Ranong southern Thailand     

- Ranong is one of the destinations in southern Thailand where only very few tourists travel.

The area around Ranong and the province itself is Thailand's least populated area. Right behind Ranong Town are the blue mountains and the clouds coming in from the Andaman Sea / Indian Ocean stall on them, which means lot of rains during monsoon times and showers all year around. The town of Myeik or Mergui as it was know under the British colonial time a little bit further north in Myanmar is one of the most wet places on earth because of this.

Ranong is the main port on Thailand's  west coast with several fishing fleets calling Ranong their home harbor. Every evening the refer trucks roar from here to Bangkok, to  bring the fresh catch to markets.

Ranong, don't mistake it for Rayong on the eastern side of the gulf of Thailand, south of Bangkok and Pattaya, is also a busy port for other purposes and the gateway into live aboard tours into south Myanmar (Burma). Dive trips out of Phuket into the Myanmar Andaman Sea and the Mergui Archipelago are very popular. Also for the Thailand "Visa Run" out of Phuket, Samui etc..  That means if the Thailand visa expires you can quickly take a tour to Myanmar on the other side of the bay, come back and get the new immigration stamp into the passport, since 2007 Thailand does a couple of not very friendly things so that foreigners wont get visa.

Some companies in Phuket and elsewhere in southern Thailand offer tour programs to handle this. The biggest company offering this service is the one who runs a off shore casino on a island on the Myanmar side close to Kawthaung.