Measot Myawaddy Border Crossing

Overland Border crossings are popular among ways to enter Myanmar these days. From Thailand to Myanmar, there are 4 border gates and Mae Sot – Myawaddy is the easiest and frequentlt-traveled border.


 

Notes on border :

Opening hour: on Thailand side, the border service starts from 5:30AM to 8:30PM as of January 2015.
Visa issue: to enter Myanmar, you need to have Myanmar visa in advance. Unless your nationality is listed in exemption list like the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam… ( check out the list here )
Electronic visa is not applied for border crossing in 2015, please apply through Myanmar Embassy for border crossing visa.
 

On the Thai Border

There is a special passage for foreigners which allows you to travel faster than local people.
What you need to do is to present your passport and departure card (including visas for non-ASEANs). The immigration officer will ask you where you’re heading in Myanmar and how many days you will be staying there. Your photo will be taken so be prepared to smile. Then, you’re stamped out of Thailand.
Crossing the border:
You will walk for 1km on the friendship bridge on Thai-Myanmar border until you reach the Myanmar border check point
 

On the Myanmar Border:

You will be given an immigration form to complete and asked to take photo. The same questions will be asked: how many days, where do you want to go in Myanmar.
How to Move Onward to Myanmar:
Public buses are available until 10AM.
The easy direction is to go to Hpa An and Maw lamyine from where you can travel onward to Yangon and other tourist attractions.

Others:
• Take note of the time difference when going back to Thailand from this border. Well, trip times usually don’t go as planned. We arrived in Myawaddy 30 minutes before closing time and we had to run the 1 kilometer friendship bridge to Thailand. Bell ringers!
• There are no more tuk-tuks or songthaews late in the afternoon until border closing. Motos offer rides back to Mae Sot central depending on your agreement but sometimes, it’s hard to negotiate when it’s the only option you got. We paid THB 80 each.
• Make 5 photocopies of your passport (and visas) before crossing the border. There are several checkpoints from Myawaddy going further inside to Myanmar and they would usually ask for passports. They have log books where they manually copy the details of each foreigner. To save time, you can just hand your photocopy and move on to the next stop. It isn’t consistent though on each stop as some don’t require checking of passports.