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Visa Run: Samui to Ranong/Myanmar |
How to "go away and come back"In the recent past, people who wanted to extend and existing visa for an additional three months could hand the required documents to a travel agent who would arrange this matter for you without you leaving Koh Samui. Due to a recent "clean up" on "corruption" this service is no longer offered, or if offered may be unreliable. If you work on Samui, this was a very time saving service. And who'd begrudge the border guards a little bit of "tea money"? Never mind. The thing is that we now need to do actual, physical border runs whereby we take our bodies with their legs and move them to the border somewhere. Cross over for a few minutes then come back. Makes perfect sense to me, how 'bout you? So, many of us do this by going to the border at Sadao, way down past Hat Yai. Or worse still we travel even further and trundle off to Penang or Kota Baru in Malaysia, all quite lengthy journeys of many hours. So how about going to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma? From Samui you cross the big water (in a ferry is best) and then just go 3 hours by bus north from Surat Thani to Ranong. From Ranong it's half an hour over the water to Victoria Point in Myanmar. Go-and-come-back just a few hours from home on Samui!! It is much closer than the Hat Yai / Sadao border run, and light years closer then actually crossing over into Malaysia to hit Kota Baru or Penang. I recently travelled up north to Esarn on family business, leaving my passport and work permit with a certain agent to do their usual processing for me. Upon my return to Samui, with only 2 days left on my old visa I was informed that "the government is cracking down on corruption and we can no longer pay the border guards to pass your documents." Having little love of travelling in Malaysia (been there too many times) I headed off to Myanmar, the land of military juntas and imprisoned democrats. But the far south of Myanmar is rather a long way from the ruling junta way up in Rangoon. And being so close to Thailand with just a strip of water between them, they've more or less done an adaptation routine and you'd barely know you'd left Thailand anyway. Local Thais and Burmese travel daily between Thailand and Myanmar in a variety of vessels doing their business and trade. I won't go into the details of my journey, particularly the part where I forgot to go sign out before I went to Myanmar so had to do a second crossing to get my visa stamped out of Thailand. Or the propeller on the boat breaking half way back across. Nor about the storm and yours truly spending an hour bailing the boat while we waited for a new propeller half way between Thailand and Myanmar. Well maybe I will tell you some time, but really that's another story. Generally to travel there from Samui you would book the air-conditioned bus / ferry ticket to Surat Thani. From any point in Surat you'd book the minibus to Ranong. The minibus will drop you off at the location of your choice. The prices of these fares are the standard stuff for this region. Say, 250 Baht for the bus/ferry to Surat and then another 150/200 Baht for the minibus to Ranong. In my opinion, the main points when you do a visa run to Ranong/Myanmar are as follows:- 1. Get a good hotel in Ranong with a
swimming pool and a good restaurant nearby or on premises. Generally the process is thus:- 1. Leave hotel in minibus I did it all wrong myself. The last day on the way home while trying to get a good deal on a minibus back to Surat I found the right hotel with friendly staff and management. The hotel is very affordable and yet neat, clean and orderly. They have a good minibus, very good rooms of varying types, swimming pool, full gymnasium, good food outlets, shop, covered boat to Myanmar and many other goodies to offer the visa-runner. These people take care of everything for you once you get there. It's a total no-brainer. Tanatwan Palace. (Very, very budget
accommodation)
Another very good hotel is the Thansila Resort. Recently renovated, the Thansila offers rooms overlooking a small river right near the town of Ranong. Prices are reasonable, from 500 Baht to 800 Baht per night. The managers are a very lovely family who are more than willing to assist you in whatever you are doing in and around Ranong. Although at the time of this writing they'd not yet set up their restaurant, there are several large restaurants just 5 minutes walk away. Address: 129/2 Soi Thara, Petchkasem
Road, Muang, Ranong 85000
FOOD AND EATING AND DRINKING AND STUFF When in Ranong you simply cannot go wrong
if you go to Sophon's Hideaway Bar & Restaurant. Excellent Thai and
Western food, Aussie management, relaxed atmosphere in a garden
surrounding. You will find them on the main Ranong town market road
Ruangrat Rd.
Good luck and happy trails to ya! Tell 'em Kim on Samui sent you.
Editor's Note: There is further, detailed visa information here.
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