Bangkok is only an hour flight from Yangon, but a different world. We are here for a couple of days to get fresh visa, after having lived in Yangon for 70 days. Apparently we got quickly used to the daily ‘simple’ life in Burma and are overwhelmed by this bizarre spine-tingling metropole.

Bangkok is not only double the size (Yangon 4 million, Bangkok 8 million inhabitants) and very developed, but also has no monsoon like Yangon; it is dry and hot here, while it rains every day, sometimes the entire day in Yangon.

In Burma we face daily power cuts, snail internet and floods. We made a sport of finding the right places in Yangon to get fresh milk, affordable peanut butter and clean chicken. The Thai supermarkets, on almost every corner, have the best products from all over the world and are so much cheaper. Life is so convenient here.

The big city is also less friendly of course and more polluted, due to the 8-lane always busy highways all through town. We feel like villagers walking the wide sidewalk, staring at 80 story buildings.

The historical relations between the two countries are bloody. Burma almost completely destroyed the Thai capital in 1767. Many wars have been fought ever since. In the sixties the Thai economy started growing like no other (mainly due to the Vietnam war), while Burma suffered military oppression and isolation.

Today the Thai economy is slowing down, the political tensions rising and freedom of speech (about the king) is being restricted, while Burma’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the region, democratic political reforms activated and the country has already more press freedom than most surrounding countries. Curious to see how quickly Yangon becomes as sophisticated as BKK.