Most tourists don’t have to consider visa renewal as a part of their travels. And for foreigners visiting the US they can easily see most of the US in their 90-day visa allowance.  In many countries US citizens are allowed 30 days automatic visa with no prior approval (other than TSA, the airlines and all those other secret agencies).

Thailand is one of those countries that automatically give the US tourist a 30-day visa on entry.  Since we like to be considered a traveller rather than a tourist by lingering longer in a country, we have to consider longer visas or visa renewals. Throughout our sailing adventures we faced this same requirement, so it’s common and easy to deal with in Thailand.  In our case this year we purchased, thru the Thai consulate in the States, two 60-day renewable visas so that we only had to leave the country one time during our 100+ day stay.

Most of the younger tourists do a “visa run” every 30 days, and almost every city has a travel agent that can book your “visa run” to the nearest border.  A van ride with 13 other “farangs” costs between  $20 and $30 to zip you to the border and back in a long but fast day.  I say “fast” because these vans travel at light-speed, and their license evidently allows them to drive with impunity.

You check out of Thailand, walk across the no-mans-land a hundred yards to Malaysia where you check-in at one window and check-out at the next window (if you don’t want to wander around their boarder kiosks).  Then back the same distance and check-in to Thailand for your automatic 30 days or in our case the second 60-day pre-approved allowance.  (It used to be only 15 days at a border crossing, but in November 2013 they changed it to 30 days, same as arriving by air.)  Stanna wouldn’t have needed the extra 60 days had we known, because she only needed 10 days before her next adventure.

She also didn’t count on my injuring my right shoulder and squelching her chance for a hair trim.  Our Belgian friend Louisa gladly filled in after doing her husband Rik’s hair.  I’d visited the local Thai barber earlier in the week which is an amazing experience for 70 baht ($2).  No waiting, takes 5 minutes (when you want it all off) and he even shaves you with a straight razor blade. He did miss one thing, because Louisa gave me an eyebrow trim which I’d never had before. Wonder how often I’ll have to add that to my list at home when I run the #1 blade over my head. Something tells me I probably need to choose the #3 instead.

Other than visas and personal grooming, the week has been subdued by shoulder recovery.  The expectation that it would heal in 4 or 5 days has been dashed and searching the Web narrows the prospect down to a tear or contusion in the right

rotator cuff region.  Thanks to a couple of internet consults with friends in the know, and a visit to a local highly regarded Thai physician, I should avoid the call for surgery and concentrate on stabilization, medication and rest – with a little mild personal PT as pain allows. Photo credit to NYTimes and ADAM, Inc. Every day it’s incrementally better and the sling is still in use.

Last on Stanna’s list of Trang highlights, besides one final trip to our favorite Panang Curry restaurant (sparing you the photo), was visiting the Buddha we watched being cast two years ago just adjacent to a Temple addition here in Trang.  One of our past blogs featured that process and the fact that we wrote our names on metal foil that was added to the boiling metal before it was poured into the inverted molds. The temple now
has walls which are in the process of being painted with various Buddhist stories and symbology. Some of the painting is gilded with gold as you can see in the photo above. All the filigreed plaster trim and tiny glass mosaic for the temple is produced on site inside the cavernous temple.  Thailand has over 37,000 temples and most are added on to and finished as contributions allow. Perhaps next year, if we visit Trang, they might have the interior and exterior completed.  I’m including a couple of photos from the casting process we watched in 2012. They melted the bronze, and for the top-knot gold, right on site and then in an elaborate ceremony in the evening, ritually poured the molten metal contributions into heated casts.  The sculpture was cast in three parts plus the top-knot. We learned that in this day-and-age the castings were transported back to Bangkok where they were brazed together and finished, before shipment back to Trang.