thailand visa renewal

The Free Man

hey guys.

im in pai now, and we plan to head south to the islands in a few days. im just looking for an opinion on the best way to renew my visa. should i go to burma from chang mai, or should i go to malaysia when we hit the islands? i'm just looking for the handiest way to do this, so any advice would be much appreciated.

cheers,
bill!

kraggy

hey,

in pai too.

where's a good place for a smoke in this town?!

overstaying my welcome by a couple of days, hoping that i can pay about 200b per extra day stayed.

that's what i heard you can do anyway...

The Free Man

watsup kraggy. lol ive probably talked to ya already here.
if you've come accross 5 irish guys, thats us.
yea, we were thinking of paying the 200b a day, but that would cost us 2000b in all.
it would cost less to go on a visa run. i think we'll be heading to burma on monday.

if youre looking for a smoke, rent a bike and head toward the waterfall

dsab

Hope you are having fun guys, but I would strongly advise against overstaying your visa.

It is correct that you "only" have to to pay at the aiport, but that is only if you make it there. If someone stops you (immigration, Police etc.), which is not unlikely these days, then you will be deported and heavily fined. This includes a few days in the BKK Hilton. This is not some scare-mongering, but reality.

I know of 4 british gus backpackers who got busted last week for overstaying 4 days. They are currently sitting in the Immigration Detention Centre, and will be deported next week.

If you have the chance, make a sidetrip somewhere, and leave the country for 5 minutes.

Have fun...

kraggy

lol, was i talking to you upstairs in that bamboo bar last (friday) night?!

that's prob you.

floods were shocking. came back to chang mai today. flying back home next saturday so trying to sort out some flights down to the beach for a while. no joy yet. enjoy pai!

later...

The Free Man

hey good to hear you survived the floods. i was staying riverside. it was really a life or death situation! we're all lucky to be alive, even if i did lose all my clothes and some money. we're in chang mai too. heading to bangkok soon to sort out some early flights home, but if we sort out everybodys money we'll be staying!
maybe ill see ya in chaing mai.....
edit: were you the tall guy with long hair and a nose ring??

shuushh

have fun

dsab

Sorry, but that's the stupiedest thing I have heard for a long while. Especially these days (new social order policy, problems in the south, drugs prevention etc.) police in thailand is on high alert.

Not uncommon for toursits to get stopped, and be it just for a passport control. In BKK there are club raids almost every night these days, and without passport they won't let you out.

BKK Police being the most active. These days the BKK police even raids etablsements outside BKK jurisdiction, as Pattaya, Hua Hin etc.

Maybe you should have a look at some of the other thai-related message boards.

I have been living there, spent there about 2.5 years out of the last 4, married to a thai woman and I (normally) know what I am talking about.

It's just, why take the chance if you can get around this crap easily, and therefore have peace of mind?

kraggy

sorry to hear about your stuff...

in chiang mai too. staying in libra guesthouse.

did the market today and bought half the town.

here for another couple of days if you wanna meet for a beer or two.

wasn't the tall guy with the nose ring. was with my girlfriend talking to the thais near the top of the stairs.

anyhow, drop a line here if you wanna hook up.

later...

optiplexgx270

The two words police and Thailand should be used VERY loosly.

Haven't heard of anyone to date that was unable to bribe their way out of a situation.

But at the same time i recomend taking the visa run and not being a cheap [email="b@$t@rd"]b@$t@rd[/email].

shuushh

ah Thailand has turned into a military zone in a year has it ? Excuse my ignorance dsab pity I wanted to go back to the place. Nightly raids on nightclubs ? Doesnt really sound worth going back to be honest

dermo88

Go to Malaysia, take the night train from Hualampong to Penang or Padang Besar. Get stamped up there, go back. No worries, and your sorted.

Mind, I have'nt been there in 3 years, but Thaksin Sinawatra looks like hes turning out to be a bit of a fun stopper.

dsab

shuushh wrote:

ah Thailand has turned into a military zone in a year has it ? Excuse my ignorance dsab pity I wanted to go back to the place. Nightly raids on nightclubs ? Doesnt really sound worth going back to be honest

Not really a military zone, but tbh, they are quite active these days, esp. in BKK, Phuket and Pattaya. They introduced some special "entertainment Areas", and most of the typical tourist areas are not included in the zoning. That means Pubs, Clubs, Ggos and Nightbars have to close at 1 am., sharp. And even if you can get around many things these days in BKK, this is not one of them. Often enough they come around at night to make sure everything is closed at 1.

Some of the more popular bars and clubs get raided regularly, which incl. passport control and often enough pisstests.

Thailand tries hard to clean up it's image and to attract more wealthy tourists, which prefer to spend their money in more exclusive countries.

Just some links to prove that I am not talking through my a**:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=40713&st=0

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=40231&st=0

http://www.bangkokrecorder.com/?p=redakt.artikel_detail&ID=25&ArtikelID=19

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/board/thaiso/view.php3?id=368&offset=0

Still a great place to go, but just make sure that you don't get cought in something silly like this.