Day 148! Today was a very very very long day. Thankfully the visa run went smoothly, but it was definitely an interesting process. Also thankfully, I wasn’t going through it alone! I hopefully will be able to visit Myanmar again someday, maybe for longer than 10 minutes!

Just before midnight I fell asleep on this luxurious cruise from Koh Tao to Chumphon. And just before 5am the ferry let out a loud blow of the foghorn and on came the cabin lights.

I awoke to a symphony of coughing from the passengers as almost all of us had dry throats from the air conditioning. I slept like a rock, but definitely hadn’t slept enough and was hoping I’d get more sleep on the next leg of my border run journey.

For breakfast, as we waited to get off the ferry, I had a very nutritional meal of these chocolatey sugar sticks.

They were delicious, but I’d definitely rather have had a muesli bowl.

We departed the ferry and made our way to a van that was waiting for us on the pier.

We arrived at the pier around 5:00am and were seated in the taxi by 5:30am.

There were around 8 of us on the border run, with most of us being our first times. It was a fairly strange process, but it was a process we just had to trust and roll with.

For the next two hours we rode down very winding roads that were very misty. This reminded me a ton of my time motorbiking Vietnam early in the mornings. We arrived in the town of Ban Ko Sin Hai. This town was where we’d be getting our next mode of transportation. But first, a quick stop to 7-Eleven!

I didn’t know we were going to have a chance for a 7-Eleven run, so I came prepared with snacks. But a “real” meal sounded nice, so I got a probiotic drink and a chicken sandwich.

Our next leg of the journey was by boat, specifically a long tail boat (like the one I took from Bottle Beach with my cousins) that would take us across the Thai border and into Myanmar.

First we needed to “depart from Thailand.” So we got in line with the immigration office at the pier. There were a few Thai men helping us with the process and making sure things went quick and smoothly. They also asked to handle our passports a lot which made me a bit uneasy, but as I said, we just had to trust the process.

We had to fill out some entry and departure slips and just like that, our departure visas were stamped and then it was a 15 minute wait for the long boat ride.

The boat stopped multiple times throughout our short ride. Each time we weren’t sure if it was the time for us to get off or not.

I’m not exactly sure why the boat stopped, but I’m sure it had something to do with checking what/who was on the boat. The boat driver also was carrying our passports the entire ride. Which leads me to believe that was the case.

A beautiful 40 minute ride later, we arrived officially in Myanmar! The country looked so beautiful from the ride over and I hope I can visit it properly someday!

Immigration offices don’t like pictures being taken in or of them, but this one was basically a large shack on the side of the street. But just as the office in Thailand had, they quickly stamped our entry and exit visas and we were back on the water in short succession.

Our driver told us to not go shopping and before we got back on the boat we were immediately bombarded with people asking us if we wanted to buy anything or go down the road to their shops… it seemed like a weird test. But we hopped back on the boat and made our way back to Thailand.

Once we arrived, we got back in line at the arrival side of the Thai immigration office. Here they stamped our passports and gave us another 30 days in this amazing country!

We had a little bit of time left before heading back, so we stopped by 7-Eleven again. This time I caved and got my first cheese toasty in quite a while!

It was really nice being at a 7-Eleven with normal prices. The ones on the island have higher prices because they have to ship everything over by boat.

It was now time for another 2 hour bus ride back to the pier. By this point a lot of us on the visa run got to chatting. I think the shared experience of this weird day bonded us a bit. Most of the people doing the run were diving instructors and then there was Marie, Paulina, and I who were just travelers. But they were all very nice people and it made the trip better now having a connection with the people we’d been spending the time with.

I tried starting the van ride by reading my book (which I haven’t done in a while). But I got a couple pages in and started nodding off, so I cut my losses and fell asleep… kind of.

The ride was just as winding, as we were going down the same road. So I was in and out of sleep again for the next 2 hours.

We arrived at the pier and just as we pulled in our friend Travis was walking by! We hopped out and gave him a hug and helped him with his bags. Paulina and Marie were joining him in a taxi to Bangkok, but I hadn’t realized that so it was a pleasant surprise to see him one more time before he headed off.

I also ran into my friends Jaz, Lena, and Kiran who all happened to be on the same boat to Chumphon. They all went on their respective transportations to Bangkok and I went to wait for the ferry.

I sat with one of the diving instructors from Taco Shack, Kevin from Argentina, and another diving instructor from a different school, Hugo from England. We chatted for about half an hour before it was time to board the ferry and head back to Koh Tao.

I nodded off on the ferry and woke up with a start when we docked in the pier of Koh Tao! The long day of travel was finally over without a hitch. I had mixed feelings heading back to the hostel… most of my friends over the past two weeks had left but at the same time, I was very excited to see what was in store for me and the new people I’d get to meet!

I hopped on my motorbike and headed back to Taco Shack, where I immediately took a shower. My room was completely empty as well… people were definitely going to be checking in later, but it was an odd feeling to come back to everyone I had met being gone.

I then came back over to the hostel lobby to eat my first real meal of the day.

I had a mango shake and a plate of chicken fried rice. I went a little more basic for this meal because I wanted lots of carbs, a quick meal to eat, and to treat myself to a smoothie after a successful and long day.

I then went back to my empty dorm room and took an hour long nap. I woke up from my nap very disoriented and saw that the time said 6pm… but my brain thought it was 6am and I was very confused why I was awake. I almost fell back asleep before I realized I needed to be back at the hostel in an hour.

For the next hour I watched the first episode of the Last of Us. My friend Emma told me this was a must watch, so I thought I’d give it a go while I had the spare time… and she was right! I’m looking forward to watching the rest of it.

I headed back over to the hostel lobby where I played some pool with the hostel workers. I then ate a chicken and a tofu taco while chatting with the group of Irish travelers that met my friend Immy on their ferry to Koh Tao.

I ended up sitting with them for the majority of the night. It was a super slow night for some reason, but I honestly was not complaining because I was beat! I was looking forward to sleeping.

Because it was such a slow night, the hostel closed the bar a bit early and I headed back to my bed. The new travelers had arrived but they weren’t currently in the room, so I’ll meet them tomorrow!

Just before bed the power went out… again. The perks of living the island lifestyle! I’m not sure why it’s been happening so much, but I’m starting to get used to it.

Here’s to the next leg of my volunteering journey!

– Elie