My original plan was to spend only one month in Thailand but alas the greatest plans of mice and men, haha. So I am soooo not ready to leave this place and haven’t
even seen all I want to see in this little paradise yet so before moving on I am going spend another while here….but to do so I must renew my visa. The closest border to the island I am on is Myanmar, and I am told it is the quickest easiest trip to be had. I heard rumurs of it being dodgy or dicey but no such thing in my opinion. It was beautiful but incredibly exhausting. I had a couple other traveler friends who were in the same boat so to speak :) and we went together….we took a night ferry at 10pm, almost seven hours, from Phangan to the mainland pier at Don Sak. The Ferry is equipped with mats and little pillows as sleeping berths. We took the buy a bottle of whiskey a
nd chat through the night route, at was a peaceful night and easy journey. At the pier we caught a taxi to Mrs. Dahs guesthouse arriving around 5 am. She was an adorable little round lady and made us tea and toast with jam, and then ushered us into a car to head for Ranong (the border town). The drive was around 3 hours and the second half is actually quite beautiful, lush jungle foliage on both sides of the road curving through valleys and mountains from the Gulf of Thailand across to the Adamaran Sea. Once there it was all hurry up and wait, lines for customs leaving Thailand, line into longboats to Myanmar, lines
for Immigration there, lines for customs to exit Myanmar, and lines for re-entry visas for Thailand! The Immigration folks are hilarious the charge $10 American for the “5 minute stamp/swap” and only take crisp, new bills in 10 or 20 denominations, no creases or marks allowed, haha. The boat trip over was quite beautiful, a short 25-30 minute ride and the countryside in the distance was breathtaking, huge green hills with tops slightly hidden by clouds, just dotted with golden Buddha’s and temples here and there… After spending about 20 minutes shopping and browsing the ridiculously cheap markets in Myanmar we did the whole trip in re
verse! I nodded off most of the taxi ride back to Surat Thani where we grabbed a quick lunch of Pad Thai and were off on a bus back to the Dan Sak Pier. The Ferry home was at 4:30 pm and much more enjoyable with little shop and bar and top deck with benches where we hung out, met a bunch of other folks and made plans to BBQ later in the week :)
even seen all I want to see in this little paradise yet so before moving on I am going spend another while here….but to do so I must renew my visa. The closest border to the island I am on is Myanmar, and I am told it is the quickest easiest trip to be had. I heard rumurs of it being dodgy or dicey but no such thing in my opinion. It was beautiful but incredibly exhausting. I had a couple other traveler friends who were in the same boat so to speak :) and we went together….we took a night ferry at 10pm, almost seven hours, from Phangan to the mainland pier at Don Sak. The Ferry is equipped with mats and little pillows as sleeping berths. We took the buy a bottle of whiskey a
nd chat through the night route, at was a peaceful night and easy journey. At the pier we caught a taxi to Mrs. Dahs guesthouse arriving around 5 am. She was an adorable little round lady and made us tea and toast with jam, and then ushered us into a car to head for Ranong (the border town). The drive was around 3 hours and the second half is actually quite beautiful, lush jungle foliage on both sides of the road curving through valleys and mountains from the Gulf of Thailand across to the Adamaran Sea. Once there it was all hurry up and wait, lines for customs leaving Thailand, line into longboats to Myanmar, lines 
for Immigration there, lines for customs to exit Myanmar, and lines for re-entry visas for Thailand! The Immigration folks are hilarious the charge $10 American for the “5 minute stamp/swap” and only take crisp, new bills in 10 or 20 denominations, no creases or marks allowed, haha. The boat trip over was quite beautiful, a short 25-30 minute ride and the countryside in the distance was breathtaking, huge green hills with tops slightly hidden by clouds, just dotted with golden Buddha’s and temples here and there… After spending about 20 minutes shopping and browsing the ridiculously cheap markets in Myanmar we did the whole trip in re
verse! I nodded off most of the taxi ride back to Surat Thani where we grabbed a quick lunch of Pad Thai and were off on a bus back to the Dan Sak Pier. The Ferry home was at 4:30 pm and much more enjoyable with little shop and bar and top deck with benches where we hung out, met a bunch of other folks and made plans to BBQ later in the week :)
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