Never Ending Visa

So as many of you know, Shawn and I had entered Thailand on a 30 day tourist visa. This means that after about 27 days we had to make a visa run to Mae Sai, the border of Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand. The first time we did this we were lucky. A group of our friends were going up north to Chiang Rai for the weekend to see some guys in a band play, so we went as well. After staying up all night practically, we caught the local bus to the boarder. This stopped at every village and side of street you can imagine, but the scenery was beautiful. I really like seeing the country and the beautiful mountains of the north. We crossed over into Myanmar and decided to go to this market that is pretty popular. The market is full of beggars, deformed people, and nagging people trying to see you everything under the sun. The market is also full of designer knock-offs and DVD's. Basically Shawn and I were not too impressed with the market as we were hoping for more of a village handicraft type market. We walked around for all but a half an hour and headed back to Thailand. We made the trip back to Chiang Rai and partied the night away again.

27 days later we had to make the same visa run. We decided to take the VIP 4 am bus to Chiang Rai, unfortunately we overslept and when we got to the bus station there was only a 5 hour 3rd class government bus available. We had no choice, so we took it, grueling journey on seats definitely not make to accommodate the western body type. We arrived in Chiang Rai with less than an hour until the next bus left to the boarder, so we ran and got some lunch at this quaint little bakery. We proceeded onto the next government bus that definitely could not fit us. We could barely stand in between the seats, and the lovely lady on the bus helped us into the front seats that at least we could sit in, albeit still very uncomfortable. This time we decided only to walk the streets of Myanmar for only 15 minutes or so, before heading back to Thailand. Myanmar is extremely poor and quite a contrast from Thailand, at least where we live in Thailand. I am sure that some of the villages in Thailand are pretty poor but the entire country of Myanmar is poor and very corrupt, we don't get much information on the happenings in the country at all, but this was around the time of the protest marches. We get our last visa, as Thailand now has a new law, only 3 tourist stamps (3 months total) in a six month period. We head back to Chiang Rai and with less than an hour to the bus to Lampang to go, we grabbed some QuaTio, noodle soup with pork in it, very yummy, off one of the stands and get onto the bus. We arrive back in Lampang around 11 PM that night. A 16 hour ordeal all in one day. You wouldn't think that siting on buses all day would wear you out, I am able to slep a little, but Shawn is not able to sleep at all on a bus and so we were wiped by the time we made it back to the house.

Knowing that in order to get a Non-Immigrant B Via in Bangkok you must have at least 21 days left on your current visa. This means that in a week I must get all of the paperwork signed by the governor of Lampang and get to the Immigration office in Bangkok. I reminded my school many times of this rule. I told them that on Thursday night I was going to take the overnight train to Bangkok and go to Immigration on Friday. Okay they said. When Thursday came around they informed me that my letter is still at the governors office, as he is on holiday and did not sign it. I totally freaked out, I didn't have a back up plan, and the girls were coming and I didn't want to have to be dealing with visa issues, or leaving the country to get the non-B when the girls were here. The solution? When I am in Chiang Mai, go to Immigration there and buy a 7 day extension for B2,000. Great. I do this and they grant me the extension after much running around and calling Bangkok to see if they will actually accept the extension and getting photos and copies, because no one call tell you exactly you need before. Luckily for me, Thailand has many things in place to ensure that people can get their visa and such, apparently the paperwork being late is a very common thing. I was just upset because I had been employed there since I came to Thailand but they waited until the last minute to do the paperwork, which ends up costing me money. Anyways...

On Sunday that the girls left, I take the bus back to Lampang, and then the overnight VIP bus to Bangkok with my house mate Karen to Bangkok. It arrives in Bangkok at 5 am, so we decide to go to the Burger King on Koh San road to sleep on the benches there. Yes, we slept a Burger King....apparently they allow this sort of thing....and at 5 am I was happy to sleep there. We woke and headed to get some tea and yogurt around 8 am, only to find out that some one stole Karen's burger right off of her tray!! WOW!! After eating we shard a cab towards the embassies, the South African embassy is near USA, I had to go to certify that i graduated from ISU, for a mere $30 fee. Great... got that...headed to Immigration and filled out the papers only to find out that my school had put the wrong passport number on my paperwork!!! The lady said that I had to go back and do it all over again! No Way!! I called my school lady and she spoke to the Immigration officer, and then magically it was okay!! Good!! After running to this pace ad this place they awarded me my Non-B visa. What a long trip it has been dealing with it all, and it is not over yet. Now I need to get my work permit, teachers license, and extend the non-B because the non-b is only good for 90 days. Apparently every 90 days you must notify Immigration that you are still in the country and all......never ending I tell you. Never Ending Visa.......