanmar visa, you can enter the country at Tachileik and proceed to travel throughout Myanmar.  However, you’ll need to fly in this case.  Jungle separates Tachileik from Yangon and Mandalay.

If you’re on a one-day pass, be sure to be back across the bridge before five p.m.  The bridge is open until six, but Thai Passport Control closes at five.  If your Thai visa is renewed, your passport gets entry and exit stamps by the Myanmar officials, and you retrieve your passport at the Tourist office on the Burmese side of the bridge, but you still need to clear Thai Immigration.  There is no fee for reentering Thailand.

Please note: With these passes, you are not permitted to walk back and forth across the bridge with multiple entries.  Once you leave Myanmar, you’re back in Thailand, and a new pass is required for re-entering Myanmar.

With a one-day pass, plan on eating lunch in Tachileik.  There’s a restaurant on the ground floor of the blue-roofed, pagoda-style building conspicuous from the bridge.

Money: I’ve quoted prices in both Thai Baht and US Dollars.  Equivalent amounts were calculated at the rate of B40 = $1.00.  Though this rate has remained stable as of late, it is subject to fluctuations. Use Thai baht for your purchases in Tachileik, just as in Mae Sai, on the Thai side of the border.  You can save a couple of bucks by using dollars with the Myanmar Immigration officials at the bridge, but the Thai baht is the medium of exchange in town.

Language: Myanmar Immigration officials, and business people in Tachileik, speak a bit of English.  Like most border towns neighboring Thailand, Thai is widely spoken.  Most visitors to Tachileik are Thai nationals.  Many Burmese speak neither English, nor Thai, though you will encounter some Myanmar natives who speak English surprisingly well.

Getting There: If you’re headed to Tachileik on public transportation, you must first find your way to Chiang Rai, Thailand.  You’ve got three options: train, airplane, or bus.  Busses in Thailand are quite good, but if you’re coming from Bangkok or Pattaya, it’s a long haul.  I’ve never done this run by bus, but I find long bus trips tiring.

Flying, of course, is fast and easy; and you can fly to Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai, which is closer to Tachileik.  I recommend the train.  A cozy first-class sleeper compartment makes a romantic getaway for couples.  In second-class coach, the mix of Europeans, Asian tourists and Thai people makes for a lively social scene.  Comfortable seating in second class is converted into curtained upper and lower berths with immaculate linens at bedtime.  On my most recent trip, I swapped travel stories with two Englishmen and their Thai girlfriends on their way to Tachileik, and shared my dinner with a lovely South Korean college student who had the berth above mine.  On my return trip to Bangkok, four beer-drinking Japanese girls were so animated they reminded me of the train scene in Some Like it Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemon, and Tony Curtis.

Most of the trains from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, the end of the line, are at night.  Though much of the ride is in darkness, you see a great deal of Thai countryside before your morning arrival, and on your train back to Bangkok.  There’s a day train too, but you’ll need to sleep in Bangkok, and get up very early to catch that one.  Bring your own food and drinks, or buy them on the train.  The train offers dinner, breakfast, and beverages.

When you reach Chiang Mai, you’ll need to catch a bus to Mae Sai, the northernmost point in Thailand.  Your four-hour bus ride will provide more of the lovely scenery of the Chiang Mai-Chiang Rai-Mae Sai area. Finally, a shared songthaew (two-bench taxi) will carry you from the Mae Sai bus station to the bridge at the border.

Tachileik is, admittedly, no eighth-wonder-of-the-world.  Destinations like Bagan, deep into the heart of Myanmar, and Cambodia’s Angkor Wat are well-worth the extra effort.  Still, if you’ve never been to the Golden Triangle, a journey to Tachileik makes a nice trip.  This region is gorgeous.  In the rainy season, the countryside of northern Thailand is a lush green kaleidoscope of hardwood jungle, stands of bamboo, farms and rice paddies, and the railway affords unobstructed panoramic views of it all.