Visa Run

Recently (Dec 3) I went on what the locals here call a visa run – as in, my 90 days are running out, and I need to extend my visa for 30 more days.  The idea, months ago, was to go 3 miles down the street to Burma, walk across the bridge, and get my stamp.  It wasn’t to be, as the border with Burma here has been closed and seems it will stay that way for another 4 months or so.  But, I still had to get out of the country because the fee for overstaying your visa is like 500B/day, which for those into following exchange rates closely, converts to “sucky.”  I selected the cheapest flight I could find, to Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia.  I didn’t leave the airport, and took one picture from the plane as we descended.  I don’t really count it as a place I’ve visited.

The side benefit of such a run though, was another trip to Bangkok.  This time I would visit Ake, a friend of my brother’s whom I’d met several times when she was living in Denver.  She showed me a good time and took me to some great food, including some salty sea bass at a cool place by the river where we could watch the occasional practice firework or lantern for the King’s birthday celebration to come.  I contributed to the agenda by suggesting the Saxophone Club, a cool jazz restaurant and bar with great music and more fantastic food.  All three bands were excellent and the three of us (joined by Ake’s friend Frank) rocked out and ate ourselves silly.  The third night of food came from one of Ake’s favorite places, which I am not to reveal to the immense readership of this blog.  Whatever.   =)  It’s called “Papaya Salad,” and was incredible!  The four of us (this time also joined by my friend Rachel, also with Compasio and happening through Bangkok at the time) topped it off with ice cream sundaes. 

Other points about visa runs:

1.  Don’t write your old visa number on your entry card when you get to immigration in Bangkok on the way back.  You used that visa already, and aren’t really extending anything.  You get a new 30 days with no visa.  Writing it in there gets you a stern talking-to from the immigration guy.

2.  Stern immigration guys are turned into happy fun immigration guys by small electrical fires. 

 

3.  For those ever tempted or have even thought of mentioning the whole Adam and Eve thing (it’s really funny to Thai and Burmese familiar with the Bible story because they don't run into "Adams" very often), wait no longer:  I found Eve.  It’s a guy, and he works at the Starbucks in BKK.  I so wanted my picture with him, but the place was busy and there were ‘no cameras’ signs up.  It was a short relationship, unfortunately:  I gave him 60B, he gave me a banana-chocolate chip muffin, and it was over between us.  A fleeting, magical moment.

Ok, so the story on #2:  When I got back to Thailand something unusual happened - I was in the passport check line and finally got my turn, and I was a little nervous because I'd never done this before.  I could totally see the guy saying "hey, your visa has already been used, what are you trying to pull here?" and having to call Allan at Compasio and tell him I was stuck at the airport.  Because I dorked up and wrote my old visa number on my entry card he had to call me to the desk to ask me about it, and when I explained he was nice enough, but vaguely annoyed and he shooed me back to stand on the line, a bit back from the desk.  All the desks have these electric fans on them.  Little ones, maybe 10" in diameter, on plastic bases that clamp to the top shelf on the desk.  Well - no sooner than the agent shooed me back than I see his fan start sparking inside the base.  The cord had been twisted around and abused to the point of wearing through the insulation - a little fire was starting as the insulation burned.  So I'm like, "Uh, can I tell you something?"  He's looking down at his work.  "Hey, yeah, you got a little fire goin' on there," and I point to his fan.  He looks up at me, questioningly, and right on cue the fan goes BANG very loudly and flashes brightly as the wires shorted together.  He jumped...it was awesome.  The fire didn't last, it just fizzled out after the electricity wasn't flowing anymore, but it was smoking pretty nicely.   After that he was all smiles and laughing with me.  It’s true:  nothing breaks the ice like fire. =)