Burma - Republic of Myanmar

Prior to Dec 2nd, Thai tourist visas were only good for 30 days. I arrived in Thailand on Nov 16, which means my visa expires day after tomorrow - Dec 15th. I don't intend to leave Thailand until after Jan 1st. This means that I must leave Thailand and then return - at which time I would receive a 15-day visa - as of Dec 2nd, Thailand will only grant 2-week visas. This means I'll have to do this trip again!

The least expensive and quickest way to do this is a 1 day overland and boat "visa excursion trip" to Burma - which I did today.

A minivan picked up me and 6 others this morning at 5:20AM. Then a 3.5 hour mad dash drive to some small Thai fishing village near the Thai/Burmese boarder. Here we were guided to a small concrete building (hut) that housed the Thai Immigration Authorities where they stamped our passports with a Thailand "exit stamp".

Then we boarded a Thai longboat for a 30-min ride to some sort of remote Burmese peninsula that looked more like an island to me. There, in another small concrete hut with a large "Republic of Myanmar" flag flying, where we found the Burmease (Myanmar) Immigration Authorities that stamped our passports with entry visas. We then wandered around the peninsula for about 30 minutes, returned to the Burmese Immigration hut where they stamped our passports with "exit stamps" and re boarded the Thai long boat for our return to Thailand Immigration hut where they stamped our passports with a new 15-day Thai visa.
Of course we then had another harrowing 3.5 hour drive back to Phuket - during which I wrote this email. I just got back to my hotel

I will be departing Phuket and going to Bangkok Dec 31st for several days to get my visas for Nepal and Vietnam (my old visa has expired). My intentions are for my next major stop to be Nepal - with Kathmandu serving as my exploration base.. I want to do some Himalayan (sp?) trekking and see Mt Everest. I was surprised to discover that Nepal's high season is our Winter months!

After 3-4 weeks in Nepal - I intend to return to Vietnam for Tet which begins January 26th.

Wish me luck with my visa excursion to Vietnam's and Nepal's embassies in Bangkok!
I hope all is well with each of you!

We were not allowed to photograph the Thai or Burma frontiers (huts) - so attached are pics of the shorelines of each as we approached.