Working towards getting a long-term visa in Thailand, (so it is my base' for trips into Myanmar), the local immigration office on Phangan Island almost scuppered my plans by declaring that I had made too many trips into Thailand using a visa-on-arrival, and that they were not inclined to extend my current 60-day visa for 30 more days whilst I await paperwork from Bangkok to start my ED visa Thai language course, (because farang he no speak Thai lol!). I pointed out to the IO that I entered Thailand many times because no-one had yet built a tunnel between Don Muang and Swampy airports, to allow me to transit from Yangon to Siem Reap on my previous trips without entering Thailand. (Actually the comment about tunnels is a lie - I doubt that IOs have a sense of humour....). Anyway, once they scrutinised my many entry/exit stamps, they realised that this is what I was doing, just transiting between the 2 airports, and stamped me for another 30 days. The language school assures me that the ED visa paperwork will arrive in a couple of weeks, so I should be fine. Despite being 'forced' to remain in Thailand just for the moment, this hasn't stopped me from my efforts in Myanmar. Here are some of 95 orphan 'little' monks at an orphanage in the historical city of Bagan - A local Myanmar lady who supports that orphanage with food etc received my poster file and printed it/laminated it at a local print shop, (all of course paid by me using Western Union). More money (it doesn't take much) will follow to help the orphanage buy pens, crayons paper etc. It doesn't take a lot to make a difference, hence the slogan of 'Xtrer', a mobile technology, charitable enterprise that I established years ago to use SMS revenues to benefit charitable causes. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/xtrer used the slogan 'A little xtrer helps...' That venture fell by the wayside when premium SMS fell out of favor perhaps 20 years ago.
