So, we decided to leave Koh Lanta and head back to Chumphon to continue our kiteboarding lessons. Again, the wind did not cooperate, but this time there was absolutely none(!) so we had to come up with a new plan. We decided to do a border visa run that would extend our visas in Thailand by about 12 more days.
So, it was off to Ranong on the west coast 3 hours away to take care of our business. To say the trip was a bit of a whirlwind would be an understatement! We were whisked away in a pick-up truck to the Thai immigration to get an exit stamp, then to the very noisy, dirty and crazy-busy port teeming with boats full of...faded umbrellas - locals protecting themselves from the sun. Amidst all this chaos is where we were plonked on a longtail boat - a long and narrow wooden boat with a car engine stuck on the very back with a huge long propeller sticking out the back of that. This was to get us across the river to Myanmar, first stopping at a floating Thai exit station to get another stamp, and continue across the huge estuary to Myanmar. It took about 30 minutes one way, but we arrived at this little hut on the water, and got our entry stamp to Myanmar, only to continue to the mainland where we had to get out of the boat to get another stamp - possibly an exit stamp??? Can't tell from our passports, so who knows! We walked around the Burmese port town of Kawthuong for about 5 minutes, bought a drink, collected some Myanmar Kyats (currency, rponounced 'chats'), watched an interesting street game - all to return to the dock where one of our worst fears appreared to have become reality.... there was no boat and no driver! Arghh! Thankfully, as it turned out the boat was there, but hidden amongst all the other longtails, and then, the driver miraculously reappeared with more fuel! Phew! So at least we weren't going to be stuck in Burma! So after getting the boat back across the huge expanse of river, it was another stop at immigration on the Thai side for passport stamps and visas, and we were back in! Wow! All very exciting, if a little nerve wracking at times! We realised afterwards that there are so many people doing visa-runs that there was really nothing to worry about. They actually even had big tour buses coming up from Phuket just to bring busloads of people to do the 'border run'! *Stub and Mush
1 comment:
arg! why did nobody tell me that you could do a border run to myanmar from ko lanta??? i was there under the pissing rain and my visa ran out. i wanted to go overland to malaysia but i couldn't because of the rain/floods and had to buy a flight out from phuket... it would have been much easier to do what you did!
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