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Published: November 24th 2009
burma
the line out of thailandCheck it out! I know I'm super behind BUT I must tell you about this experience before anything else! Sorry! I so want to tell you about China BUT not yet!!!! Soon! I have to catch u up on the little stuff!!!!
AND thanks to everyone who's been reading, commenting and sharing! I feel like my withdrawls are over but i still feel like I am missing out on soooooooo much! Damn this communist country! Seriously, if i had known this before coming here then may be it would've deterred my decisions...doubt it!
I am missing everyone sooooo much more especdially now that i dont have FB. it is that addicting!
I MISS ALL!!!!!!
Now to the story of the Visa Run!
In Thailand an American can only stay in the country for a total of 30 days after that i need to cross the border. It cant be just any border. If i cross the malasian boarder then i get a 30 day extension and it also takes a whole weekend to do it. i f i cross the Burma boarder then i get a 15 day extension. just enough, right? Also, it only takes a
At the border
It was pooring down reain this day. day.
I got picked up at the school at 5am. DIRTY! I eventually hopped on a bus. I'm thinking a visa run (needing to extend a stay in the country that I am in) I'll meet plenty of people doing the same thing. Yeah, I did meet plenty of people. There were a stack of passports. All of them were green but for my one blue one. I was on a bus full of Vietmanese. Great! This is going to be a long trip. No one could speak English! They also do this every single month. WOW! I cant imagine it! So, we're on a bus for about 4hrs. Thankfully all the lights are turned off so we can sleep. The only problem is that there's one woman who keeps puking! She gets up. Goes to the back of the bus. Enters the toilet and PUKES her brains out a few times on the bus til we get to the 1st part of the destinations! So i think it's all over...
The bus stops and I just follow the herd! I pay very close attension to who's on the bus and seriously just follow. no one speaks English, still! SHIT!!!!!!!!!!
WOrk smart or Hard?
He's bailing while under the umbrella. Just follow the herd!
So for me to get an extension Burma is the closest boarder. In order to do that I have to go on a 45 minute boat ride after the 4hr bus mrude, really? I have no idea of what's happening! Just follow the herd! With following the herd it leads me to the thaiand immigration office which is all about the size of a closet! I have to get a stamp leaving the country and pay any late fines of 15.00 bucks a day. Then i keep following the herd to a bunch of longtail boats, my favorite boats yyet!
The area smelled sssooooo bad, it was soo poor, and completely busy. I could hire one of these boats to take me personally but NO WAY!!!!! I was lucky to be on the only one big boat out there! These poor people! I literally cross boat to boat to boat to get to our boat. Fortunetly some ladies adopted me and grabbed my arm on a regular basis to help me follow the herd. This time they had the death grip on me as i am helping them cross to get to our boat. Probably
crossed 5 longtail boats to get to our boat. The woman who got sick still got plenty sick on this big boat. Poor thing. The worrst part is that she'd puke in a bag and toss it over. I was shocked! WHAT!? It didnt matter! The seas were rough and ugly. I saw the most poorest of areas that I thought I had ever seen. So i thought...
I pay fines in the line, give some guy my passport, and move on to the boat. I hate giving that guy my passport. Who knows what he's going to do with it. He just laughs at me as I am watching him very closely. and onto this boat that was awful! It was as simple as u can imagine but add even more simple. These ladies would hold tigerbalm to their nose so they wouoldnt get sick cuz sometimes it aslo smelled that bad!
We stopped at immigration to get permission to continue. The waters are a merky brown and full of trash. So that girl who threw the bag over is just joining the rest. We get to Burma. We leave the boat and continuously being followed by a boy
of the age of 12 maybe. We're in the heart of poorest of poor. They herded us to the Burma immigration office which is all the size of a small apt. We stand there for about 30 min as they inspect each passport and the brand new ten dollar bill that comes with the visa run package. Each bill was so inspected that the inspection of each passport was nothing! I dont know why each bill had to be PERFECT or inspected so carefully. Then the officers take each persons photo as they hand back their passports. After we all get our passports back, we have literally 10 min to see Burma. I met these cool kids and took them with me. That boy was freaking me out! Need to be in numbers WITH boys! We didnt get very far. Just to the end of the street. All there was were people selling cigarettes, food, and alcohol. The boy was willing to take me to any of these places. I just stuck with the boys and kept taking pics down at my side. There was this cute boy begging for food. Where do i buy him some food? And then
CIMG2478
The energizer bunny!!!! what to i buy him. Never found either. poor guy. We got herded back by the boy. On the boat quickly as I'm trying to take pics of the immigration office. NO PICS ALLOWED!!!!!!!!! Oops. I got yelled at and ran to the boat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All these people do this run again and again. They make more money in Thailand then they do in Vietnam as taylors! WOW!!!!
To the boat, buy some corn, and we're on our way. The seas still rough but the rain has stopped. We stop at the Burma immigration and get permission to keep going. Odd how this system works. The officers even boarded the boat to make sure...
We stand back in line like it's a small ride at the fair in Thailand. We get more stamps and pay more money. The guy who took our passports was still there and verifying that it's coorect before we leave. Ok. He's a keeper now! Of course there was something missing. I go back and fix it. It was that easy!SWEET!!!!!!!! Back to the bus and lunch. I dont know what it was but it was good. something with rice. I have eatten many things that I
just dont know and dont ask! I cant!! I dont want to know!
After lunch, a few stops, we get back to the school at O dark thirty. Give me a beer for this! I deserve one!
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Amber
non-member comment
quite an experience
OK, so you can say you've done that! Sounds like a 'no need for re-runs' but 'change the way you look at things' experience! :) Well, miss you! Thanksgiving is Thursday! Wish you were here! :):)