We started in Khao Lak with a local bus (nice local music and later Rocky 3 on TV!) in the afternoon and arrived at around 20:00 at the bus station in Ranong. We had no accomodation and a map that showed just one guest house far away. So we started walking in direction to where we supposed the center and hoped for a taxi, which never came. Beeing dark, our big backpacks on the shoulders and with no other Western tourists in sight we wondered if we will find a place to sleep. Fortunately after 20-30 minutes of walking we saw a guesthouse sign and they had a room for us - we were relieved.

Next day we tried to change Thai Baht to 20 US-Dollars (you need 10 USD per person for the Myanmar visa) but after 5 luckless tries at banks and no exchange booths in sight we gave up and went to the jetty with public transport (old pickup trucks) to get a longtail boat to Myanmar. As soon as we arrived a guy came up to us, asking if we want to go to Myanmar and if we have 20 USD. We said yes and no. He then told us that he gets us the 20 USD for 1.000 Baht (= 31 USD). Having no other option (also no exchange at the jetty) we said ok - no big deal for us and good money for him. For the longtail boat trip we had the boat for ourselves and paid 100 Baht per person, which was ok.

We drove for 5 Minutes to a Thai checkpoint and had to pay 50 Baht per person because it was Friday (our guy told us that on every Friday you have to pay 50 Baht per person as a contribution to the needy - we laughed to ourselves and gave him the money ..... ;-)

On we went to another Thai military checkpoint but as we were only 2 farang (Westerners) they waved us on. 20 minutes later we arrived at the first Myanmar checkpoint where our guy went with our passports to get them checked - to our surprise no charge to be paid. 5 Minutes later we arrived at the Kawthoung jetty and our guy told us to wait at the boat and that he will get our 20 USD changed and disappeared. In good faith we waited (nevertheless wondering if he would really come back) and after a while he really reappeared and gave us a brand spanking new 20 USD bill, which looked genuine. With the 20 USD and our passports we went to the Myanmar immigration on our own and got our stamp (so the 20 USD bill looked authentic to the immigration officer as well).

Afterwards we went around the city visiting a temple and the local market for around 3 hours seeing no other farang. It was obvious that Kawthoung was a lot poorer than Ranong on the other side of the river but they had an internet cafe, which we checked out.

Before leaving Myanmar we went to the immigration again to get stamped out and did the trip in reverse (this time paying 50 Baht per person as we went with other Thai/Myanmar people on the boat).

Before this trip we read in many reports that you get offered drugs and viagra on the Myanmar side and a lot of children want to show you around the town. This was not true at all when we were there - maybe the Myanmar authorities cracked down on this. All in all the trip to Myanmar went very smooth and we can only recommend to do it on your own (if you like a little adventure) as it is much more interesting than with an organized tour.