Ah yes!! Finally the
bus that I’ve been dreaming of with big comfortable reclining seats. The bus is already packed out as it’s been
travelling from Bangkok. I am shown to
my seat and I sit back and relax. I
suddenly feel something tap on my forehead. I open my eye and manage to avoid the next
drip which was coming from the air conditioning above. Bloody typical, when I finally get the bus
I’ve desired, I get one with a leak! I
fish around my bag for a while and fish out a tissue to stuff inside the hole. Success, it worked and now time for some
sleep.
My boat across to Kawthaung |
Three hours went by too soon and the bus pulled over just
outside the town of Chumphon where the majority of people got off to catch a
connecting ferry to Ko Phangan. Those
all headed off in a couple Songthaew and I was told to wait for ten minutes and
my bus would arrive to take me to Ranong.
It was 4am, still dark, quiet and I had been left alone. There were a few roadside cafés which were
closed up, so I took a seat outside one and waited. Ten minutes went by very quickly, no sign of
a bus. Thirty minutes passed and I began
to get anxious. A few buses passed by
but none were mine, most of them were heading to Hat Yai. An hour passed, still no sign. Two hours.
Nothing. It was now 6am, the sun
had peaked and light illuminated the city.
A café was opening up and I had had enough of waiting, so went in to ask
the lady whether she knew of a bus stopping here for Ranong. She had no idea but took my ticket which had
a telephone number on the back and rang it.
The person on the other end said that there was a bus leaving at 7.30am
and the lady asked for them to pick me up and take me to their office. This lady was extraordinarily friendly and
willing to help a stranded tourist. I
sat there for another half hour, enjoying a refreshing drink whilst waiting for
the driver to collect me.
I arrived in Ranong around 10am and began the routine haggle
for a Sangthaew with Allesia and Matao, two Italians whom I had met on the
bus. We successfully cut the price to an
acceptable level and went on a hunt for somewhere to stay. We dumped our bags and headed for a walk
around Ranong. A bustling city on the
border with Burma, the market was an amazing experience, a working market for
local traders not touristic in anyway. I
was completely knackered from a night of no sleep and decided that I would head
back to the hotel for a couple hours sleep.
A couple hours turned into far too many and it was dark when I
woke. I was to meet Allesia and Matao
for dinner but had missed them and unfortunately never saw them again.
Kawthaung |
The day had come, an exciting trip to Myanmar, a communist
country bureaucratically shielded from the rest of the world. I was to head over for a brief visit just so
that I could exit Thailand and enter with a further 14 days. I got the bus to the Thai immigration
department in town who were to stamp me out but I had some outdated information
and in recent months they have initiated a border crossing at the port itself
which makes it so much easier. I
negotiated a price for the return boat trip and climbed aboard. I was, as usual, the only foreigner aboard
and again, had no idea what was happening!
The skipper handed out life jackets as we steamed out into the Andaman
Sea towards Kawthaung, Burma. On the way
we stopped a couple of times at checkpoints that had been erected in the middle
of the estuary. They didn’t care about
my passport but the rest had to show theirs.
Most probably just checking that nobody is fleeing the persecution of
Myanmar’s military.
Kawthaung's main street with immigration shack on left |
The run down buildings of Kawthaung appeared in the
distance. Already you can see the
difference between Thailand and Myanmar.
We moored on the shore and all disembarked and made our way to the blue
wooden immigration hut that. There was
no queue. I walked in and handed over my
passport, a crisp $10 note and a photocopy of my passport which they kept for
one reason or another. I was in there
for about two minutes before I got stamped in and out of the country at the
same time. I took a very brief walk
around the town just to get an idea of what goes on. The market was busy
selling items of all sorts and I got the feeling that the Myanmar government
have erected this town as a showcase for visitors and traders from Thailand. I finished my walk and headed back to the
port to find a boat to take me back to Thailand. I had only paid half of the fare so it didn’t
really matter which boat I got on. A man
approached me and offered me a spot on his boat for a decent price. I accepted. A man began shouting from a couple boats down
and ran towards me. It was the skipper
who brought me to Kawthaung and he was quite justly annoyed that I had gone
aboard another boat. I soon explained
things and apologised to the other man as I transferred back to the original
boat.
The rain is 'a' comin'.... |
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