Going to Mae Sai/Tachileik, Where to stay?

[Iwantto]

Hey, just looking for a little advice here. My parents and I are going to make an over night trip to Mae Sai and Tachileik.... My plan is to buy the pass to cross the boarder for 500 baht... then spend the night there in Tachileik. Can you stay a night with the 500 baht visa?

Also, I tried to look up places to stay in Tachileik but cant find anything on the internet. Anyone have any recommendations?

Thank you.

[ukrules]

Good luck with that, if it's anything like the Ban Phu Nam Ron border crossing there will be nothing on the other side at all.

[Will27]

There is a lot of information in the Chiang Rai subforum.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/69-chiang-rai-forum/

I vaguely remember someone asking about accommodation there recently.

[my friend I]

If you want to stay overnight you have to tell the immigration otherwise you have to leave the same day.

Many hotels, most are basic. After you cross the bridge go up to the T junction, turn right. There are small hotels off to the left and right. Go about 1 mile you come to Mekong river hotel. About baht 1,500 a night.

And, err,.... keep your parents out of their nightclub.

[jingjoke]

And err...Why, Why?

[Thaiwolf44]

Hi

Can't recommend staying in Tachileck.

My wife and I have been to Tachileik many times for 'visa runs'.

We also thought of staying at a Hotel in Tachileik, but found the town dirty, scruffy and the guest house / hotels the same.

The semi wild dogs which roam the town are also unfriendly.

As mentioned previously, you need to tell the Burmese boarder officials If you intend to stay overnight.

Now, we overnight at the La Luna Resort in Chiang Rai. THAT, I can highly recommend.

[nuananddon]

I've been to Mai Sai many times also. We always stayed on the Thai side, why? Well for one thing we feel much safer on the Thai side, it's a lot cleaner, you won't have people pestering you constantly to buy cigarettes, Viagra ,porno movies and other worthless crapp, and anything worth while shopping for can be found on the Thai side. There are many hotels there or a short run back down the highway to Chiang Rai and there many nice places there also. Just cross over and walk around the streets for a while, you'll see what I mean.

[Tomtomtom69]

Good luck with that, if it's anything like the Ban Phu Nam Ron border crossing there will be nothing on the other side at all.

Tachilek is not a new border crossing. With a couple of exceptions when the border was temporarily closed due to border skermishes in the early 2000s, it has generally been open for the past 15 years with travel permitted either on a day pass or for up to 14 days (previously 10 days) on a special border pass only allowing travel up to Kengtung or the Chinese border town of Mong La and back. Now you can enter and leave Myanmar at Tachilek on any Myanmar visa and travel further inside the country from there although travel from Kengtung to Taunggyi still requires an internal flight.

No idea about whether the town was accessible before that time as I would have been too young to travel alone in the region back then, but my understanding is you've been able to travel to Tachilek for a long time. Tachilek is a sizable border town, unlike Htee Khee across from Ban Phu Nam Ron. How are you coming up with these comparisons?!

[Tomtomtom69]

I've been to Mai Sai many times also. We always stayed on the Thai side, why? Well for one thing we feel much safer on the Thai side, it's a lot cleaner, you won't have people pestering you constantly to buy cigarettes, Viagra ,porno movies and other worthless crapp, and anything worth while shopping for can be found on the Thai side. There are many hotels there or a short run back down the highway to Chiang Rai and there many nice places there also. Just cross over and walk around the streets for a while, you'll see what I mean.

I agree that accommodation is of much better quality and value on the Thai side, not to mention that there are many more offerings, even just in Mae Sai alone. Having said that, I disagree that Tachilek is a less safe place as evidenced by my many trips to Myanmar including some of its major border towns. I have stayed overnight in Myawady opposite Mae Sot and while the atmosphere is quite different from the Thai side, it's much poorer for starters, the streets are dustier, apart from the main roads the smaller side roads are in a constant state of disrepair with some of them possibly impassable during the rainy season, the town also seems to be a lot hillier than Mae Sot (similarly, Tachilek has more hilly topography than Mae Sai except in the town center which is pretty flat and about the same as Mae Sai), and there are even numerous shantytowns in the city's suburbs that you won't see on the Thai side, the people were actually very friendly and curious. I have been to Myawady about 8 times and stayed overnight 3 times, all between October and November of last year. I have also been to Tachilek about 4 times but never stayed overnight - I did however explore the city beyond the market.

I did find the constant touts trying to sell fake viagra and fake cigarettes (mostly cigarettes and no viagra in my case) and mostly Thai and Chinese bootleg DVDs in Tachilek quite annoying, but get away from the market and you'll find quite a friendly town of Indian or Indo-Burmese traders and restaurant owners selling Burmese/Indian food and snacks, ethnic minority people (mostly Shan), Burmese from elsewhere in the country and the occasional Thai tour or foreigners from third countries doing a visa run or passing through town on their way to other points in Myanmar.

To the OP: I'd choose to stay in Tachilek just to say you've done it. It's not a place a whole lot of foreigners (including Thais) have ever stayed overnight in, and thus it's still got a certain mystique to it. As more tourists come and the infrastructure improves, this atmosphere could change. Of course, hotels on the Burmese side will be more expensive than on the Thai side and may have less reliable wifi internet, fewer TV channels (possibly no foreign ones only Thai and Burmese) and breakfast might be a joke - consisting of something like boring white toast and an egg or greasy horrible noodles and a cup of tea or coffee.

Check out www.agoda.com and type in Tachilek or even Mae Sai and then check the address to make sure you're looking at hotels on the Burmese side. There appears to be 2 hotels in Tachilek (or Tachileik as spelled on Agoda.com) both not of the highest quality but they look OK including the Mya Myint Mo Guest House and the better Shwe Sin Hotel. Rates at the latter start at around 650 Baht + 15% hotel tax for a superior room, about 826 Baht + tax for a room that can sleep 3 people. You could always just show up and see what's available in person as the internet has not caught up as much in Myanmar (especially not in upcountry cities like Tachilek) so you may find there might be perhaps 5-10 hotels that could accommodate you there even if only 2 are listed on Agoda.

The one good hotel in the Tachilek area may be the casino hotel located on the Burmese side of the Golden Triangle and not far from Tachilek. However, since it's not listed on Agoda I don't know how to book it.

[JeremyBowskill]

Stayed in Tachilek a good few times now and would take it over Mai Sai any day of the week. I usually plan my trips (in premiership football season) over the weekend, as the Burmese show the games in English and actually seem to know quite a bit about the game and don't just " ahhhwwww haaaaaawwww" every 20 seconds over nothing like the locals here. I tend to use the same hotel (name escapes me) but its 500 baht a night I think. You go down to the end of the bridge road, do a right and its I think the 3rd soi up on the left about 500 meters from where you turn right. It aint a great hotel, its pretty basic but for 1 or 2 nights it will do the job.

[sugar2009]

Hello in answer to your post a friend of mine for over 20 years now has a reasonable hotel and coffee shop near to the border crossing which is just about 120 yards from the crossing on the left as you get into Mae sai just about 50 meters past the Chinese temple on the left then look for "Top North Hotel" ask for khun sunnie shes the owner with her husband and daughter

​khun saw runs the coffee shop & cafe section on the ground floor his cappuccino is hot and has cinnamon so it original well worth a try room are OK and clean and hot water tv and so close to the gate way

​cheers have a good visit there OK