The bane of initial living in Thailand has to be the visa run. As a non immigrant B visa holder I have to do this once, every 3 months. During the previous year, when I was on Travel visa, it was once a month after my visa ran out.

There are a few different options with Travel visas. As a UK citizen, you can arrive in Thailand without a visa and get an ‘on-entry’ visa for 30days. Since the law changed last year, you can now only do 2 visa runs if you wish to extend your stay at the end of that 30 days. The maximum stay on travel visa, now being 90 days, after which you are not allowed to return for at least another 90 days.

Alternatively, you can apply for a Travel visa from one of the Thai Consulates in the UK before you leave. If you do this it is possible to get a 60 day visa. Obviously, if you wish to extend this, you will only be able to get 30 more days.

To extend your visit once your visa runs out you must leave the country and then re-enter to receive that 30 day ‘on entry’ stamp. This can be done at any of the main border crossings with Thailand’s neighbouring countries. The easiest, and cheapest open for me , here in Chiang Mai is to cross into Burma at Maesai.

In Chiang Mai you will find many companies offering ‘visa run’ bus trips to the various border crossings.You may wish to take this option as a chance to meet fellow travelers.

But if you are looking for the cheapest option, for the short term visitor, I suggest taking the local ‘green bus’ to Maesai. this journey takes around 5 hours, with a change at Chiang Rai. best to get the 6 am bus if you want to return to Chiang Mai on the same day, as the last bus leaves at around 2.30pm from Maesai.

I have done that bus trip many times and it can be great fun, depending on your fellow passengers and yourself. Be aware that it is not for the faint hearted, as the drivers often appear to think they are in a grand prix, which can bring on many ‘check your pants’ moments when navigating the winding mountain passes.

Also, don’t be expecting air conditioning, but the buses are usually well ventilated with several fans all the way up the bus.

With my visa deadline upon me? I chose, this time, to do the visa run on my motorbike.

Advice for doing the same:..do leave early if you wish to do this in one day; it took us about 14 and a half hours in total…..don’t forget to wrap up warm, and ideally buy some gloves and a woolly hat, as it gets damn cold up in those mountains early in the morning.

Looking for Brass Monkeys

So off we went at 5.20am. Knowing that it was likely to be a bit on the chilly side, at that time in the morning, I had dressed in t shirt, long sleeved shirt, jumper and my thick jacket. Boon, despite my urging him to put more on, stuck with t shirt and suede jacket.

It only takes about 45 minutes to get to the first mountain range and we were soon praying to find a shop open to buy more protection against the distinctly cold conditions.

At least the roads were nice and empty, mind I still had to go careful as, even when its dark here , you get that annoying level of light where its hard to see but your headlights don’t make the difference you would like.

Thankfully we found a little shop open, not too far into the mountains where we made our first stop after about an hour.

I was well cold myself but poor Boon had to resort to warming himself with the bike engine, before we went to the shop and bought gloves for both of us and a balaclava for Boon.

Sunrise at Pong Nam Hot Springs

The gloves definitely helped but I was also desperately in need of some hot coffee, which that shop did not sell. So about half an hour further down the road, we stopped again, when we spotted a coffee shop open at Pong Nam Ron Hot Springs. It was perfect timing as the sun was just coming up.

Coffee, Carp & a Haystack

Aware that the mountain roads were hard work on the bike and still waiting for significant change in the temperature we stopped again, about an hour and a half further on, for more coffee and an in depth discussion on Buddhism, whilst watching the Koi Carp in the cafes pond.

Leaving there at about 9.15 we cracked on for quite a distance, stopping briefly to divest ourselves of our jackets as the sun finally started to hot up.

Our next rest stop was at around 11.15 at one of the many roadside shade shelters, where we had canned coffee, bought earlier at Pong Nam, and fried noodles that we bought the night before,mmmmmmmmmm. And in the nearby field I spotted one of my personal favourite things in Thailand, a haystack.

Burma & back in 20 minutes

We were past Chiang Rai by then, having narrowly escaped the riding license check point they had set up by one of the junctions there, (I forgot to take mine with me).

Keen to get the main job of the day done, we then carried on the rest of the way to Maesai, arriving at a little before midday.

We managed to park very close to the border control and I left Boon waiting by the bike whilst I went of to sort the visa.

First stop is the exit office where you get stamped out. Then its a couple of minutes walk across ‘Friendship Bridge’ to Burma and the passport control office there.

You hand your passport to the smiling passport officer on the left along with 500 baht, or $10.

Then you take your turn sitting in front of the nearby desks where the computer operator takes your photos and enters your details, producing and entry card. A portion of this card is then put with your passport which remains in the office for collection on your return.

You do have the option to return to Thailand immediately, although you will see the smile rapidly recede from the passport officers face if you do. It is generally polite to go and spend at least an hour at the nearby shopping streets in Tha Ki Lahk.

This time I chanced the immediate return telling a little white lie that I had a bus to catch; and, seeing my long term visa and previous stamps, the officer wasn’t too upset, saying, ‘you shop next time’.

Taking the short walk back to Thailand, there is a arrival and departure form to fill in before handing your passport in for your stamp.

There is a sign informing you that you need to show at least 10,000 baht funds to receive an entry visa but I have never been asked for this.

For non-immigrant visa holders it is 20,000 baht and I did take my Thai bank book just in case.

So, within 20 minutes I was back in Thailand with my fresh stamp.

Scorpion View Point

About 200ms before the border point, on the left hand side of the main street is a side road that leads through a busy market, up the hill to the Scorpion Temple, where there sits a Giant Scorpion statue, overlooking Burma. We decided to go take a look before heading back home.

From here you can see the huge sprawling mass that is Ta Ki Lahk.

If you do plan to spend anytime in Burma, be aware that travel from Ta Ki Lahl is allowed by special tour only or flight, no unauthorised overland travel is permitted.

Back to Chiang Mai

On the way up we had received a message from Boons brother that his wifes mother, who lives in Maesai was cooking and hearing that we were on our way, had invited us to call in.

So after our brief visit to the Scorpion view point, we did just that. Unfortunately the meal she had cooked had long since been eaten but we still stopped for a while and I was given a hand rolled cigarette, made from the tobacco processed on the premises, in a tall brick chimney.

Apparently they supply such companies as LM and Wonder.

Very nice but I have to say that I only smoked a couple of cms of it, in deference to my lungs.

Aware that time was ticking on and we had a long ride home we set off again from there a little before 2pm. Having missed lunch in Maesai, we stopped at a cafe on the main road, just before Chiang Rai and had a very tasty bowl of noodle soup.