Stamp collecting

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Hi folks,

Possibly the shortest trip to a country so far our expedition into Burma was meant to extend our Thai visa enough for us to stay just over a month but, as we have already jumped across to the border into Cambodia, now simply adds to the already impressive collection of stamps we currently hold in our passports.
The trip into Victoria point starts at the city of Ranong on the west coast of Thailand and entails a thirty minute long tail boat ride across the bay (stopping at two fairly shabby passport control islands) to Kraw Thaung in Burma (or, due to Asia's habbit of frequently changing the names of places, Myanmar as it is now known).
Our stay in Kraw Thaung (Victoria point, it was once a British outpost and port) consisted of the obligatory local beer consumage, a meal, a hunt for a postcard and then a bit of bargaining for the return journey back into Thailand. Hardly the stuff of legend but it has added another to our increasing list of countries visited.
From what we saw of Myanmar it clearly doesn't have the relative wealth of Thailand and there was a reappearance of the tobacco and beetlenut chewing that all the Indian's liked to do too (its a narcotic and the red / orange spit stains look like the aftermath of some horrific blood bath).
On the plus side the people seemed pretty nice, they have some lovely looking temples and the Adaman islands look unbelievable.
On returning to Thailand we spent one more night in Ranong before attempting to get a bus on to Phuket. Unfortunately when we arrived at the bus ticket office the woman behind the desk refused to let me buy a ticket until she had "had a look at the bus when it arrives". When it did arrive it was full so we had the choice of waiting another 2 hours to find out if the next one was going to have space or find a new destination.
We decided on the latter and an hour later were on our way to Krabi (notable mostly for the Bond film "The man with the golden gun" being filmed in the nearby islands).
We're due to spend another couple of days here before we head on to Malaysia and Penang.

Take care all,

Linz and Bri

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Comments

[Helen]

Thailand
Isn't Thailand fab?