Burma Visa Run- Ranong (Thai) to Kawthoung, Burma
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
23
47
Trip End
Apr 30, 2009
Kawthoung,
Myanmar
Thursday, January 8, 2009
A room at Asia Hotel in Ranong was quite affordable at 260 baht a night and considering that they let us check in around 6:00 I feel we really got a great deal. The room was pretty basic with a fan and cold water shower, but was outfitted with a western style toilet and even a TV (although it only received Thai language channels.) It took me all of five minutes from checking in to this room that I was on the bed sleeping and we didn't get up again until nearly 10:00.
Since our Thailand travel visa expired this day (Jan 7, 2009), we started making plans right away for going to Kawthaung, Myanmar. We found out that the red sawngthaews would take us to the Ranong pier, which was way too far to walk from town, at a cost of 15 baht each. It was a short walk to the Ranong market, where the red sawngthaews were waiting but we got distracted by a local restaurant selling pad thai on our way. They didn't have any English showing anywhere, but once we sat down they brought out Engish menus and we each ordered a breakfast of chicken pad thai for 30 baht/plate.
After finishing up breakfast and figuring out which sawngthaew to get in (by making a passport stamping motion with our hands), we were on our way to the Ranong port. The sawngthaew drove around picking up a few more passengers before heading out on the main road out of town. Since Lisa and I had gone through this whole process three years earlier, we thought we were smart when we got out of the truck and started heading back to the Thai immigration building. Unfortunately after walking to the building we found out that the process had changed and now there was a one-stop Visa service right at the port. I guess we should've listened to the collection of touts that tried to horde us in the right direction after all.
The one-stop Thailand Visa service makes the process of doing a Visa run much more convenient in that you don't really need a taxi driver to get you around to the different places you need to go. Now you simply wait in line and fill out a form right at the same port where boats are waiting to take you across the border. We were some of the only tourists in the lineup that had come to Ranong on their own (not through a Visa run package with a tour agency), so the boat drivers gave us special attention in trying to solicit their services. We knew the going rate was no more than 50 baht/person each way, but the guys bugging us in line wanted us to pay double that. After telling one guy "No thanks!" at least a half dozen times, he came back with an official looking form that was designed to trick us into committing to his boat taxi service. You do not need to sign any type of form in order to hire a boat across the channel to Myanmar and we knew this and shushed him away for good after this.
I am not completely sure if we needed to get a photocopy of our passports, although the Thai people assured us it was required and that it was cheapest to get it done while waiting in the immigration queue. Since it is only 5 baht is probably a wise idea regardless because when you are in the boat, on the Myanmar side of the channel, the photocopy is taken into the Myanmar immigration service by a local boy riding on the boat with you. The first time we did this Visa run, 3 years ago, our actual passports were taken into this same office, which made us a little nervous. After all this was a young boy and he was balancing on the side of a rickety boat surrounded by deep water. One accident on his part and we would have our passports ruined. 5 baht seemed like a great investment to avoid this risk and according to the Thais the photocopy is now a requirement anyhow.
Soon after going through the Thai immigration office departing procedure, we found a boat that agreed to take us for 50 baht each. We were the first people on his boat though and we got stuck waiting around for him to pick up other cargo and passengers for over a half hour. At least he had some large umbrellas on board to provide us with some shade, but the harbor is not a very pleasant place to spend any amount of time. The harbor stank and it was the driver frustratingly drove from one parking spot to another assuring us it would only be another five minutes all the time. After a half hour, Lisa and I were just about to get off his boat and on to one of the many others that were coming and going, when he finally filled his boat to capacity. There must've been over a dozen people plus a dozen large canisters of fuel to take across the channel and we were way more loaded down than any other boat that we saw.
I was glad to see that we first went to a nearby Thai island to drop off the fuel. After that the boat wasn't nearly as weighed down as it first was after this short stop we next headed to a Thailand security checkpoint. We were waived through without much concern and the next stop was the Myanmar immigration and customs checkpoint on an island on the Myanmar side of the strait. This is where the photocopy of our passports was taken in while we waited in the boat. The facility had expanded since the last time we were there, but I didn't want to risk taking a picture of it because I didn't have a small camera to sneak off a shot (like I did last time.)
