We arrived here in January on a business visa intending to have our work permits within the three allotted months given to us on the visa. In order to apply for the work permit, our school needs to have a license. We had the inspection and submitted everything for the license about two months ago and since then it's been a waiting game. As we continue to wait for the license, Sam and I needed to reapply for a visa to be working in the country.
The 'border run' is a commonplace occurrence here as many folks arrive on short term tourist visas and need to cross the border and come back whenever their time runs out. By now, you already know how I feel about land borders - they stress me out. Add to my general agitation from land borders the communication in broken English about how this particular visa run will work: bring your passport, passport photos and 20,000baht in cash. A wonderful Thai woman who helps us get things done at school arranged this procedure involving a connection her brother has with someone at immigration.
Sam and I met Ju (the wonderful Thai woman who works for the school's Thai owner and helps us with so much) at 8am on Wednesday. With her - her brother with the connection, Gheo, and their adorable mom, mai in Thai. Things are going the Thai way - everything is a family affair here and everything involves someone who has a connection. Check, check.
We got in the van with a driver and began the 5ish hour drive to Aranyaprathet, a Thai border city next to Cambodia. We slept most of the way, enjoying the large and comfortable van as a stark contrast to the way we're historically accustomed to arriving at land borders.
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| Our ride to the border. |
Ju knew some fabulous places to eat in Aranyaprathet - each meal we had was delicious and I was eager to try new food at her suggestion - all aroi mak ma (very delicious). She told us about the Vietnamese influence here and took us to two great Vietnamese places. This dish is from our meal at a Thai place where the cook is a regal looking 84-year-old woman. She knows how it's done.
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| Suki - vegetables/noodle soup with egg. |
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| Chez Tournesol. |
After settling into our room, we went right to the border to see about the visa. Having been through here twice before and now with three Thai people, I felt quite a lot more comfortable, but still hugged by backpack to my stomach as if I had precious jewels in there. The place is just full of people doing everything from sitting around to pulling wagons to peddling an overpriced visa to Cambodia. We maneuvered through a large crowd of people sitting just outside the border office and I kept my head down to avoid awkward eye contact with the people staring at the only white people in sight. Ju pulled us right to the front of the line of about 20 people waiting for stamps and we had our passports checked right then and went to the back room while Ju, her brother and the immigration police talked and smiled and nodded to me and Sam.
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| Cambodian side of the border. |
We walked away and left the Thai side and got in a tuk tuk to the Star Vegas Casino (one of many in this no man's land between the border of Thailand and Cambodia). I guess we were killing time while our passports were being processed. It was surreal - passportless in this no man's land that is historically notorious for human trafficking and here we are going into a casino. Don't worry, family, we stayed alert and Ju was by our side the whole time. After some people watching, duty free shopping and a stroll through the pawn shop (sad vibe in a casino pawn shop), we went back to the border to see if our visas were ready. All was well, we said many kapkunka's (thank yous) and wais (polite bows) and walked back into Thailand.
There is an enormous market on the Thai side, so of course we rented a golf cart and went shopping.
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| Rongkluea market. |
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| Songkran (Thai New Year) shirts. |
Mai bpen rai (no worries) as they say in Thailand. Everything worked out for our first visa run thanks to Ju and her brother and mother. It ended up being a great getaway and so much fun to hang out with what now feels like our Thai family.
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