Malaysia and Thailand Winter 2008-9

Visa Run

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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