The boy came back on the boat after just a few minutes with the Myanmar officials but left the photocopies of our passports with them. I guess the process does require those photocopies after all and it probably was cheaper to have it done in Thailand than on this Myanmar island. A few minutes later and we were pulling into the port of Kawthaung.
Immediately after disembarking from the ship we saw a Myanmar immigration office on other side of the exit from the pier. We were ushered into the one on the left hand side and asked how long we planned to stay in Myanmar. When we told them that we would be leaving that day, we were asked for US$10 each which we had obtained ahead of time in Bangkok. We were told that they only accept crisp bills and we managed to find some in Bangkok. There are people on the Thai side of the border that want to sell you these crisp ten dollar bills but at a horrible exchange rate (500 baht.) I am not sure how particular the Myanmar officials really are about the crispness of a bill because the last time we did this Visa run we used ordinary well-used five dollar bills (although I wouldn't try using a torn or ripped bill.) The last time we were in Myanmar we got a 24 hour Visa for US$5 but this time we got a 2 week Visa for US$10, even though we mentioned that we would be leaving that same day both times.
Soon after getting through Myanmar immigration, we were surrounded by young boys that wanted to be our tour guides for our stay. We tagged around with one boy who took us to get some Myanmar rum and beer. A 700 ml bottle of rum was 100 baht and the 640 ml bottle of beer was 60 baht or so. We didn't bother negotiating the price down because this was a good way to get some baht into the hands of the Myanmar population and not government officials. I soon opened the beer and was crossing the road with my rum in hand, the boys were asking me what I'd like to do next. I wasn't paying much attention to where I was walking and the next thing I knew I was breaking through an old board covering the sewer and I feel down about 4 feet into the sewer. YUCH!
The bottle of rum smashed but fortunately the beer and the video camera that was around my neck didn't seem to sustain any damage. However, I was covered with an extremely icky substance from my toes to my knees. I took the drinking water that we just bought and used it to clean myself up as best as I could. It seemed to be enough to make me clean and get rid of the stench, but from this point on I could not get into a shower soon enough. I still had to walk around and buy a few souvenirs of our trip to Myanmar though, so we followed the boys for another hour or so.
The first order of business was to return to the store and buy a replacement bottle of rum, which they gave to me for 90 baht this time (after hearing what happened to the first bottle). I found out that the main boy was a Muslim and he took us to his family's shop. We ended up buying a Myanmar t-shirt for 150 baht, which I knew was too much but again I wanted to distribute a few extra baht to Myanmar families where I could. Lisa also bought a teak spice holder for 100 baht, which actually seemed like a fairly good deal.
After taking some pictures of the roads, people and shops of Kawthaung, I wanted to get back to our hotel for a shower. Within seconds of walking to the port, we had found a ride back to Thailand with a different boat for 50 baht each. Considering how easy this was, I have a feeling cheaper rides could be found, but I was not in the mood for waiting around to find the best deal. This boat did left within a couple of minutes with around 8 passengers, which seemed to be a much safer load than the boat that brought us here. As we were going through the Myanmar immigration hut for our departure stamp, Lisa noticed a guy with a large video camera out and decided she would take a picture. The Myanmar officials noticed her before she had a chance to take any pictures though and yelled at her to stop. After she put the camera away, I noticed that they brought out the officials brought out their own camera and took a picture of her. I am curious what happened to that picture but maybe we will find out the next time we are in Myanmar.
Aside from some yelling, we didn't really get into much trouble over that incident and we were soon on our way to the Thai security office on an island near the Thailand shore. The immigration office this time boarded our boat and a man sitting in front of us very thoroughly. They opened up his parcels and did not like what they saw. I could not tell what was in the larger box but he also had a smaller box of what seemed to be Thai movie DVDs. They brought him and his stuff into the office and after about 10 or 15 minutes he was allowed back on to the boat with his large package. The DVDs were confiscated and another boat of officials came in to take them. The officials didn't even bother to look at our bags and could care less about the bottle of rum that I left in plain site.
