Myawaddy To Hpa-An Road Will Open For All Travelers Within About 3 Months

[SeaVisionBurma]

Troll post removed, holiday awarded.

Perhaps the poster can use the time off to go and visit Myanmar and make up his own mind about whether the country is opening up, rather than baiting forum members here.

[Tomtomtom69]

Finally an official link confirms that overland travel will soon be possible from Thailand (via Mae Sot/Myawaddy) to Kayin State and onwards to Yangon etc. It even mentions Payathonzu (opposite Three Pagodas Pass) as an entry point that will allow overland travel as well. Although the dates of opening are not mentioned, let's see what happens when June 1st passes, the date the Thai authorities mentioned back in March as being the opening date for overland access from Myawaddy to Hpa-an if coming from Thailand:

http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/tourism/3585-myanmar-to-allow-tourists-through-kayin-border

[zeyar]

Wow thats really great news. I am really looking forward to one day i can drive foreign cars in to Myanmar easily, not just Thailand cars.

[Tomtomtom69]

Wow thats really great news. I am really looking forward to one day i can drive foreign cars in to Myanmar easily, not just Thailand cars.

Sure, but keep in mind that currently, even Thai cars are restricted. They can only travel a short distance inside Myanmar so the country has to lift these restrictions first and then I'm sure foreign registered cars, including Thai cars can travel freely inside the country and not just with a government escort and special permission as is currently the case.

[Tomtomtom69]

OK so finally some confirmation about this thread that I started:

It seems that as of August, three border crossings including Myawaddy, Kawthoung and Tachilek will finally allow overland crossings for Thais and foreigners in possession of a visa to cross. The Lonely Planet Thorntree forum has new information about this, as does this link: http://www.mizzima.com/news/regional/9763-thai-myanmar-border-crossings-open-to-tourists

It took a while, and while everyone was saying April, May etc. it seems that in the next few days it will finally be possible to cross overland.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Tomtomtom69

[Tomtomtom69]

Unfortunately the heavy rain and flooding situation in Mae Sot and Myanmar's Kayin/Karen State has also triggered landslides on the existing Myawaddy-Kawkareik highway (see the article posted at the bottom). Until the bypass road is opened, this is the only road that connects Myawaddy with the rest of the country. Unfortunately, according to this article we can assume that at the very earliest, 2 weeks from the 4th of August (when the article was posted), the highway will re-open thus we can assume that according to the information regarding the opening of land borders...the 18th of August would likely be the earliest to attempt to cross over into Myanmar at Myawaddy and be allowed to travel further inland. However, probably it would be best to wait until the very end of the month, just in case. Perhaps the other two crossings will open sooner this month, but I would expect that the current situation in Kayin State will likely mean a delayed opening of this overland route.

http://karennews.org/2013/08/kawkareik-to-myawaddy-trade-routes-blocked-by-landslides.html/

[Tomtomtom69]

As mentioned on the other thread about the opening of the three overland crossings an article confirming that the three crossings' opening will be delayed due to the flooding and landslides was posted. Any further discussion on the topic should take place there.