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Due to the introduction of a new law within Thailand we soon came towards the end of our valid Thai visit visa and so we had to make a scheduled 'visa hop' at the nearest boarder crossing. The most convenient place for us to do this was in Ranong, by making a brief river crossing over to the Burmese border.
From Koh Phi Phi we made our way by boat to Phuket where we took a 6 hour coach journey to Ranong. On arrival we checked into a guest house just across the road from the bus stop. It was clean, simple and very reasonable and above all could arrange our entire visa run and journey on to our next destination - Koh Tao.
We paid just over 900 baht for our visa run which included transport to and from the port, the boat crossing, $10 and the cost of the visa. When arriving in Burma it is mandatory that every traveler has a brand new $10 note on them. If for any reason it is slightly creased or has been used then it will not be accepted and you have to return to mainland Thailand. Luckily for us the guest house we stayed in taught us all the 'must haves' for the visa run but without their help we would have ended up making more than one dodgy river boat crossing!
That evening we had dinner in the hostel and visited the hot springs that are located just around the corner.
We decided to get the visa hop done the following day as early as possible so we were left the hostel with our luggage at 7.30am. The women from the hostel loaded us in her van, blasted out some UK cheese and drove us to the Thai Immigration Office on the river. Here we went through all the usual passport checks and then boarded a long tail boat that took us to the opposite side of the river to the Burmese Immigration Office. After locals trying to sell us cheap fags, booze and Viagra, we got all passports successfully stamped and got back on the boat heading for Thailand.
Myself and Lorna had pre booked travel so we took a mini van and Catamaran bound for Koh Tao. Kate and Tania decided to make their own way by coach so that they could get a different boat across the water that is said to be 'safer' in rough waters! They missed their boat and had to spend the night in Chumpon but caught the first boat bound for Koh Tao early the next morning……..
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