Visa Run
Trip Start
May 07, 2005
1
73
117
Trip End
Ongoing
Ranong,
Thailand
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
We got up and decided to go to Ranong to cross into Burma and renew our visas. This is so common that all hotels and general stores can sell a ticket for a visa run. It was pretty slick. We are used to trying to figure everything out by ourselves but they picked us up at our guesthouse, arranged everything, and eventually dropped us off at our hotel in Ranong. It was an interesting boat ride from Ranong, Thailand to Victoria Point, Burma. There were lots of other boats filled with people doing visa runs. The boat driver had to stop at a Thai checkpoint and a Burmese checkpoint. Both were ramshackle buildings built on stilts in the water. We were in Burma for about 15 minutes. As soon as we got stamped the touts descended upon us. Unfortuantely for them we are veterans of Egypt and they presented only the slightest annoyance as we had to raise our voices to hear each other while ignoring them. The big money maker seems to be cigarettes. We wanted to buy something so we found someone selling some kind of deep fried bean paste with a yummy looking sauce. It wasn't nearly as good as it looked -- bland and inoffensive. That's probably the shortest we have ever been in a country except for a visa run we did in Austria a few months ago when we realize we had no European stamp (I still smile thinking that the Swiss border guard must have thought we were denied entry).
I know that border towns are all strange but I try to imagine what these Burmese must think. Burma seems to be fairly hard for Westerners to visit. On the Lonely Planet Myanmar (Burma) guide the first bullet point is "Helps you decide if you should visit Myanmar". So I imagine that Burmese people don't often see Westerners except in this little town where they come in by the boatload just to renew their visa from Thailand (which they are often at war with).
After getting our new Thai stamp we checked into the hotel where the baths are fed by a holy hot mineral spring. So we yet again got to sample holy/magic water.
Comments
visa info
my daughter, who is 18, will be traveling in thailand beginning sept 8. we just discovered info about the visa restrictions and i am wondering what the 'word on the street' is there. have you heard of any ways around the 90 days of stay? would greatly appreciate any info you might have!
thanks-
andy
Thailand Visa
American travellers can have unlimited 30-day visas. It is fairly difficult to get a longer visa. The 30-day is very easy at the airport and you don't have to stand in the 'visa line' you just go through customs and the stamp counts as the visa.
Most travellers do a visa run every 30 days. This is so common that 'permanent' residents do it rather than get a permanent visa. You read my travelog entry about it so you should have the general details. For more information you might try to google for visa run Thailand. I got a lot of good information from the Thorntree message boards that Lonely Planet provides.
But really, you don't need to do much planning ahead of time, other than to be aware that it needs to be done. We chose to visit Ranong because it was close to the Burma border but you can get a visa run from anywhere.
I advise against skipping it, but you can read about that on Thorntree. People say you can be fined when you try to leave the country. They have put foreigners in jail for having an expired visa. I don't think that's especially likely, but why risk it a visa run is an interesting experience itself?