Run For The Border

Entry 34:
While we were in Thailand, the government decided to revise the rules on tourist visas. It was no longer possible to purchase additional time for your visa at a reasonable price. In addition, upon entry of a landcrossing, tourists who once received a 30-day visa could now only get a 15-day visa. This had all the backpackers scrambling to extend their visas economically. The solution: a visa run. The closest international border for us was the Ranong crossing with Burma.
After a long bus ride from Phuket town, we finally arrived in Ranong and made it to the Kiwi Guesthouse across the road from where the bus dropped us off. We set our bags down and headed off for the only attraction. The hotsprings were located about 1 mile from the guesthouse, tucked away at the edge of town. It felt good to stretch our legs on this walk to the hotsprings after sitting on a bus for so long.

The hotsprings are a regular attraction for locals who use the natural source of water to do anything from bathing to soaking. There are three different pools. The first is where the locals hang out. The temperature of the water there is luke warm. Nearby we found additional pools, one of which held the remaining foreigners. The third pool was too hot for the touch. We dipped our toes into the water, but it was again too hot for lingering. These pools are considered sacred places; women are not allowed to remove their tops.
You can see a photo of the hotsprings by clicking here.

The most important reason for coming to this town of Ranong was that we needed to take a quick trip across the river to the border with Burma to renew our visa. We booked round-trip transportation with our guest house. The next morning we got shuttled to the boat dock where we boarded a longtail boat with other Western tourists and made our way to the border. Along the way, a teenage boy handed out slips of paper with menus of various illegal substances for sale in Burma. As tempted as we were to pick up some Viagra, we decided to skip it.

We read in the guidebook that it was important to have U.S. currency, especially crisp, unfolded $20 bills, as the Burmese authorities are notorious for not accepting anything less than perfection. When we got to the passport control office, we presented our crisp bills. However, these were still not good enough because they had red ink on them. Luckily, we had some other bills with us that were acceptable. Otherwise, we'd have been stuck paying three times the equivalent in Thai Baht. After having our photo taken, we were given our visas and were on our way via the boat.

We made it back to Thailand and booked passage back to the beach at Khao Lak, our next destination.