Will a trip to Burma affect my 60 day tourist visa?

[caller]

Any help appreciated.

I have a 60 day single-entry tourist visa from the UK but quite fancy a little trip into Burma at Ranong. Will that cause me any problems with the visa?

Do I need a visa to get into Burma and does anyone know if Thais can cross okay? Can you stay overnight and is it actually worth doing? If yes, any recommendations for accommodation?

Apologies for so many questions and I did look on the recent thread about visa runs, but thats not my circumstances!

[loverboy44]

Never heard of a single entry tourist visa but if so it effects your visa because it will be cancelled when you leave Thailand and you will need a new one.
Worth going to Burma? Well, many of us had to make this trip a lot of times and noone, i guess, was delighted to do so.
For me it is not worth going there. I was always happy to get back to Thailand asap.
If you want to make a trip i would take a flight to Laos for maybe 2 to 3 days. There you can get a new tourist visa as well.
But that's only MHO.

[PeteC]

Sorry Caller, I would have to agree. Don't give the bas%$#*s your hard earned money. Pete

[lomuamart]

Caller,
As has been said, your single entry TV will be invalidated if you leave the country and you'll only get a 15 day visa exempt stamp when you return to Ranong (all land are sea entries are 15 days now. Airport is 30 days).
You can't get a TV in Burma at Kaw Thaung. There's no Thai Embassy or consulate there and your passport will be kept by Burmese Imm so you can't travel overland to Yangon to get one either. So, you're left with 15 days on return to Thailand, that's all.
However, you could go to Imm in HH and get a single re-entry permit for 1,000 THB. It's a quick and painless procedure. If you have one of those, you'll be re-admitted to Thailand until the same permitted to stay stamp as you have on your TV at the moment. You'll not lose or gain any more time here.
It's a while since my wife came with me on a border run, but at the time Thais could get a border pass for 30 THB or so. It's just a scrap of paper that will have the relevant entry and exit stamps on them. Think a passport photo was needed (they can do it on the Thai side). I know she'll have a passport, but if she travels on that (rather than on her ID card) she'll have to pay 10 USD just as you will to enter Burma. Make sure the 10 USD notes are in pristine condition or they'll be refused.
Your entry stamp into Burma will be valid for 13 or 14 days. I can't really remember how long your wife will get, especially if she uses the border pass.
I've never stayed there overnight, but have known plenty of people who have. It's not the most welcoming of places. Virtually nothing to do, you'll be tailed by touts/secret police and I think the town shuts up about 9pm. Shopping, according to my wife, is really no cheaper than Thailand unless you want viagra, horrible cigarettes or gut destroying booze - the Myanmar beer was OK though.
Another alternative would be to go to the Andaman Club and spend a night:
http://www.andamanclub.com/index.html
You'll pay a fair bit more for the crossing, but the hotel's OK (again, I havn't spent the night there) and you can lose all your hard earned cash on the one armed bandits

One of the places to stay on the mainland is the "Honey Bear Hotel". You can't miss it as you arrive. Havn't heard any good reports though. Heaven knows what goes on in there!!
EDIT: You don't need a pre-arranged visa to get into Burma. You'll get the 13-14 days automatically at the border for the 10 USD.

[caller]

Righty-ho, that ideas knocked on the head then!

Thanks for the detailed feedback, Lomu.

The daft thing is it wouldn't have cost me any extra, or at best a few quid, to get a multi-entry tourist visa from Hull - lesson learnt for next time!

Thanks again for the feedback.

[lomuamart]

Yeah, you could have got a multi-entry Non O from Hull without any fuss.
Tourist visas only come in 1/2/3 and occasionally 4 entry varieties. There's no multi-entry TV - just semantics.

[nevets]

Sorry to high jack this thread, but can Lomua tell me do i have to pay anything at the boarder,when i use my non imm o multi entry to go out and straight back again at the Burma boarder . Thanks.

[loverboy44]

10 US Dollars in cash to the Burmese Immigration.

[lomuamart]

nevets,
It's free to re-enter Thailand, but you'll need 10 USD for the entry and exit stamps from Burma.
My advice would be to change THB to USD at a bank here in HH. You'll get a much better rate than from the black marketeers in Ranong. Make sure the note(s) are in pristine condition. No tears, not ruffled up by use etc otherwise they'll be refused in Burma.
It's a while since I've been, but last time you had to have a photocopy of the details page of your passport for Burma as well. They can do it there, but you're as well to do it here in advance.

[nevets]

Much thanks for your reply and advice , and Happy New year to you and your family.

[Jaime]

One more thing that may be of value to those considering a trip to Burma, although it's been a while since I made a trip there (at the Mae Sot crossing in Tak Province) so others can confirm whether this info is now out of date.

Basically, when I went there you could not change the local currency back into Thai Baht when returning, so you had to spend everything you had changed. Pretty tough when there's nothing much to spend it on! Instead, everywhere accepted Thai Baht as payment for goods but ensure that you take plenty of 20 baht notes with you as you will be unlikely to receive change from a samlor driver for even a 100 Baht note. From memory I don't think coinage was acceptable payment, so everything was in multiples of 20 Baht. Luckily I knew this before I went so it wasn't a problem for me but hopefully useful advice for readers of this thread.

[lomuamart]

It's also been a while since I did the Ranong trip but it was the same, Jaime.
Burmese currency is worthless outside of the country, but THB is accepted, so "pay as you go" rather than change up a wad of cash on arrival.

[margaretcarnes]

Interesting one, because I always fancied staying over at Victoria Point some time but couldn't.
Yes - it closes down (allegedly) about 9 or 10 pm, mainly due I think to the rationing of the electricity supply. But there is - or was - another hotel there near the Honey Bear which was farang run and maybe a bit more civilised!
For farang staying over it isn't a problem for a day or two - except that as Lomu points out you don't have your passport. Getting out of Victoria Point to explore further IS a problem. But it's a fascinating little place IMO and I never had any issue with the locals.
If you went there within the last 2 weeks of your existing visa surely there wouldn't be a problem? Alternatively try a couple of days in Ranong for a change.

[nevets]

Sorry came in at Lomu's post , and thanks to Loverboy 44.