The Long and No So Winding Road

Wednesday 27 September

The alarm went off at 0400! We hadn’t seen that hour of the day for a long time. It was quite a struggle to get up, but we were dressed and ready at the front of Smile in time to meet the mini-bus at 05.00. We wee off to the ferry at Nathon for the start of our marathon journey to extend our Thailand visitors visas by thirty days.

On arrival at Nathon harbour, we are given the usual arrival and departure forms for Thailand and Malaysia! We thought we were going to Burma, but apparently not! We were originally told by Mr Builder man that Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays the run went to Malaysia, and Tuesdays and Thursdays went to Burma - and this was Wednesday. The girls in the travel agents had insisted the run to both destinations went every day – obviously not the case. We have become used to all this form filling at borders and no longer have to consult our passports to complete the details.

Having been “stickered”, we boarded the ferry and found some seats near the front of the boat for the one and a half hour crossing to Surat Thani. We set sail exactly at 06.00, on time, and I promptly fell asleep. Colin tells me we had another typical Thailand downpour during the crossing when it was a bit bumpy, but when we arrived at the other side, the sun was shining. We saw the luxury coach used by “Julie’s Coaches” which if we had known we were going to Malaysia we could have booked. Instead eleven people crammed into a minibs for twelve (I had a double seat to myself as there was not enough room for me to put my legs down in front of me, without pushing my knees into the seat in front!), and we sped off along dual carriageways, all the way to Malaysia – much of it very straight like our Roman roads. We had a brief stop at a “transport caff” for ten minutes, where the loos were the smelly, squat type, with the floor running with water, so often experienced in China, but only rarely in Thailand. For about an hour the rain fell from the sky in great torrents, but this didn’t slow our driver down at all. He kept his foot on the pedal at about 70 mph all the way. The air conditioning in the minibus was not the best, especially when an old man at the front insisted on closing the vents. We arrived in Malaysia, just after 12.00 midday – about 4 hours, 20 minutes driving in total – like traveling from home to Newcastle, after the ferry ride – and we still had to go back today.

We all piled out of the minibus and were taken to a small hut where we presented our passports to an official who typed all the information on to a computer, checked our pictures resembled our faces and handed the documents back. We had officially left Thailand! It was now time for lunch. Whilst on the minibus we had had to complete a choice of menu form – obviously for our lunchboxes - which turned out to be a one dish hot meal – I had chosen sweet and sour chicken which was served with plain rice, while Colin had chosen chicken fried rice. There had been about ten options in total. The food was very welcome, but even more so the bottle of water. We had had nothing since we left Smile this morning – and Colin was missing his breakkie. The loos here were even worse than the “transport caff”!

Following our repast, we all piled back in the minibus and were transported about 200 metres to the Malaysia side of the border. Out of the buss again to present our passports and immigration forms and we were duly stamped in as visitors to Malaysia – for up to 90 days – shame we were only staying for less than twenty minutes – but we will be back again in a month or so. Entry of information on to the computer was by digital read out, none of that manual entering as on the Thailand side, so it was much quicker. Then we walked across a road, through a building to an identical hut on the other side of the road, where we were signed out of Malaysia and our passports stamped again. It was then back to the minbus for the return trip to another hut in Thailand for the final part of the immigration process. But by the end of this process we had visas to stay in Thailand until 26 October 2006 – another 30 days – the whole point of this boring exercise. It was then time to squeeze ourselves back in the minibus again for the return journey, this time to Donsak, a little port further up the coast from Surat Thani – we don’t know why this change of departure point was used going home – perhaps the ferry times fitted in with our schedule better – who knows? The boat this time was a big, old “rust bucket” to look at, but took us across the strait with no probems to arrive in a heavy downpour at Nathon harbour. Both the morning and evening ferries were not full up by any means, but had a considerable number of people making the crossings, apart from the visa runners – more than I thought would be aboard.

Another minibus was waiting to take us back to Smile, where we met the gang on Jean and Ray’s balcony, still suppling “bloody wine” (this has been a standing joke in the evenings, as the girls chose to drink wine – which was more expensive than Singhas and cocktails and increased the cost the meals by about a tenner (10GBP) a time!). We soon adjourned to the Happy Elephant for cocktails and to relax. – it is surprising just how tiring traveling about 800 miles in a day can be. We chose to go to La Sirene again tonight, as we always enjoy the service and atmosphere, the food is good and it was nearby. I was determined not to partake of “moules and frites” again tonight - I have already eaten it three times - so chose a Thai red curry with fresh crab which was also delicious – with frites ,of course.

Juz had spent the morning learning how to make yellow curry paste from fresh ingredients and then producing a Thai yellow chicken curry and fish cakes. Dave was invited to the sampling at the end and his verdict was that the food was all delicious and he looked forward to more such meals when they got home. Jean and Ray, meanwhile, had spent some time meandering in and out of Chaweng shops, finally purchasing some pretty sandals – for Jean of course.

After the meal it was time for us to return to the bungalow and collapse for the night – I don’t envy those living here for a long time having to do this trip each month. The rules here are changing on 1 October – everyone on a tourist visa will only be allowed to stay three months (90 days) - ie two extensions to their entry visa - still using visa runs. They then have to leave the country for 90 days before being allowed to return. Apparently these laws were passed ages ago, and were meant to be introduced last year, but for some reason they were delayed. Now the feeling is that when they come into force this time, they will affect the Thailand economy greatly – companies, such as dive companies will suffer (there are no Thai divers), and all employees will need a work permit – which will cost the company. Others in the tourist sector may also be affected, such as travel agents, hotels, tourist attractions, etc. Ex-pat residents will only be able to live in their properties for six months a year. And foreign investors may not be so tempted to support projects here if long term stay is a problem. Of course, there are other types of visa and work permits – educational (this is how dive instructors could get a work permit), retired (over the age of 50 and with 12,000 bahts in the bank here) but this visa still has to be renewed annually. Owing a company here, used to exempt you from needing a renewable visa, but that too is now changing. So there will be lots of changes here in the next year or so, if these regulations are successful – those caught up in this bureaucratic red tape are hoping they will fail.