We are off to Phuket Town for a Visa run
Yesterday we got all of the required documents for a Thai visa extension photocopied and organized. We are so thankful for Marisa’s guidance and for printing all of the required forms we needed. Today Andrew drove us to the immigration department in Phuket Town. We stood in line for about 10 minutes to present our documents to the information clerk. He was an older gentleman and he was not Thai. All guesses are he is a French citizen retired in Thailand doing volunteer work. He sorted our papers, had us sign one of them, write out email address and phone number and then he stapled them all together. He even stapled our passport photo that we had done at CAA in Saskatoon before we left. We suspected we might need a passport quality picture. Call it intuition, or maybe internet. Either way, once our original return flight got cancelled we knew we were going to stay longer than the allowed 30 days that Canadians are allowed to stay for free. Too bad it’s so complicated. We wish Thailand had a 90 day visa on arrival like Malaysia has.
We were eventually called (by the number he assigned us) to the immigration counter. This was a bit confusing because the plexiglass, masks, accents and soft spoken Thais all contribute to make hearing what is being said very difficult to understand. As well we each had to sign every single sheet of paper we submitted, and pay 1900฿, (Thai baht) which is $72 CAD. We each handed over 2-1000฿ notes and returned to the waiting area. Once again we were called to the immigration counter where we were photographed. Then back to the waiting area. Finally we were called up to retrieve our passports, our visa paper and our 100฿ change. It wasn’t that hard, but without the guidance of Marisa and Andrew we would have had to make 2 trips to town. Marisa knew which papers to print out for us. She definitely knows her stuff! One last thing, our extension is good for 30 days, we only needed 4 days but it’s the same price either way!
For lunch we walked up the hill to a Russian restaurant. We ordered borscht that came with a slice of bread. The borscht was good, but not as good as Linda makes. This is Gary speaking, just to be clear!
We walked farther up the street to the Family Mart, where we bought some mixed nuts, cashews and a few Tiger beer (Tiger is a brand we prefer). We stopped at the little store on the way back to our villa and stocked up on fizzy water, a few Chang beer and some local Thai peanut brittle. The soda water is very refreshing and is good to rehydrate. While the Chang beer is not our favourite, its still ok and the guy running the little store needs the business. On days like today, any beer tastes pretty good.
Did we mention it hit a balmy 32º here today? Yes, very warm and humid. You notice it feels like 37º ? We can attest to the feel like temperature today. We stumbled back to the villa, sat inside and read for a while to cool off. Later we sat in the pool until our blood got below boiling temperature. While it was very hot today, the sun disappeared behind clouds after we got back to the villa.
The pictures below don’t really show the flower attached to the palm tree that well. It is amazing, it just lives in the coconut tied to the tree.
We haven’t made plans for tomorrow yet as the last few days it has rained later in the day. It’s best to make plans when we know what the sky looks like in the morning. The forecast is calling for sun, cloud and possible showers for the next few days. As of 7:30 pm today it has not rained. That said it looks threatening enough that we are ordering our supper via Grab tonight, again. Ordering meals via Grab is very economical as the food is delivered by an individual on a motor scooter! We are trying a new Thai place tonight so will see how it goes! The whole meal including delivery, 385฿, about $14.75. That would include Massaman Curry, Penang Chicken Curry, 2 Mango Smoothies and one complimentary plate of mango and fruit (complimentary for spending over 300฿). The fruit consisted of one whole mango and one half of a pineapple. The pineapple was peeled which was the best part. That’s a tedious job. Now we have extra fruit for breakfast tomorrow! What can you get delivered to your home in Canada for under $15 CAD including a tip?