After we said goodbye to Becca the previous evening we went out for a late supper with Tehya – we were all feeling pretty despondent. After a quick meal we went back to the room to encourage Tehya into bed…. it always takes a while to settle her now (the evening before we travel). She gets quite excited and jittery – usually wants to stay up and unpack as I am trying to pack. She likes to question where I am putting things and make what she feels are better suggestions!! Of course after nine months of travel I have a specific routine to ensure everything fits…..! So sometimes we disagree!!!

We had arranged with Becca’s taxi driver that he would come back for us the next morning – he turned up 15 minutes early for Becca so we figured he seemed pretty reliable, that’s something you don’t see often in taxi drivers here!!

The taxi man arrived early for us too, we had arranged a 9.00am pick up as it is a 45 minute journey and our bus was due to leave at 10.30am. He arrived at 8.50am, we were already down stairs waiting for him so it was not an issue. We had made a decision to get the 10.30 bus so that we did not have to rush in the morning – we are not a family that function well to early!! He was a great driver – he took his time in the traffic and got us there stress free just before 10.00am giving us time to locate the bus, load our luggage and find juice and coffee.

The bus journey was to put it mildly a pain in the butt and pretty awful – it was air-con but I would not call it first class, unlike many of the buses we have used before  – which have been incredibly comfortable. The seats were hard and the backs only came to Gavin’s shoulders so he had no way of resting his head for five hours. The other awful thing about the journey was the music – the driver played the same Thai music video over and over again at full volume…..by the time we got to Ranong I was about ready to strangle the driver and commit murder and kill the CD player. Tehya was wonderful and slept for about three hours curled up on Gavin’s lap. I felt really envious as it is usually me she sleeps on and there is nothing more lovely on a long journey than cuddling her for hours and having the time to savour the closeness and study her face without interruption.

We got a tuk tuk down into Ranong town centre and started to look for accommodation. The driver took us to a guest house that he knew and even though they were blatantly empty (very few tourists stay over in Ranong even at the height of the tourist season) they only had the most expensive room available!! We left and made our way back to the main road and stopped at an ice cream parlour where we got coffees, juice and ice cream for Tehya. I left to investigate a small Chinese guest house opposite that looked pretty uncared for. Surprisingly in comparison to down stairs the rooms were newly refurbished, freshly painted, clean new bathrooms, clean and comfortable beds and only 300 Baht. We booked in and went off to investigate the town which is a strange but incredibly friendly place.

Ranong is a dour town that looks old and unkempt. The sky when we were there was permanently grey – we had read that because of the mountains, forest and its proximity to the ocean – Ranong is the wettest province in Thailand. It certainly rained and drizzled the whole time we were there (both visits). The people that live in Ranong though have a very bright and friendly manor – maybe this is to combat the grey sky. If it was Cornwall I would have expected everyone to be frowning and complaining about the weather. We had to buy provisions for our trip to the islands on our list were rain coats, hooks, string, torch, batteries and a new life jacket for Tehya. Every shop we went into we were met by bright smiles, warmth, interest and friendliness and instead of being ripped off as we had experienced so many times recently – we were given fruit and Tehya was given colouring pens and a book, we were given money off our purchases and free batteries when we bought our torch. It was so surreal – the only time this did not happen was at the 7/11 where I got over charged!!!

We found a small restaurant come travel agent called Pons Place – where we were able to buy our tickets for the following days visa run. He charged Gavin and I, 850 Baht each – 500 for the 10 Dollar US bill (uncreased bank note) we needed and 350 for our return boat journey – Tehya was 600, 500 for her 10 Dollar US bill and 100 for her return boat ride. This also included a free transfer to the ferry port the following morning. Pon was great, very friendly, helpful and you really felt you were paying a fare price for the service you were getting.

THE VISA RUN………

That night we slept pretty well and got up early for our 8.45 pick up, Pon arrived promptly and proceeded to collect several other tourists who were also planning on doing the Burma visa run. We got to the pier and presented our passports to the Thai authorities so we could leave Thailand. An associate of Pon’s gave us an envelope containing four 10 US dollar bills, three for us and one for the Dutch guy also doing the run with us. We walked down a bridge on to a floating wooded pontoon where we were presented with our long tail boat. In the van on the way to the pier we had joked about having a roof as it was raining hard. Pon had reassured us that our boat did in fact have a roof. When we saw the boat – roof was probably a trades description issue!! The boat looked as though it was going to find floating a struggle and the roof was a ripped tarp, spread across a few rotten pieces of wood. I was seriously glad we had bought Tehya a new life jacket the afternoon before. The boat contained three boat men (boys) Gavin, Tehya, me, the Dutch guy, another British couple and an Israeli couple

We set off at about 9.15 and headed out towards a small island (on which stood a large golden depiction of Buddha) in the middle of the river mouth, passing a wooden Thai immigration office on stilts halfway out to sea – where our boat men stopped and handed over several 10 Baht coins. We continued on our way passed the island pausing to say a few prayers and allowing more immigration police to peer into the boat and check we were not carrying anything we should not.

We then proceeded on our way to Burma stopping again just before we got to Kaw Thong (Victoria Point) to pay the Burmese immigration the same 10 Baht per person. Finally landing in Burma and handing over our passports to be hurried through the process – giving the Burmese officials our highly prized mint 10 dollar bills – we were photographed and our passports given back!! Finished – now just the journey back…… !!

We spent about 25 minutes on Burmese soil! So we can say our feet touched but our souls definitely did not have the time to connect. In 25 minutes we were processed, asked by three separate monks to hand over some cash and sold some amazingly delicious curried pastries (which we ate gladly – not having time for breakfast) of which Tehya ate most, she loved them – other than being told by the Israeli girl that I should not allow Tehya to eat anything as it might be contaminated (she did not look like she ate much of anything!!) that part of the trip was uneventful, if a little bizarre.

The journey back was heart gripping because the guys in control of the boat had no concept of danger – jumping up and down the outside of the boat making it list dangerously. Hanging off the sides – hitting the piers of the island and floating immigration offices. Allowing us to be jostled by other boats to the point that one of them ended up having a large piece of wood ripped off the side. Instead of slowing down and untangling they speeded up heading in opposite directions and just pulled until it gave completely. I am greyer than when I left Cornwall – I am also greyer now than when I left Burma!!! Thankfully we made it back to Ranong in one piece and we were the first to check back through immigration Thai side. It was very funny – there were a lot of people queued behind us and they were getting increasingly grumpy at having to wait, as we are a family of three -  we took three times as long to be processed and photographed. Someone tried to push in front of me after Tehya had been done and the immigration officer inside the window reached through and grabbed my arm to pull me back and then shouted at them all to step back. No one did so an officer came out and started to shout at everybody. The tourists got even more moody and started to answer back. It was pretty crazy -  as we were leaving the pier the queue to check out of Thailand’s immigration to get the boats to Burma was huge – there must have been 200 + people waiting. I am so glad we got up early – the total trip was just under two hours!!

Pon was there to collect us and take us on to the next pier as part of his service. So we headed off to get the slow boat to Koh Phayam.

[w:650;h:250] Kawthaung, Myanmar (Burma) Visa Run