I spent days trying to find a blog post with the details of what happens when you cross the border from Myanmar to Thailand, however, I could only find posts on how to cross from Thailand into Myanmar which was not useful. So this blog post is for anyone wanting to cross the border from Tachileik into Mae Sai. We caught a plane from Mandalay to Tachileik due to the fact that it is off bounds to tourists to travel there by land. The airport in Mandalay was tiny with the 'check-in gate' being one man who does not even check your ticket as he handed us a sticker to show what flight we were on. After we got through security, we were ushered into a little bus that drove us 30 meters to our plane, it would have been quicker walking to the plane). Once we got on the plane we were able to choose our seats, Alex and I chose the seats with extra leg-room with no extra cost. Still, our tickets have not been checked.
When the plane lands in Tachileik; the foreigners have to wait whilst out passport is copied. We walk out of the airport and see our bags on the ground, well that was easy! Alex and I are on a tight budget so we decided to walk to the border (9km) luckily it was only 10am so the temperature was still low. We got to the border at about 1230pm and we cross more easily than expected, all we had to do was walk across, sign a few papers and we were there! I got a free 30 day visa as I am from the UK whereas Alex only got 15 days because he is from Australia. After you cross the border there are hundreds of ATMs hanging around although not a single one worked, luckily Alex had a enough Thai money to get us to Chiang Rai. The Mae Sai bus station is too far away from the border to walk so you need to catch a little red van that cost 25 baht. Once at the bus station the majority of the buses go from Chaing Rai, Chiang Mai or Bangkok. We got on the cheapest bus to Chiang Rai which was a rusty, old mini van. It was only a couple of baht cheaper than the VIP buses but it was first to set off so we chose this one, I would advise to go on the VIP bus if you are making this journey. Our bus had no air con and it was the local bus that stopped and let people on whenever it was flagged down, we ended up sitting on sweaty leather seats with our knees halfway through the seat in front and locals filling the aisle, it was the worst journey I have ever experienced. But we made it to Chiang Rai in one piece after one hell of an experience.