It was time to go to Myanmar, our first over ground border crossing! We had a vague idea of how long it would take us to get to our first stop Hpa-an, so we were up early and after a quick breakfast, headed off in the general direction of the town where we hoped to pick up a local songatheaw (taxi) that would take us to the border.

Part 1 was completed relatively easy, following the map in the guide book, we aimed for roughly where it said the pick up point was, and sure enough there was a songatheaw waiting with a few Burmese ladies already aboard. After the driver had managed to squeeze many more in, we were off! The border was only about 5km away and we were dropped off just outside the emigration counters. We needed to change our Thai Baht into Myanmar Kyat (pronounced Chat) and we tried to do it on the Thai side with little success, but were assured we'd be able to do it as soon as we got across. I was quite surprised how few foreigners were crossing when we were there, we only saw 3 other white faces (one of which had been on our bus from Mae Hong Son!), but also kind of glad as the security guards pushed us all to the front of the queue (we had not filled in our Thai departure card though, so after getting to the front had to turn back and start again - this time opting to stay in the line and not push to the front!). Anyway, a quick check of visas, a few stamps and we were free to exit Thailand - so off we walked across no man's land, a 400m long bridge (or a very small river where we spotted some people crossing (illegally?) by boat!). Once across, we were pointed towards the tourist immigration office, filled in a form and had our picture taken, then a few more stamps and we were allowed to enter - all very efficient and easy.

Part 2 - get to Hpa-an (pronounced Pa-an). While we were still in the immigration office someone came and asked us where we were going. When he quoted us the price we were expecting to pay for the journey (about $10 each) in a shared van, we accepted - turned out it was a car, just for the 2 of us! After changing some money (with an ok exchange rate) we were on our way, although the driver seemed a bit odd, stopping and starting and calling someone on his phone. We'd probably only been on the go for about 20 minutes when he parked up, got out and went to chat to some people for a while - eventually he came back to tell us that he was waiting for another 2 passengers, who arrived shortly afterwards and after a bit of confusion with our bags being moved to the new car and making sure we didn't have to pay anyone else, we were finally on our way. The new highway from the border is great and you can see why it's cut the journey time from 3 hours to 45 minutes to get across the mountains. The old road would only allow one way traffic each day, so on odd numbered days, the traffic would be going one way and even numbered days, traffic could go in the opposite direction!- James and I agreed that it would be a great road to do on a motorbike…if we had one. The views were stunning, lush green landscape interspersed with the odd golden pagoda tip - we couldn't wait to get exploring!

Bearing in mind, we were in a car, and it was full already with 4 passengers and the driver…the driver was intent on trying to pick up as many people from the side of the road as possible. After a re-shuffle and tying some packages to the roof, we had 2 kids, a chicken and a basket of chicks in the boot. Thankfully, the next group of people had the sense to say no - about 5 people were peering into the car to see how they could all fit!! We looked a little concerned about this, and maybe that's what put them off joining in the party - or the fact that there was literally no room! I think the driver was a bit annoyed at the chance not to earn a few more pennies so put his foot down. He spent the whole journey chewing paan as well and had a lovely spittoon bottle sat in the front with him (eurgh!). I think that they (especially the drivers) chew it more here even than in India and constantly as well…I don't remember seeing so many people with rotten red stained teeth - quite off-putting and difficult to get used to!

In comparison to some of the journeys we'd done recently, this one was quite short - only 3 and a half hours - and we were dropped off by the clock tower in the town. We hadn't booked anywhere to stay as there wasn't really anything online, but we'd been recommended the name of a hostel (Soe Brothers)…unfortunately it was full! We continued walking down the road and stopped into the next place we saw, a guest house called Hinthar, where we met a Finnish girl called Katja - also looking for a bed. After viewing the rooms we all decided to check out what else was available in the town - this would definitely be a last resort kind of place.

And last resort it came down to…not just for us though, by the looks on the faces of the other weary travellers coming through the door that night, they too had had to book in for just one night. In fact, one of the other hotel managers had said to us that it's only good to stay one night until another room elsewhere comes free! Ok, so it wasn't the worst place we could have stayed, it wasn't great though - but on the plus side, it was cheap. And nothing brings travellers together like all being in a rough situation at the same time! J Hpa-an just didn't really feel like it had much going for it, although we've from various people we've since spoken to, the best bits are out of town and in the surrounding area. Still, we were keen to get moving to Yangon as we only had 2 weeks so that night we booked our onward bus. Next stop, Yangon!