Checking into Thailand :Ao Chalong , a onestop shop

The check in at Ao Chalong is great.
A one stop shop. Everyone you need to see, the Port Master, Immigration, Customs and Quarantine, all in one building. They are very patient- there are a huge number of forms, all stamped with red ink. Inept yachties like moi , who have never checked into Thailand, are led through the process- they even provide free photocopying for all the copies of stuff they want. I must admit that over the last 17 months, having basically only dealt with the Malaysian authorities , I no longer carried multiple copies of everything, as they don't really seem to want them.  Thailand does.

I stumbled at the first gate- seems I had left my glasses on board- they certainly weren't around my neck. So Lynne did the paper work and I just signed everywhere that the various officials pointed to. The lack of glasses, apart from the stupidity factor , was not all that important as most of the forms were in Thai , with tiny English bits, in places.

All checked in  and legal, we returned to the dinghy , where sure enough my glasses were lying in the bilge.Think they must have come adrift, when I started the outboard.

 I mean who would go ashore  to fill in official forms without their specs- how stupid would that be??

Now I could read the forms, I'm legal until 02 Jan 2017. K'Gari for some bizarre reason, is allowed to stay until May.
Then the small print- should I for some reason, wish to leave Thailand , without K'Gari, I have to post a bond for myself as the skipper ( and forewarned) , the only crew member on board.
When we had checked out of Malaysia, Lynne was listed as passenger, so that when we checked into Thailand she was also a passenger. She was granted a 30 day visa on arrival, and as a passenger was free to leave by plane, or foot or vehicle, as any other tourist is.

I on the other hand was listed as the  entire crew complement- whoever said, women can't do anything they want....

I have the opportunity to extend my  2 month,  tourist visa in advance, (obtained in Brisbane) by another 30 days, which will be early February, if I choose to do  that. This will be easier than posting a bond, flying somewhere and coming back and then trying to retrieve the bond money, I suspect.

Apparently, I have temporarily imported K'Gari into Thailand- one of the many signatures I had scribbled away, sans spectacles! Should I forget (unlikely as that is) to export it again before 2nd May 2017, I apparently, (sans spectacles) have agreed to give the government of Thailand, the measly sum of 13 million nine hundred and ten thousand baht- and assumedly they want the boat as well!

So family and friends of the sailing variety, take it on notice  that there is a rather nice  boat here, which needs to leave before the 02 May 2017, should anything happen to me. You know where the key is!!!