This time instead of flying Singapore Airlines, I flew Thai International out of LAX. This turned out to be a much better arrangement. Instead of going through customs and immigration in Bangkok, I was flownn up to Chiang Mai and entered the country there. It was interesting as a majority of the flight was domestic passengers. There were only about 12 international passengers on the flight. I was also on the first flight to Chiang Mai for the day. When I get there, I was the first person in immigration, and the attendant couldn't wait to start processing my passport. In all, it took me about 20 minutes to get through both immigration and customs. Most of this waiting was for my bag to come off the plane.
Another suggestion for international travel. Stay up the night before, and start adjusting to the destination timezone durning the flight. So far, all the flights I have been on has kept the airplane on the desparture timezone. This means you loose a day getting adjusted to the destination. Staying up the night before also helps get you really sleepy to sleep more on the plane.
Since I got there so early the first day, we were able to get some sight seeing in the first day. We went to see some beautiful falls, and had dinner with a view of the falls. I had some wild boar. I didn't enjoy it too much due to the fact that it stil had the thick tough skin attached. I did have some nigh Singha beer with the meal though.
The trip over to Burma was quite interesting. Chonthira did not have any problems as she has her Thai ID card, and they let her across. For me it was a very different story.
First I had to make two copies of my passport for later use. The first guy stamped the copies of the pastport, and took my passport. Then I had to go to another building to pay the fee to cross over into Burma. This person took both copies of my passport and gave me a slip of paper with very little writing on it. It made me really nervious to be so far removed from my passport, but it was only going to be just over an hour we would be in Burma.
Burma is quite an interesting place. There are many people milling around trying to get your money from you buy selling lots of trickets and other things. They are selling pornography, tobaco, "name brand" ciggarettes, fans, "name brand" batteries any many other things. There were shops selling inexpensive electronics, such as a VCD player for 2000 baht (~US$50). You can also get DVD's and VCD's for 150 baht (~US$4).
During the first week there, Chonthira had to work. I decided to walk around the canal to get a better feeling for the city. I did end up walking completely around the canal the second day I was there. There are many beautiful temples to see in Chiang Mai