Entry to Myanmar

It is Wednesday, the 07.11.2018, and today we are leaving our beautiful hotel in Chumphon and continuing our journey to Myanmar - ironically, of course! To arrive there early, we are already on our way to the bus station at 7:30 am. They tell us there that the first bus to Ranong, the border town on the Thai side, departs at 09:30 am. Darn, we could have slept for an hour longer. But never mind, there are nice wide wooden benches in front of the bus station where we can pass the time. When I eventually get hungry, we take a walk through the morning market. Unfortunately, they only sell unprocessed food there and nothing to eat on the go, unless I want to gnaw on a pig's snout (which I don't).

We reach Ranong, the border town to Myanmar, after a few hours by bus. We take the local bus for 40 Baht to the pier, where a horde of people is waiting to take us to their boat. This is the first time we feel really pressured in Thailand. Not in a bad way, just annoying, like in a holiday in Turkey or Egypt. But I actually don't want to get on a boat right away, I want to eat first! Ahhh, they don't understand that, and eventually we give in and swim along. Passport control, exit stamp, making copies of our passports, and then we get on a... well... let's call it a boat. 50 long-tail boats are jostling for position at a 15-meter wide pier. We climb over several slightly swaying boats with our 4 backpacks until we reach our nutshell. Oh, I haven't mentioned it yet: The border between Thailand (Ranong) and Myanmar (Kawthaung) is formed by the Pak Chan River, which is so wide that the crossing takes about 20-25 minutes. This is by far the most exciting border crossing! The boat drivers shout at each other, the self-made boat engines, which sound like helicopters, roar, and every now and then we get splashed with water when the propeller of the boat next to us isn't completely submerged. Our boat gets wedged between other boats, is maneuvered out with 5 men and a plank as a lever, only to squeeze back into the melee elsewhere. Our most important to-do: Sit in the middle and keep our hands off the sides of the boat! It takes quite a while until other passengers join us on our boat. Eventually, there are seven passengers and the man with our passport copies, which are apparently required for the crossing, also jumps on board. And now, we're off. The ride is really fun :) After a few minutes, we stop at an island with a border hut. The man with our passport copies climbs up to the hut, comes back a little later, and the journey continues. The first hurdle is taken. Shortly after, we pass a second hut on another island. Here, it's enough to indicate the number of passengers and we are waved through. Just before the coast of Myanmar, the third hut on the third island appears. The man gets out again, sorts something out, and we continue. It's a real obstacle course, but it seems routine for the men there. On the mainland of Myanmar, we have to be personally active again and land at the immigration office. Passport, copy of the passport (which is kept), visa (which we obtained beforehand), and the obligatory questions about what we want to do in the country, how long we will stay, and where we will stay. Since we have not booked a hotel but a room through Airbnb, the border officer does not know the accommodation. It seems to be a problem here. But we would never cheat! We show the man on the map where we are staying, and another man (who seems to be a taxi driver) knows the accommodation and everything is settled. We get our entry stamp, the visa stamp, and we are released. Yay :)

Since our accommodation is only 1.5 km away according to maps.me, we decide to walk. DUMB IDEA! Maps.me doesn't show the altitude. And our room is on top of a hill. A too high hill. And the route is really nasty! First, we climb what feels like 2000 steps, then we walk down a road, and THEN we climb another hill. It's brutal! Max is my hero and carries my small backpack for me. So I only have my backpack and he is carrying three backpacks. HERO!!! Despite the effort, we can't ignore the incredible amount of garbage. It is simply natural here to throw trash in the corner. I found the trash in Thailand already sad, but this is on a whole different level! A day later, Max tells me that we passed by a dead puppy lying next to the path :-O Luckily, I didn't see it!!!

Soaking wet, as if we had just climbed out of a pond, and still panting heavily, we reach our accommodation. It is a very nice restaurant with a great view, and there is a wooden hut with a small terrace attached to it, and that's ours. We plop down on a wall to catch our breath. The waitresses see us and already think that we are the guests who were too stingy for a tuk-tuk. The girls are all dressed up and I just feel like a pile of sh... It's really embarrassing xD
So it's obvious that I immediately jump under the cold shower. Side note: Awesome bathroom! As a welcome, they serve us two coffees in heart-shaped cups. Did we book the honeymoon suite? In any case, the accommodation is a real hit! And the food in the adjacent restaurant is also excellent. The Mingalar-Restaurant is a little oasis for us above the dirty city. I can't get enough of the view, there is relaxed music playing, Wi-Fi, and delicious food. Therefore, we quickly agree that we won't walk down to the city but stay up here.
Diagonally opposite is a monastery, which we visit briefly. Unfortunately, the monks also use the slope as a garbage dump. On a small soccer field, some kids and a young monk are flying kites. Or is it a plastic bag with a string?
In the evening, we chat a bit with our host, who luckily speaks English quite well. As we currently have absolutely no plan for this country. We don't know where we want to go, how to travel best, and what it costs. Online, you can hardly find any information about it. The only thing we know is that traveling takes a long time. Our conversation with Aung reveals that we will take the bus to Myeik the next day. The journey takes about 11 hours for 430 km. He is super helpful and takes us to the city so that we can already buy a ticket.

Later, we witness a small scooter accident. Two girls fall off a scooter, but they don't hurt themselves. When one of them tries to lift the scooter (the engine is still running), she grabs the throttle and crashes, scooter and all, into a wall. We run over and see that luckily she didn't hurt herself seriously this time either. When Max tries to lift the scooter, he gets his bare feet caught under the hot exhaust and burns his toes :( Nasty blisters and of course it hurts at first, but the foot can stay! If this is our only 'scooter accident', we're more than satisfied :-D