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"...Summers in rangoon, luge lessons, when i was naughty iwas placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, we used to make meat helmets..."
Dr. Evil, 1997
We had a frantic fight on our hands to complete the impossible and travel from Phang Nga province to Ranong and then over the border into Myanmar in 1 day. A tall order for superman and we thought we would be able to do it easily, oh how wrong we were!
As already mentioned we did an overnight trip through the islands of Phang Nga and visited James Bond island, and stayed on a floating Muslim village for the night, all very exciting things.
On the return to Phang Nga village we decided, or in truth were persuaded by our guide that we would be much wiser to leave for Ranong that night in order to give us as much chance as possible in securing our visa run successfully and avoiding the recently inflated payment of 500 Baht per day for overstaying the visa date.
We arrived back at the main bus depot, all set to go only to find out that the bus, the only bus, the last bus infact to Ranong was completely full and we wouldn't be able to get another one until 8.30am the following day. Bearing in mind that
the bus ride itself to Ranong from our current location takes a mere 5 hours and the border crossing closes at 6pm each day. Reluctantly and faced with no alternative we agreed to stay the night and catch the first bus out in the morning.
Suprisingly we were actaully early for the bus and arrived with ample time to prepare for the ensuing horrors of the day! Patiently we waited until at 8.40am at which point we were told that the bus would not be running! The next one left at 10.30am. Panic set in as this left us with very little time to get our bearings in Ranong, find the immigration office, stamp our passports, get to the border crossing and cross it all before 6pm.
Again faced with no other alternative we settled in for a long and patient wait.
The bus did arrive and left on time. It took the 5 hours that it claimed it would. We arrived at nearing 4pm. Missioned it accross town big backpacks in tow to the place where the songtheaws leave to go to the immigration office as previously read about in the lonely planet. The journey was slow
and annoying, it pushed our limits with panic and hatred for the slow service, but at 20 baht per person, you couldn't say anything.
Finally we arrived at the immigration office, hurray! "No......too late," was the answer we were dreading to hear but that now was staring us straight in the face. We waited, we contemplated and finally after much deliberation decided that the only way we would get our passports done this evening and not have to pay the 500 Baht penality the next day was to use plan B. Plan B is a more expensive and strange option but also could be fun. It involved going to The Andaman Club Hotel- a five star hotel with its own immigration office, open until 11pm daily. Of course this kind of service does come at a price but we figured that if we would be shelling our 1000 Baht between us in the morning for visa overstay we may as well spend the same money doing something a little more worth while.
After an expensive ride to the Andaman Club immigration office we walked to the desk and were told also that we were too late. Begging and
pleading ensuied for some time and in the end the man made a special exception and stamped our passports about 1 hour later than he should have done. As he was in charge, it was legal. Thank god. We were in! Myanmar here we come.
This is how we ended up in our current predicament; huge big room with ensuite marble bathroom, massive balcony overlooking the beautiful sea between Myanmar and Thailand, a casino, a snooker room, 2 gourmet restaurants, a kareoke room, a swimming pool, a gym, a sauna, an 18 hole Jack Niklaus designed golf course AND apart from us there were only about 10 other people staying in the hotel. I dont have to mention that this was bliss and although expensive for a traveller, we were paying tens of pounds rather that the hundreds or even thousands of pounds it would have cost to do the same thing in England.
Sadly though after a massive slap up meal in the very reasonable restaurant overlooking the sea, I found myself being really quite ill. I think however that this was as ongoing issue that has plagued me for some time rather than the result of
The Jack Niklaus Course
"ill take the sand wedge please Fanny" food consumed in this hotel.
While James waited patiently for me to finish in the loo he sat and listened to the vocal delights of two young Chinese girls singing along to popular asian classics in the kareoke room! Poor thing. I could hear their fingernails-down-the-blackboard-singing from the bathroom. It was dreadful but hysterical at the same time.
We had a cocktail each and retitred to the snooker room, which was empty and we were allowed to play to our hearts content until it closed in the early hours.
In the morning we thought we were being very clever by changing our clocks to Myanmar time which is half an hour behind Thailand. Unfortunately for us the hotel kept itself on Thai time for convenience. This resulted in us being just a little late for our included buffet breakfast instead of early, and they wouldnt let us in. Clearly our string of bad luck wasn't about to change any time soon!
In a last ditch attemp to have fun and relax we decided to go and play on the golf course. This did prove to be fun but not in the way we had envisaged. James effectively
The Jack Niklaus Course
actually make that a 5 wood played alone. I only managed a few quick putts. The reason being because we had an unexpected audience; a caddy, who we HAD to have but she was sweet anyway, a woman who occasionally scribbled things down onto her notepad and two random men who were very vocal and not at all shy about applauding or comiserating James' efforts! As we had only paid for one green fee thinking that noone would know if I played a few cheeky shots here and there, I couldnt really play at all with 4 strangers watching our every move. It did make for a very funny setting and after the third ball in the water from the first Tee, James was advised by his caddy to go and drop one (!) further down the fairway. He walked off feeling very frustrated and I managed to hide a snigger. Actually he played very well on what I thought was an impossible course. I think anyone would get a bit of stage fright if you had five people watching you! Poor Jimmy.
Still the setting and scenery were breathtaking and I really enjoyed driving the buggy around the course.
We persuaded the lady with
Action shot
notice gurning face! the notepad to take us back to the Hotel for a last minute swim in the pool and gym session before we caught the boat back to Thailand. The weather was glorious although as has been the trend of recent days it does rain in the afternoons and was just beginning to cloud over a little as we swam in the beautiful, wiggly outdoor pool. I even ventured into the gym and played around on the machines a little while James was being serious and lifting weights like a real man! The sauna was lovely too, but it was all a little quick as we didnt have long before the boat left.
That was it, we checked out, went to the immigration had our passports stamped in Myanmar, picked up our bags and then made our way over to Thailand, had our passports stamped there and then we were home free for another 30 days. Has been an exciting, testing and very unpredictable two days but more than anything it has been loads and loads of fun, just as it should be.
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