did they not care, they pretty much
invited me to come in. I explained I
had no visa. That didn't matter.
The soldiers explained there were
more checkpoints, both Karen and
Burmese, yet it wouldn’t be a problem
as I enquired about the road ahead.
I genuinely hadn't intended on
making this detour, but I thought
I shouldn't look a gift horse in the
mouth. There was also a break in the
weather that I should take advantage
of, so I scrapped my other plan for
the day and pushed on into the Karen
TRAVERSE 41
State.
As you would imagine, the road on
the Myanmar side wasn’t in the best
of shape. The start was quite muddy
and did eventually improve.
The local villagers looked surprised
when they saw a falang riding up on a