Tikal, but first, Another Border Crossing

In order to guarantee a hassle-free speedy trip from from St Ignacio, Belize to Tikal in Guatemala we eschewed public transport and paid for a private transfer. Speedy it was, hassle free, no.

In short, Sun-Ling bargained down the suggested "bribe" to enter Guatemala from 3 US$ each to 1 US$ each. Another Spanish language lesson. [Oficially, US citizens should pay no fee to enter Guatemala.]

Tikal is considered to be among the most impressive of the Mayan ruins. John was impressed. Sun-Ling was only so impressed. haha. [See the photos below.]

Impressed or not, we both enjoyed navigating around the site, climbing the ruins, viewing wildlife and watching the local and foreign visitors. Our visit to Tikal was on a Sunday when admission is free for Guatemalans, so at noon, the old Grand Plaza of the Mayans was the site of more than several modern picnics.

Tikal National Park is a vast jungle preserve (over 200 square miles) so we saw and heard vultures, hawks, 2 pale-billed woodpeckers, ocellated turkeys, hummingbird, many other birds, butterflies, spider and howler monkeys, a deer, a grey fox, an unknown large rodent, and the ubiquitous coatis.

We spent the night inside the National Park at the Tikal Inn which allowed us to spend more time in the ruins - leaving after dark with flashlights in hand - and to take short walk in the morning before leaving for Flores.

The two of us in front of Temple I.


Sun-Ling descending a Group R pyramid.


View from Temple IV to to Temple I and Temple II.


Temple I is at the eastern end of the Grand Plaza.


Temple I (right) and the Grand Plaza.


The Central Acropolis with Temple V sticking up in the back.


Sunset view of the Grand Plaza.

Dreaded Border Crossing Mexico-Belize in Chetumal

An easy three-hour ADO bus ride took us from Tulum to Chetumal; a quick six-block walk brought us to the Mercado Nuevo station where buses leave for Belize every 20 minutes; another 15 minutes on the bus and we were in line to exit Mexico.  Over the last month, we have been reading much about the border crossing "scam" at this particular border. Namely that the 295 peso Mexican tourist tax which is already collected in our airplane ticket is attempted to be doubly collected and pocketed by an evil immigration man.

So when we walked up to the booth with passport and FMM (tourist form) and were told to pay 295 pesos, my stomach lurched nevertheless.  Then, after some reasoned resistance on our part, the man said we do not pay him, that we pay at the bank. We still refused.  At this point our bus abandoned us, refunding 20% of our fare, no less!

We had read that other travelers simply leave the annoyed immigration man behind and move on.  We tried.  Twenty yards later, we were intercepted and were "invited" into the Immigration Office.  We restated our case.  They stressed that we were not asked to pay them directly, but to pay at the bank.  They explained that the airlines are no longer collecting and giving Mexico the tourist tax.  They tried to scare us by calling in the police.  Seeing that we were unfazed by the threat of police, the lady in charge seemed to realize that there is the possibility -- the airlines are collecting the tax but withholding it.

The lady jefe let us use her computer to try to pull up our electronic receipt, but delta.com
was blocked, so was mail.google.com.  She got someone in Mexico City on the phone and was told that code "UK" listed in the "taxes and fees" details of an airline ticket indicate that the airline has collected the tourist tax.  She had an employee write down our information to draft a complaint to the airlines.  After another phone call, she sent us to an internet cafe to get a printout of our ticket.  When we came back with our printout showing the "UK" fee, she asked us to write down our story to add to her case, then apologized for the hassle. 

Needless to say, we left Mexico without paying the 2 x 295 = 600 pesos (about 45 US dollars) at the border, but did invest two hours of our time and a few pesos at the internet cafe.  Other travelers have reported being scammed, coerced, and threatened, but I did not have that feeling at all with the particular people we dealt with.  I feel they were hardworking people trying to do their job in a confusing situation. 

So if the end result is 1) Mexico gets their tourist tax from the airlines and 2) other travelers can get out of double paying by showing their airline receipt, then our time was very well spent making the world a more just place and lessening ill feelings.

