After being in Thailand for 30 days you must leave the country and re-enter to receive another stamp so that you can stay another 30 days. I take off on the night boat with some friends from Big Blue and another guy from a nearby dive shop. The night boat leaves at 10p. The funny thing is there is no gangplank so you have to jump onto the boat, swing your leg over the rail and then the other leg. Remember I am laughed at every chance given by the Thais. They are already laughing when I get to the dock! The little captain, holds his arms out to me like he is going to catch me!!!! So I throw him my drybag instead, TAKE THAT LITTLE MAN! REALLY?! and like everyone else and get on the boat.
The visa run consists of:
A 6 hour slow boat ride, then sitting or sleeping on the boat if you can for another 2 hours. Then a 2 1/2 hour ride mostly looking at oncoming traffic (because we are on the wrong side of the road), so you would rather sleep in cramped conditions to the immigration office. We get out have our passports stamped then get back in the van and head to the dock. We get out on the street and hike back to the dock. When we get there it has very comfortable chairs and there is a big boat there waiting for us. I ask "Dean, is that our boat?" Deano says "no love, ours is on the other side". Mind you there have been jokes of us having to take a longtail, which is just a bit larger than a large CANOE!!!!!!!, but surely they gest!!!! We start down the uh....pier and on the other side is a boat just a smidgeon bigger than a long tail, but at least it has cover. They have this flimsy thin piece of wood as a gang plank. Again the arms of the tiny men unfold to catch me.....RIIIIIIGGHT!
Knowing these boats sink all of the time (including ours at Big Blue), my comfort comes from the fact that I am a SCUBA diver and I am with Instructors and Divemasters and my valuables are in my dry bag!!!! YAY I am SAVED!!!!!!!
We stop in the middle of the waterway where there is some kind of post and lots of men with machine guns and we are on our way. When we dock, because the boat is so short(small), I must shimmy up onto the pier.....in a dress no doubt and head off to have my passport stamped by Burmese immigration.
The reaction of the Burmese, it is clear that they have seen fewer Blacks than all of the Asian countries I have been to. It is the first time that people actually touch me. They rub my arm as if to see if the Blackness will rub off. This is the reaction I expected from Asia. They are also in complete disbelief. My friend Brad talks to me calmly reassuring me that it is ok and they mean nothing, so I don't freak.
I don't know if I have mentioned this before but Asians are extremely color stuck. The lighter you are, the better. There is whitening cream in every store and you will often see people, mostly women walking around with the unblended cream on their faces. So I am sure seeing someone Black is really shocking.
We finish up in Myanmar (Burma) and head back to Chumpon where the boys decide they will die without KFC. It is hilarious we have 15 minutes to drive 15 minutes to get to the last boat of the day back to the rock and they want KFC! I have to admit after a month of healthy thai food, it was freshing to eat some greasy fried food!
We get back to the boat just as they preparing to leave the boys race down the quarter mile pier to hold the boat for me as I sashay hurriedly to the boat. I love Thailand and I am going home to KT!
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