After leaving the security checkpoint, the man that got into trouble had to go to another island where there were Thailand customs and immigration offices. I noticed him passing some money to the driver of the boat who got off with him and seemed to help smooth things over with the Thailand officials. It is hard to tell what was going on exactly though because everything was done in Thai (and maybe even Burmese, with the boat driver translating). We spent about 10 minutes at this office before leaving again for the Thailand coast. The man didn't seem to get his DVDs back but he did not seem to get in any real trouble and was allowed to keep his larger box of goods (that looked like spare parts for a motorcycle or something like that.)
After disembarking the boat, we returned to the same one-stop immigration office for a new 15 day Thailand visa. I was speaking with the guy behind us in line and found out that he was from Texas but working in Surat Thani as a teacher. As much as I resented the visa rule changes, he must've loathed them much more because he had to go through this procedure every two weeks just to volunteer his time and efforts to teaching (unpaid apparently.) He was in good spirits though and I noticed that he also had a bottle of Myanmar rum sticking out of his bag, so at least something good comes out of the experience.
We walked out of the port and past all the taxis and tuktuk drivers that tried to solicit our business and got a drink from the 7/11 right outside of the port. About 100 meters after the 7/11 is a bus stop where the sawngthaew drivers stop to ask if you want a ride. The first one that drove by was in a blue sawngthaew but he was going to the market so we jumped in and got a ride. It cost us 15 baht each again and ended up dropping us right in front of Hotel Asia. It was 16:00 by now and we were both ready for a meal, but the very first thing I did was run into the shower. After thoroughly cleaning myself and my sandals and grabbing a fresh change of clothes, we decided to make a break to the bus station to see if we could arrange for bus tickets to Surat Thani the following day.
We used the GPS to locate where the bus station should be and saw that it was only a kilometer away, so we decided to walk. We grabbed some 640 ml. Beer Changs from 7/11 (36 baht each) to accompany us on our walk and made it there to find out the GPS was wrong. By now it was 17:00, so we figured everything would be closing soon and that we were too late to make to the bus station that day. On our walk back we saw a restaurant that was very popular with the locals and stopped there for dinner. I ordered two dinners, chicken, basil and chili served on rice and a noodle dish that turned out to be a noodle soup. Lisa got chicken fried rice that she couldn't finish but I had no trouble consuming the rest of her dinner even after eating my two large plates. I really love Thai food and I guess falling in sewers in Burma really works up one's appetite. All three meals came to 100 baht and left me feeling very full and satisfied.
We spent the rest of the day in our comfortable large but basic hotel room in Asia watching movies and TV shows on the computer. The next day we checked out of our room soon after waking up, around 9:00. I walked out to look for a place to get some food and noticed a "breakfast" sign hanging in front of a hardware store. The innovative and entrepreneurial owners of the hardware store set up a stand with a few tables and chairs and a breakfast menu right next to our hotel. It was a unique experience to look at fan belts as we had a breakfast consisting of toast, sausage, bacon, ham and eggs for 40 baht. Obviously the portions of everything were rather meager, but at that price it was still excellent value and an interesting way to start the day.
Next we wandered down to the market to look for a ride to the bus station. We spoke to a blue sawngthaew driver who said he would take us there for 15 baht each. However after he dropped us of he said the price was 20 baht each. I wasn't in the mood to argue over 5 baht, so I just paid him and he drove off. I probably shouldn't be rewarding dishonest behavior by paying without a fight, but it just didn't seem worth a battle over 5 baht and we didn't know how long we had until the next bus was leaving for sure. According to a site we found on the Internet, the next bus would be leaving at 11:00, but in reality that departure did not exist. There are two different offices at the bus station in Ranong, the main obvious office sells tickets for the full sized coach buses, but there is another smaller office that sells tickets for mini-buses.
We found out that the next full sized bus was leaving at 14:00 but fortunately there was a minibus scheduled to leave at 12:00. Both options have the same cost, but the full sized buses would be way more comfortable than the mini-buses normally. We didn't want to wait around the bus station for an extra two hours (on top of the 1.5 hours we had to wait for the mini-bus) so we booked a ticket with the mini-bus for 180 baht each. The bus came about ten minutes late and was nearly filled to capacity with passengers after leaving Rangong. Most of these minibuses had roof racks for luggage, but this one did not. I was amazed how the driver skillfully fit all of our large backpacks behind the rear seat though, so there nobody had to share their seat with a large bag.
