I woke up and realized that I haven’t written about travel for a long time. More than 7 months have passed since my first trip to sunny Tai, and I still haven’t written about where I was and what I saw. Here it is, the malicious habit of postponing everything until later. The worst thing about this approach is that some of the memories and emotions are already lost. When you write a post about something you recently experienced, it turns out interesting and emotional or something.
Anyway. On your next trip, you must force yourself to write right away, and not in a month or two. Don't be lazy, Sashka (c). Today I will write about how I visited Ranong (Thailand), did a border run to Burma and visited Koh Chang Island (Ranong).
Ranong
Hole. I came here to do a border run to Burma and meet with a friend (Murka), who also traveled through Tai. Murka, like me, needed to extend her visa. We contacted her on ICQ and decided to unite in Ranong. For those who do not know what border-run means: I traveled from Krabi to Ranong by bus. The roads are unreal serpentine. You're just going like a snake. But the views from the window are very beautiful. Beautiful green mountains, rivers and waterfalls. I didn’t look at any maps or read any information about rooms/hotels. Therefore, when I got off the bus, I wandered wherever my eyes looked. After asking some passing Thais, I moved towards the hotels. It was necessary to find accommodation with a shower, and preferably a hot one (for Murka, who would arrive in Ranong the next day). And so I was walking along the road and suddenly a young Thai woman sitting in a tuk-tuk shouted to me, “Hello! Hello! What are you looking for?” - something like that. I came up and said that I was looking for a cheap hotel, room or bungalow for a day. It must have a shower. She said that there was an awesome room with hot and cold showers and the price was only 100 baht (100 rubles). Of course, I didn’t believe it at first and asked again 2 times. Taika called somewhere, clarified and convinced me that 100 baht was a good room with a shower. Just, she says, we need to wait for her friend and offered to sit in the tuk-tuk for a while.
Every time you enter Thailand, a stamp is placed in your passport - a visa for 30 days. As soon as 30 days are over, a new stamp is needed. Traveling abroad from Thailand and immediately returning back is called a border run.
Burma (Myanmar)
We spent several hours in Burma. We toured the temples, walked around the market, tasted some local munchies and beer. The temples are full of all sorts of fancy statues, paintings and monuments. Nothing particularly impressed us. Not the best memories include the overly arrogant Burmese offering services and goods. Everywhere they try to rip you off to the skin, and when they rip you off, they will also make a dissatisfied face, saying that they didn’t rip you off enough, and you’re greedy! They rip off by any means, a lot of well-established schemes. Cold blood and disrespect. So that I go to this hole again... Although maybe this is only the attitude near the border, I don’t know. I was incredibly happy to realize that I was sailing back to Tai when I was sitting in the boat, and Burma was already behind me. Already in Ranong, at the border control, we met a young couple of tourists from Russia, who, as it turned out, live on the floor below in the same hotel as us. They invited us to visit, told us about where they had been and what they had seen. In the evening we all went to swim in the hot springs. Then we rode bikes along the night highway. In general, we had a good rest (not without adventures, but you can’t put everything in one post). From the stories of our new acquaintances, we were especially impressed by the story of Fr. Chang. But this is not the same Koh Chang Island that I already wrote about. This is another small island of the same name. I was impressed that there was black sand. And since we had never seen him, we wanted to go to this island. Moreover, it is very close to Ranong.
Koh Chang (Ranong)
The next morning on some small tour. At the desk I bought tickets for a boat to Chang and we sailed to this small island. We rented a cozy wooden house there for only 200 baht/day. Nearby there is a cafe with delicious food and awesome homemade pomegranate wine (only 300 baht for 1.5l). Funny service and calculation in a restaurant. You place an order, they bring you food. After that, you write down what you ate and the price in a special book, which is at the reception. On the day you sail from the island, you pay for all the food. The island is small, all covered with vegetation. There is almost no transport, so the air is clean. Many different plants and animals. I especially liked the handsome geckos. The houses where tourists live are located near the shore. The Thais themselves live in the interior of the island. Apparently they are afraid of a tsunami. I took some photographs. I got really lazy and decided to take a rest. I didn’t turn on the laptop or the Internet (I only had gprs from a SIM card). During the day we swam, walked through the forest and the island, rented a kayak (canoe), and lay on the sand, which was really black (although more likely gray). In the evening, everyone goes to bed on Chang - no discos, no bars. Party-goers have nothing to do here at all. There are not many young people here. We stayed in Chang for 4 days. We had a great time. Cozy, calm island. Now I remember it and want to return again, to break away from civilization, so to speak. Next time I’ll tell you about how I lived on Samui.