Long Tail boats take you across to Myanmar
Read Next Episode: Ko Tao
Feb 1 2009
We didn't read the literature explaining Visas for
Thailand well enough. If you enter Thailand by air you get a 30 day
Visa, for Canadians, at no cost. We thought it would be the same as
Singapore and Malaysia who issue 3 month Visas at no cost. The only way
to get a longer Visa is to apply for it in your home country. We didn't
do that. That meant the Visa issued to us when we flew to Phuket on 2
January 2009 expired on 31 January. That did not give us enough time to
complete our four weeks at the Wildlife Rescue Center and spend more
time exploring the beaches and islands of Southern Thailand. Our only
solution was to get a Visa Extension. This is not easy. Our choices were
to travel to the Capital Cities of Laos, Cambodia or Malaysia and get a
30 day visa or return to our home country to apply for a longer stay.
Neither of these options were practical for us. The third option was to
travel to Ranong just across a river from Myanmar to get an extension.
Prior to last December, the Ranong option gave an extra 30 days but now
you are only allowed an extra 15 days. Going to Ranong was the most
practical option.
Several of the volunteers have a multiple entry
Visa good for one year. This still means that every three months they
have to make a Visa Run. That makes for a long day. A taxi comes to the
Center at 4 AM and drives the Visa Runners 6 hours south from the
center, arranges for them to cross to Myanmar to extend their Visa and
returns to the center. The last group got back after 8 PM that night.
Ray and I didn't need to return
to the Center. We decided to make 31 January our last day and extend our
Visa on our way south. The Island of Ko Tao, off Chumphon city was
recommended to us and we could get there by train from Hua Hin and
arrange our Visa Run from Chumphon. That sounded good.
We shared an extra beer with the
other volunteers on Friday night and said good bye to everyone at
breakfast on Saturday. We were sad to leave as we had enjoyed our month
at the Center but it was time to leave. We shared a taxi to Hua Hin with
another volunteer who was spending her day off in this popular beach
town. Our train ride south, although one hour late, was comfortable
enough and we found our choice of guest house in Chumphon with no
problems. It was fortunate that the Guest House owner spoke English as
we had lots of reservations to make and she knew just how to make them.
We booked for a round-trip Visa Run the next day and reserved the boat
and a hotel room on Ko Tao. We were set.
The next morning the Visa
Express minivan arrived at our guest house door at 5:30 AM. It was full
of other non-Thai all going to extend their visas. Two hours later we
were at the busy port in Ranong. We had to get copies of our passports
and handed them to our Visa Run guide along with 10 USD each to pay for
the Myanmar day visa. He directed us to the Thai immigration office
where we lined up, filled out forms and had our picture taken with a
webcam. Ray and I caused a delay in our group because we had overstayed
our Visa by one day. We had to fill out more forms and pay a 500 TB fine
(less than $20) each.
All
stamped out of Thailand, we were led to our boat. A gaggle of long-tail
boats waited at the pier to take tourists across the river to Myanmar.
These are not fancy tour boats. Most of the long-tail boats are long,
open wooden boats powered by an old tractor engine set about four feet
above the gunnels of the boat. A long pipe connects the engine to the
propeller. There is no muffler system to dull the dulcet tones of the
engines. They seem to operate on a simple system, either on or off. Even
backing up is done by pulling the propeller out of the water and placing
it to the side of the boat. There is no reverse gear.
We had to walk over several
boats to get to the Visa Express boat but at least it had a roof and
plastic screens on the sides to protect you from the waves. We motored
out past fishermen casting their nets into the water and shores lined
with houses built on stilts over the water. It was extreme low tide on
the way out so the captain had to proceed very slowly to avoid going
aground on the sandy bottom. Finally underway we saw a huge Golden
Buddha with long ears on the shore and passed a small island almost
entirely taken up by a large temple and another gold Buddha. One of the
boat crew removed his hat and performed his daily prayers as we passed
the second Buddha. About 15 minutes later we landed at a pretty dock in
Myanmar, got out of the boat and entered an immigration building right
beside the dock. There we waited in line again to get our Myanmar stamps
and another webcam photo taken.
There was no time to look around
and play tourist. Our visit to Myanmar was almost non-existent. We just
went back to our boat and made the return trip to Ranong. Back at the
Thai immigration office we got our 15 day extension and another stamp in
our passport. We got back in the minibus and were back in Chumphon by
noon.
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