John admits he is baffled by the whole experience and can't decide if
1. It is all a very elaborate conspiracy and scam on the part of the Mexican border officials
2. Mexico has ineffective and/or poorly trained border control
3. We are simply "ugly Americans"

In any case, we have had our share of border crossings, this one tops them all.

A good travel day

The Monday after Pachamama festivities, we headed north into Bolivia. The plan is to take a two-hour bus to the La Quiaca/Villazon boarder, get our Bolivia visas, and catch the 15:30 train to Tupiza, Bolivia. A little ambitious, but doable.

A lot of people were still trying to leave Humahuaca, so the earliest bus we could get that had assigned seats was at 10:10AM. Since we gain an hour into Bolivia, the 15:30 train was not yet out of question. Since the bus originated four hours south, it showed up at 10:35, just within our margin of tolerance. We had our favorite seats at the front on the second flour. It turned out to be the best bus and bus ride in Northern Argentina; great views and comfortable. We arrived in La Quiaca around 1PM Argentina/12Noon Bolivia.

La Quiaca/Villazon is at 3500m/11600ft. We had no trouble walking from the bus terminal to the border under the hot midday sun, which had been a concern for me. There was a line of about twenty people leaving Argentina. It moved unusually slow for a border exit. I tried really hard holding back all my worries about getting the Bolivian visa "on arrival" at the other side of the International Bridge. As Americans, a $135 visa is required to entering Bolivia. We have seen the list of visa requirements, some we have down hard, others we had doubts.... After almost an hour on the Argentine border, it took less than a minute for the two of us to get our exit stamps. The officer did look at our passports a little extra hard, maybe because we already had 4 entrance and 3 exit stamps from Argentina all within the last two months!

Walking across a 50-meter the bridge we were right at the Bolivian border control. This is our moment of truth that we have been fretting over since last summer. Along our travels we even met a young Chinese woman who was declined a Bolivian visa, but we think she held a Chinese passport. Inside the office, there was no line. John held up our passports to make evident that we are American. The officer came out of his booth and said to us, almost apologetically, "you know you have to pay for a $135-visa as Americans?" We wanted to laugh, but held back and replied positively. Then he asked, "do you have a photo?" In Quito, we had special passport photos made with red background. I realized then we had wasted our money as our existing stash of passport photos would have been more than sufficient. When we produced our photos, the officer was most relieved and gave us two forms to fill out. Apparently some people are completely opposite of us, not even aware visas are required for Americans. We had our yellow fever shots for nothing, no need for hotel reservations, transportation ticket out of Bolivia, proof of financial ability...or all our worries.

When it came time to actually pasting the visa stamps in our passports, the officer could not find any in the stash of stickers in his drawer and told us to wait. In Buenos Aires, we had gone to the Bolivian Consulate. The visa officer there explained that he had run out of visa stamps at the moment, but he was expecting some the following week and assured us getting the visas at the border will be easy. We started to get anxious again -- what if we have to wait at the border for a week for the stamps -- we had been worried about catching the train. An eternity later, probably 5-10 minute in real time, our names were called. John handed over the 270 US dollars we had been hording for the past six months. Our passports were handed back with the stamp. We were in!

We started making our way to the train station. We took our time changing our Argentinian pesos into Bolivian bolivianos, but it turned out that all the money changers offered the same rate. We drew some more money from the ATM, since there is no ATM in Tupiza. By the time we got to the train station, only the 1st class (executive) and 3rd class (popular) were available. That was not a problem, since everything we read said the train is VERY CROWDED, we can go 1st class. However, when we got to the front of the line, there was only 3rd class. For a three-hour ride, the cost is $2US. I was not about to ride cattle style for three hours! I'll take the bus. We got out of line and headed out of the train station towards the bus terminal. I could tell that John was really disappointed. We started arguing. I didn't like the fact that my inhibitions were holding us back either. Three steps out of the train station, we agreed that we would buy the tickets and if the conditions turned out to be unacceptable to me, we would take the bus. We showed our passports and got back a handwritten ticket with car number and seat numbers, which was a good sign, but there had been plenty of times that did not mean anything.

