The little boat we used on our visa run to Burma

We went on a visa run to Burma the day before yesterday and ended up on a wild toad ride. We drove around the town of Ranong looking for a boat to take us to Burma and found a small sign advertising boats for visa runs. We drove into the small dock area and found ourselves surrounded by Burmese packing some smelly fish product. There was rank water all over the cement dock and fish products everywhere in all manner of containers. Men, women, children and toddlers were busy going about their daily routine, they lived and worked there in that stinky place. A man bargined with his limited Thai and limited English and we got a boat for 400 Baht, or $10. I thought we were going on the relatively safe looking large boat with life-preservers. We ended up in a small long-tail boat with no roof or lifevests, holding umbrellas to keep the sun off ourselves. Two boys came along to help, one got off on another boat and the other stayed the whole trip, perched on the prow. We sped along a big bay going from decrepit "floating" immigration shack to the next, finally ending up on a Burmese island where we had our passports stamped, $5 each. Every time we docked Burmese boat drivers were running all over our boats' rails like they were sidewalks, trying to get to the shacks and back! The check-point & immigration shacks were a crumbling mess outside and even more chaotic inside. One had a mostly submerged boat tied to it with a wet dog on it trying to find a dry spot to lay down. There were boats everywhere, especially at the shacks, the passengers holding their umbrellas. Kennedy was giving us instructions as we sped along on what we were to do if the boat capsized. He told me later he had been praying nearly the whole way there and back! I remember thinking to myself, "How is it that we always find ourselves doing these nutty things?"