I'm feeling rather lonely at the moment i've arrived in Ranong as i realised i have no choice but to do a visa run eventhough there is only 4 days after my current visa expires until i catch my flight. I decided this was the cheapest and quickest way to sort out my visa as i'm very near to the Mynamar boarder and its sort of on the way to Ko Tao...

this is what the british FCO has to say about burma: Travel Summary In September 2007, there were violent clashes between protestors and Burmese forces and the situation in Burma remains unsettled. You should exercise caution, continue to avoid all demonstrations and large gatherings and avoid taking photographs or videos of the military, the po...

With only a few more days left of our 30 day visa and yet to make it out of the South, a Visa run was necessary, so we head to Ranong. At a brief stop at Takuapa bus station from Khao Sok on our way we found the best deals of the trip so far, 15B (NZ 75c) per hr for internet and the best pad thai - You can see why people don't want to leave this...

Take the Full Moon Party on Christmas Eve, multiply the number of people on the beach by 3 and you've got Koh Phangan New Year's. The whole length of the beach was shoulder to shoulder and I've never seen so many people peeing into the ocean at once in my entire life. The lead-up to New Year's was pretty calm compared to the few days before Chri...

Took very slow boat fro Ranong to the island of Ko Phayam, the Ko Samui of the 80s they say. It really is very basic, there are no cars and the roads are rudimentary and thin. Took a motorbike taxi which was really scary with backpack included and suddenly we got into the beach to get to the bungalows. Amazing. My bungalow is really basic they h...

On Christmas day was by the mineral water pool and hot spa all day and also visited the hot springs near by. Did not have Xmas dinner or celebrated in any way which was what I was looking for. Only reminder it was Xmas was phone call home, very nice.

Today I had one of the stranger travel experiences when I had to undertake the not insignificant inconvenience of the visa run. The closest border was Myanmar although this is not a land border but rather a stretch of the Indian Ocean perhaps two miles wide that separates the countries. First, one has to attend the Immigration Centre to get stam...

Well we have somehow managed to lose our photos on the camera from Malaysia to Phetaburi but I am working on getting some sent from people we met at these places. When we arrived here we hoped we would be able to get a ferry straight to Ko Chang or Ko Payam. The last boat left for the day so again we had to spend a night in a random city with no...

Well the time came for Simon to get over the border and get his visa stamped, so we thought we'd try the cheapest option, the bus ride and boat to Myanmar formerly known as Burma. We chose the government bus from Phuket Town as we had heard it was'nt too bad a ride and was quite safe and reliable, and of course, cheap. So off we went to catch th...

Ranong is a small city. Doesn't have that much to offer. Just some beautiful natural hot springs, really nice people, and the Visa-Run service's.