Most people fly into Myanmar, and for good reason. Relatively cheap flights are possible to come by, especially from Thailand. We’re talking around $50 from Bangkok to Yangon on Thai Lion, Nok, or Air Asia.

Plus, and this is a big plus, it makes it MUCH EASIER to handle visas if you fly in. The country is just opening to tourism and has some tricky regulations (and border guards that seem to do whatever the hell they want half the time). We saw one woman get turned away, told that she would need to enter via air in her particular situation.

For us, using United States passports, we were able to enter at this border with a relatively simple eVisa. However, please make sure you check the situation out online first and note that this is not true for all land borders and nationalities.

If you can navigate it, the crossing at Mawaddy will save you a bit of money, as well as give you the flexibility to arrive when you wish.

Here goes:

Thailand to Myanmar

We had an easy border crossing with few snags. That being said, our trip was made in January 2019 and things may change. Below is the full story and tips to make the journey smoother.

Leaving from Bangkok

We started our journey in Thailand’s capital, but it’s completely possible to begin in a variety of other places in Thailand.

Busses leave Bangkok from Mo Chit, the biggest bus station to the north of the city. You can metro easily and get off either at Bang Sue, Mo Chit, or Chatuck Park (by the big weekend market). It’s a bit of a walk from some of the stations there and if it’s late the park will be closed and you’ll have to walk around it, so take note it could take longer than you think.

You’re looking for a bus to Mae Sot, the border town on the Thai side. There are a few different counters selling tickets on the ground floor near the main entrance, so ask around.

There seem to be plenty of late at night options (our goal was to get an overnight bus). We took one at 22:00 in “2nd” class, which was very comfortable, for 290 baht each. It stopped a few times, but it’s possible to sleep relatively well for the 8 hour journey. The trip may take less time during the day, or if you get an express bus.

There’s free working WiFi at Mo Chit, but not on any busses we found.

Reaching the Border from Mae Sot

When you arrive in Mae Sot, you’ll be about 5 km from the Friendship Bridge where you need to go for immigration proceedings.

Honestly, we should have walked it, but instead we took a song thaew (the little shared mini busses). We’re fairly certain it should be 20 baht a ticket (which is still expensive for the length of trip), but everyone on ours paid 50 baht, which felt like a huge rip off. Bastards.

Crossing into Myanmar at Mawaddy

Thai immigration is easy, though make sure to keep your departure card (which you received when you arrived in the country) and fill it out. Thai officials will check to make sure you have the documents required to enter Myanmar before they allow you to stamp out.

After you do, you’ll walk across the bridge to Myanmar.

On the other side, they’ll help you fill out an arrival card or at least give you a pen (it’s free, don’t pay of course). An officer will take your photo and put a stamp in your passport after checking your visa.

You’ll need to have your visa printed out and ready to go - a couple copies would be smart actually as this country loves its paper trail. You need a photocopy of your passport also, so try to have that on hand - there are places around the border, but they’ll charge more. Indeed you’ll need many more shortly.

Immigration was extremely easy and no questions were asked, not about funds or proof of onward travel. This may be a bit variable, however, depending on your immigration officer and nationality. Check and recheck the regulations online and be sure of your responsibilities before you go.

On the other side, it’s possible to buy a SIM card, but we chose to wait till Yangon. If you turn left after arriving, you should be able to find a cafe or hotel with WiFi if you need it.

Onward Travel

It’s possible to get a bus to a variety of places from the border, the easiest being Hpa An, followed by the transport hub that is Bago. We chose to take a longer bus to Yangon.

Getting to Yangon

Around town, people will try to sell you a mysterious “bus” to Yangon. We think most of these offers are for mini busses and we got them down to 12,000 kyat.

We chose to walk out a little farther to the bus station (marked on the map), though, thinking we’d save money. That did not exactly happen.

Here, they charged 14,000 kyat for an extremely nice AC bus with huge and comfy seats.

Honestly, we were surprised it wasn’t cheaper as we thought it’d be 10,000 kyat, skipping the middle man and going straight to the source. It wasn’t, at least for us, and we tried bargaining for 30 minutes.

You’ll also need 5 - count ‘em FIVE - passport copies for each checkpoint along the way. This never again happened to us on a bus in Myanmar, but we asked every single person on the bus that spoke English and they all insisted it was true? Scam to get you to buy more photocopies at the border? Maybe. But, have them ready to go and it shouldn’t matter.

Although the bus is comfortable, the road isn’t nearly as good as Thailand. It will be slow and bumpy going for awhile. It’ll make stops for the toilet, gas, food, and even ‘exercise,’ which consisted of us walking over a bridge.

The meals looked extremely tasty, though we were feeling a bit green at first and skipped them. Similar to daal baht in Nepal, you can have virtually unlimited portions of white rice, but here it was served with about 7 salads, soup, chili paste, and a huge bowl of green veg. The one we saw cost 2,500 kyat.

It was 5 hours to Hpa An and another 6 hours to Yangon, although the roads improve and you’ll stop again for food.

Arriving in Yangon

The bus station is to the north of the city near the airport. If you walk to the end of the road, you can get share taxis to Sule Pagoda in the center of town.

Don’t let the taxis talk you out of it. They run at most hours of the day. It’s 1,000 kyat a head and takes about 45 minutes in traffic to get into town.

From there, it’s a doable 10 - 30 minute walk to most of the best hostels in town!

Have you crossed the border or dealt with Myanmar’s immigration? Let us know if our guide was helpful, offer updates, and suggest improvements in the comments below!