Friday, September 02, 2005

Chumphon

I got the boat across from Ko Tao to Chumphon. Had to wait till everybody was off the boat until I could take my bike off. Another couple of German touring cyclist had ridden from Chang Mai in the north down to Chumpon, but now flying home. After eventually getting off the boat, I followed the bus to the main road into Chumpon about 7km away. It was starting to get dark. By the time I found a place to stay it was dinner time, off to a resturant for some Rad Naa. The next day, I tried to find a bike shop and after a while I found two, unfortunately neither could replace my spokes. Oh well, I found a travel agency and arrange to go over to Mynamar the next day. This will allow me a bit more time in Thailand, as my visa is a double entry, 2 month one. I need to exit and re-enter after the first sixty days, and then I get another sixty days. You need to pay $5 to get the visa for Mynamar. I dug around and came up with $4, so close! Still, I gave them some extra baht and I got rid of my $4. After a couple of hours on the mini-bus across to the other side of Thailand, we arrived at Ranong, where a car picked me up and took me along to the immigration office to get a Thailand exit stamp, and then onto the boat. The tour guy takes all the passports, and we trundle across to Mynamar, when we arrive, the guy hops out to the paperwork place and stamps all the passports and then after ten minutes jumps back on the boat. So I didn't even step foot on Mynamar soil. In that ten minutes Mynamar guys jump on the boat and try and sell cheap cigarettes and booze. Then back to the Thai Immigration office, then a car to the busstop and the minibus to Chumpon. Well, at least I got my visa extended.

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