Borders with Mynamar

Any land crossings into Myanmar require you to have your visa already in your passport; e-visas are not valid. Your Passport must be valid for at least another six months on your day of entry into Myanmar. Check out the Thailand articles section for information on getting a Myanmar visa in Thailand and visa runs. NOTE: Myanmar time is minus 30 mins (UTC +6:30) of Thailand (UTC +7:00). Border 2 - Mae Sot (Thailand) / Myawaddy (Mynamar) – Open 8:00am to 6:00pm This is the most common border crossing into Myanmar for foreigners as it is the closest and best connected to onward tourist destinations such as the Hpa An, Mawlamyine, Golden Rock and Yangon. The border is around 5km from Mae Sot, and it’s easy to get a tuk-tuk (100B) from the bus station to the border, alternatively walk past the markets and ask for the Songthaews to the Friendship Bridge (20B). The Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge across the Moei River acts as the border crossing, with passport control points on either side. It’s all pretty straightforward and hassle-free. After stamping out of Thailand, it’s a 300m walk across the bridge to Myanmar immigration. There’s a separate immigration window for foreigners so head straight for that, you don’t need to queue in the sometimes considerably longer locals queue. Refreshingly the immigration officials on the Myanmar side tend to be quite relaxed. Once formalities are complete, you can walk through and you are now in Myawaddy, where there will be lots of people with minivans looking for passengers to take on to various destinations. You can just wander down this road until you find a driver going to your destination. If you can join up with some other travellers at the border, it may save you time waiting around for the van/truck to fill up. The new road from Myawaddy towards Hpa-An was opened in 2015, very much welcome as it eliminated the old system of traffic only being allowed in one direction on alternating days (meaning you could get stuck at the border for a day). Burmese are as a whole very honest, but as this is a popular tourist crossing you may get the rare one that will try to get you to pay over the odds for your ride, as long as you have some clue of the price they won’t push the matter. There is a daily direct bus to Yangon for 13,000 kyat which leaves at 8:00am, 9:00am and 10:00am from Myawaddy; it takes around 12 hours. A shared taxi to Hpa-An (pronounced Pa-an) should be around 15,000 kyat (50,000 kyat per car), it takes around 6 hours. Mawlamyine (pronounced Mou-la-me-in) should be about 10,000 kyat in a shared taxi. Border 3 - Phu Nam Ron (Thailand) / Htee Kee (Mynamar) – Open 8:00am to 5:00pm Minibuses leave Kanchanaburi for Phu Nam Ron at 9:00am, 10:30am and then every hour until 3:30pm, takes under 2 hours and costs 70B. However the last bus for Dawei is around 3:00pm, so it’s advisable to get the 9:00am bus otherwise you will be stuck at the border. There are no official buses running from the border either, and there will be more transport options around if you get the early bus. After stamping out at the Thai border, there is a 6km stretch of no-mans-land before the Myanmar border office. You may find a minivan on the Thai side to take you across the border and onward to Dawei. If none are around you may need to get motorcycle taxi to take you for around 60B, or try hitching a lift. The Myanmar immigration is a very straight forward and takes minutes. If you haven’t already sorted your taxi to Dawei, you can do it on this side of the border. Minibuses leave when full; there are no scheduled services. You can expect to be paying 800B each and the journey to Dawei takes 4 to 5 hours. There is an ATM in Dawei where you can take out kyat.