We went to the platform and found our car. There was an orderly line at the door. The shades were down, but there were definitely regular, facing bench seats in there. When we were finally let on the train, all the Bolivians ended up in one end of the car, and foreigners the other. Our seats were at the end of the car, farthest away from the bathroom. When the train pulled out of the station ten minutes later, our end of the car was less than half full and we were all comfortably spread out. We made friends with the two young Uruguayans across the aisle, and a young Argentinian woman came to visit as well. They were the best of train companions. We were offered mate and John got to try chewing coca leaves.

The supposedly chronically late train arrived in Tupiza on time. We made a beeline for the Hotel Mitru where we had a reservation only because of the visa requirement. The hotel turned out to be fine and we got the only room in town that has a decent wi-fi signal. We went to went bed knowing there was a breakfast buffet waiting for us in the morning which turned out even better than we had expected, although admittedly our standards have been reset in Chile and Argentina.

View from bus window as we head north to the border.


The Popular(3rd)Class car is not so popular today.


Enjoying the journey.


John sips from the mate gourd offered by our new Uruguayan amigos.


Our first view of the rock formations near Tupiza is from the train.


Another view from the train.

Ruili to Bhamo -- The Details (Dec 2008) - China to Burma by land

If you are not planning to travel from Ruili, China to Bhamo, Myanmar (Burma) then you can stop reading now; however, it may be an interesting tale.

In Jan 2008 we flew from China to Myanmar - Kunming to Mandalay - for about 250 USD each so on this 2nd trip in December 2008 we wanted to go overland as the costs are about the same. However, we did not want to take the usual route of Ruili to Muse Lashio to Mandalay as we had spent 5 days in Mandalay just 10 months before and had traveled to Pyin U Lwin and Hsipaw which are both on the Lashio to Mandalay road. We decided to try to go from Ruili (or other nearby border crossings) to Bhamo or Myitkyina, areas not explored in January.

Disclaimer: One of our party, Sun-Ling, is fluent in Chinese.

So we inquired via email (actually a good friend in Shanghai did most of the work) and phone about crossing the Chinese border to Bhamo and Myitkyina. The results seemed to suggest that for 3rd parties (neither Chinese nor Burmese):
- the only border crossing allowed is Ruili/Muse.
- Ruili to Bhamo is possible for just a few more dollars than Ruili to Lashio; in fact, we got an email quote of 1800 RMB per person.
- Ruili to Myitkyina is NOT possible at all.

So we got our Myanmar visas in the US and after some traveling in China, arrived in Kunming about Dec 1st, 2008. We went to the Union of Myanmar Consulate and inquired about overland travel from China. The nice lady at the consulate who we remembered from January told us that overland travel to Bhamo and Myitkyina was not possible - the only route is Ruili to Lashio - and she gave us the business card of Steven Travel in the Camelia hotel who she said could arrange the trip since a permit and guide are required. Hmm. Also told us that there is a quota of 20 foreigners per month. Hmm again.

We went directly to talk to Steven Travel and the young man in the office confirmed that travel to Bhama and Myitkyina is not possible. He quoted a price to Lashio - 1400 RMB per person and said that we could make the arrangements with him now in Kunming or we could go to Ruili ourselves and make the arrangements there with his partner. Either way OK as we would have to contact his partner in Ruili anyway once we got there; just need more lead time ( 2 or 3 days ) if we just showed up in Ruili and contacted his partner. Lastly he said that the quota is no problem. Personally, I don't think that there is a quota but that's a digression.

So back to our hotel and we called the woman who had quoted 1800 RMB to Bhamo, a Miss Li, who it turns out is Steven Travel's partner in Ruili. She has an office in Muse but it's a Chinese phone number. She said that going to Bhamo from Ruili was possible and quoted us 1600 RMB per person. We asked why Steven Travel did not know about traveling to Bhamo. He doesn't know since he is in Kunming was the reply. Confusing. We told Ms Li that we wanted to go to Bhamo about Dec 15th and would call her a few days before we arrived in Ruili. OK she said.

When we arrived in Ruili, Miss Li and an associate came to our hotel. The price had mysteriously change to 1700 RMB per person and she claimed to have no recollection of quoting us 1600 on the phone, so we had to bargain hard to get her down to 1650. We agreed on a date of Dec 18th and Ms Li said to be at the Chinese side of the border a 9:00 and our guide would meet us and we would hand over the 3300 RMB to her once we had crossed the border.

