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Kawthaung
south Myanmar
Kawthaung
Map
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Kawthaung, Victoria Point, pictures,
Ranong, Thailand visa run, map.
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Visa run is a Thai specialty but not only Thai,
in the last Thaksin government they did a couple of things to keep foreigners out of Thailand. Every country in the region tries to get foreigners in but in the country of smiles they did the opposite, the Thaksin government invented a strategy to keep foreigners they thought with low income level out and lure high rollers in. This attempts failed grandiosely but nobody take that really serious since the victims where foreigners anyway.
Now one of the remains of the time
is the visa issued at Thai land borders for 2 weeks only, by air it came back to the normal one month. The effect is the people who do visa run businesses, e.g. from Phuket to Ranong and Kawthaung, Samui to Kawthaung and to the Malaysian
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border at Sadao
and further to Penang had business
doubled since before it was 4 weeks
intervals after 2 weeks intervals,
obviously some dark magic influence made
it possible to double income on the back
of the foreigner.
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Kawthaung
Myanmar |
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One of the ideas was to keep Myanmar and Lao people out, which didn't work at all because with them it works differently.
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It works like that, the boat with a "farang" leaves the Ranong harbor for Kawthaung, |
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Ranong Harbor Visa Run |
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in the boat also Myanmar's come in. Now on the first leg trip another longtailboat comes close, some Myanmar's change the boat. The original boat moves to the Thai Immigration checkpoint further up, now after the long tail boat is in a suitable distance suddenly the Myanmar's who changed boats before come in again from the other boat.
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Visiting the Pagoda Island |
Visa Run Thai Sea Border |
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Visiting the pagoda no visa is necessary,
no money changed hands and everyone is happy, that's the business between the islands and it is known that the area Ranong, Kawthaung and up to Myeik is one of the real last smuggling centers in south east Asia, ideal for a Thailand visa run. |
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Kawthaung Hotel |
Kawthaung City |
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Now we keep on moving towards the Myanmar Immigration Checkpoint on a small Island just before Kawthaung.
The boat let
them out on on
the one side of
the temple
island, after we
went to
immigration and
on to the other
side of the
temple
island.They are
already waiting
for us
pretending they
been visiting
the temple which
is already at
Myanmar
territory. Our longtail boat collects the Myanmar's
and we speed to
the city. |
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To finish the visa run, we went off at the stones opposite the Honey Bear Hotel,
went to the Myanmar immigration office, paid $10 and went back to Ranong, we had to tell a couple of guys who wanted to lure us to some "duty free" shop to get lost. Some other told us about the pretty ladies waiting for the foreigners and some others jumped into our boat before leaving since that reduces their fare since the foreigners already paid, foreigners are magic. |
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Depending on the part of the country foreigners are either considered as a "lame turtle" which should be
milked (Krabi Region
expression) or as a ATM machine on two legs who whenever a local press the button issues money.
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