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 I
have been to Ranong a couple of times for visa run but at that time
I didn't know about the casino island, Andaman Club. I just took
a long tail boat from the main pier in Ranong for a stamp at the
burma side.
The last two visits to Ranong have been to Andaman Club, the casino
island. First time I rent a car. I thought I had to get stamp at
the main immigration office where I usually go when I go to Ranong
but when I told the officer I am heading for Andaman Club he cancelled
my stamp. He draw a road map for me and told me Andaman Club pier
has their own immigration.
Last week I went for the second time but this time I decided to
go by bus. 6:00 am o clock in the morning I left Patong with a song
taew bus to Phuket Town, it cost 15 baht. When I arrived at the
market in Town I took a tuk tuk to the bus station, 40 baht. Bought
two tickets to Ranong, 185 baht each. I have to say the bus were
airconditioned and comfortable and screened some movies, one of
them were subtitled in English. The bus trip took about 5 hours,
and I used the time to get some sleep.
When you get off the bus in Ranong, you are not in the city but
at the main road that go to Hua Hin and Bangkok. A bunch of motorbike
taxi drivers approached and asked for 150 baht/each for taking us
to Andaman Club pier. It was raining and it was also too expensive
so I declined the offer. Ranong don't have any tuk tuk's but many
small song taews (pickup or buses with wooden rows), I asked a driver
and he agreed to drive us to Andaman Club pier for 300 baht. It's
ok, far better than using motorbike taxis when raining. I will be
using Andaman Club's own shuttle bus next time, give them a call
and they pickup you with a comfortable minibus/van for only 100
baht, which I learned later.
 When
I arrived at the pier I had to go to the immigration desk to stamp
out of Thailand. Thai people don't need a passport to visit the
island, a copy of their I.D. card and a 30 baht fee is enough. I
also left my passport for photo copies, which one of them is needed
at the immigration at the Burma side. Usually when you visit Burma/Myanmar
with a longtail boat, a $5 USD fee is required, but not when you
go to the Andaman Club island. The staff at the Andaman Club's own
departure pier is very service minded and the immigration desk always
have staff on duty to take care of your passport and stamps. Also
at the island it's very easy, just give them your passport and copy
of passport to them and pick it up again when you departure, even
if go back to Thailand one or few hours later.
You reach Andaman Club by jet boat which take about 20 minutes,
you pay 360 baht (r/t) for the jet boat when you enter the island.
The hotel is located on the Myanmar island of Thahtay Kyun, also
known as Koh Son in Thai. The hotel have casino on two floors open
24 hrs/day, the second floor is for high spending people and you
need to have at least 10,000 baht to enter there. They also have
full-size swimming pool, sauna, fitness center, thai massage, beauty
salon, two restaurants of which one has live entertainment, karaoke
lounge, snooker tables, game arcade room for kids and a duty free
shopping center. The duty free zone is not that cheap thought, many
things is cheaper in Thailand.
On my visits there I didn't see that many farangs, mostly rich Thai
people and some other asian nationalities. I enjoyed the casino,
I don't like slot machines (but my gf do!) but I spent a lot of
time at the black jack table and the automatic dice machine. They
also have a horse gambling machine with a horse track and roulette
machine. I would prefer humans at the black jack and roulette table
instead of machines, but it was fun anyway. Maybe they have human
staff at tables on second floor, I don't know.
The rooms are nice with beautiful seaview, we paid 1920 baht for
the room including breakfast buffe for two people. All prices on
the menues are subject to a service charge 10% and VAT 10%, I would
prefer to have the prices with these taxes included. Food and beverages
is modest priced, slighly more expensive than Phuket restaurants.
Don't order the pizza, it's was the worst pizza I ever had in Thailand.
They also have a golf course and arranging diving and snorkeling
tours to nearby islands.
It's a nice weekend trip and great for visa runs, highly recommended
trip if you have done most other things to do in Phuket already.
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Andaman Club entrance |
Andaman
Club |
Andaman
Club |
Andaman
Club |
Andaman
Club |
Andaman
Club |
Deluxe
room at Andaman Club |
Deluxe room |
Immigration
and security check
when you enter the island |
Some
boats at the pier |
Andaman
Club pier in Ranong |
The
restaurant and "bus station"
when you wait for the bus to Phuket |
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