So on the morning of the 18th we took a taxi from our hotel to the border; 4 RMB per person for the red cars that look like taxis but don't have a "TAXI" sign on top. We got there at 9:00 AM sharp and the guide came at 9:30 after we called Miss Li to ask where he was.

The guide followed us through the Chinese exit formalities, literally. There were some Chinese trying to jump the queue so we took advantage of the sign that said "Foreigners" and moved to the front.

Miss Li was waiting for us on the other side and took us into a official looking shack that was so small that Sun-Ling and I could both barely fit with our backpacks on. We signed a bunch of forms that Miss Li had filled out for us; customs, arrival card, travel permit requests, etc, without really giving them a good look but had no problems later on.

Then into a Toyota Wagon for the short drive to Miss Li's office where she made about 10 copies of our passports and travel permits, loaded up the guide with 3 or 4 bundles of cash, collected 3300 RMB from us (a 100 RMB note disappeared during the money counting process - not sure what happened - we may have been short, but it was not a professional money counting transaction on their part).

Anyway, Myanmar is 1.5 hours behind China so at about 9:00 AM Myanmar time we got back in the Toyota Wagon (British side steering wheel) and headed off to Bhamo. The guide sat in the front seat with the driver.

The road was pretty good - it is the Burma Road you know - and we made it to Namkham in about 15 minutes. In Namkham, we switched cars from the Toyota wagon to a Toyota Crown Sedan with a jacked up rear suspension and heavy duty tires. The driver already had a load of goods in the trunk so we stashed our bags in the back seat with us. Tight.

Soon after changing cars we hit the first of 8 or 10 checkpoints - I lost count - at the Shweli River. The procedure, which was about the same at all checkpoints, involved the guide nervously going into a small shack clutching a clear envelope containing our paperwork, the bag with the bribe or tax money hung over is shoulder, the driver confidently hanging out nearby, and both returning 5 minutes later with one less copy of our paperwork. We then resume the trip. We never had to get out of the car or answer questions and our bags we never searched. Sometimes it appeared to be a Military checkpoint, sometimes a just a bureaucratic checkpoint, sometimes it looked like simple extortion.

The pace was slow as the road was in terrible but passable condition and when we stopped for lunch at 1:00 PM the guide said we were halfway to Bhamo. It's about 65 kms from Namkham to Bhamo so we had covers 30 some kms in 4 hrs. Slow.

Lunch was at what is best called a truck stop. A few huts in the middle of nowhere. Right after the restaurant, we hit a checkpoint that was a bit different. There were about 10 guys standing around. No uniforms. The guide looked really nervous and did not want to get out of the car. The driver was nonchalant as usual. Two guys came up and peered in to the back seat at Sun-Ling and I. One guy looked friendly so I said hello. This time our guide was in the building for 15 minutes. While he was gone, one of the first guys to come up to the car, reached in the front and searched the glove box and the guide's jacket. Strange.

So at this point let me say a few things concerning several recent posting on Lonely Planet Thorn Tree about the overland route into Burma from Ruili. It seems unlikely that you can originally arrange the trip to Lashio, then once in Myanmar, simply tell the driver and guide that you want to go to Bhamo. For one thing, if you are in Toyota Wagon, you might not make it as the road is terrible. Second, the checkpoints seemed like serious business to me. The guide needs the right permits, right amount of cash, and 10 copies of the paperwork in order to make it through.

We arrived in Bhamo about 5:30 PM - 9.5 hours to go 80 kms. One last checkpoint somewhere inside the city. We drove to the Friendship Hotel then on to the Grand Hotel where we took a double room for $18 US per night including breakfast.

That's it. Questions, comments, and corrections welcome.

The China/Myanmar border as seen from the Chinese side.


The old bridge over the Shweli River.


Our nervous guide (left) with his paperwork and the unconcerned driver (right).


The lunchtime truckstop.


Some scenes from Bhamo: A cinema, the clock tower and stadium grandstand, a mosque, and Sun-Ling enjoying some deep fried veggies at a tea stall.