My visa run to penang, how i did it

[jayrockwell]

We took the bus to Hat Yai and spent the night there, from Hat Yai we got a mini-bus, which delivered us directly to Chulia Street in Penang. The trip by mini bus takes around 4 hours and costs 220-250THB from any agent on the streets of Hat Yai or directly from Chao Vang Travel, Hat Yai on (074)234724/238830/243003. Mini-buses leave at 9.30AM, 12.30PM, 3.30PM and 4.30PM. They will fill the mini bus up with 10 or 11 people, but it is not that uncomfortable (I'm 197cm tall).

At Thai Immigration your driver will point you to a specific booth and you get in line to have your passport stamped (it can be busy, wait 10-15mins. or so), there is no fee. Get back in the bus and drive to Malaysian Immigration, take all your bags with you to be x-rayed, get your passport stamped and back in the bus.

Then sit in the bus and take in the Malaysian countryside, you will arrive in Butterworth 2 or so hours later. There are two ways to go from Butterworth to Penang Island, either by bridge (I was told it's the longest bridge in Asia, don't quote me) or by ferry that comes directly to the heart of George Town. If you take the mini-bus I've recommended then you won't need to pay for the crossing.

Coming back (2 or so days later) the bus will cost you 20MR (Malaysian Ringgit); there are mini-buses at 5AM, 8.30AM, 12 Noon and 4PM (Malaysian Time Thai+1 hour)

I looked at the train from Hat Yai to Penang but the times didn't suit me and then you have to somehow get from the mainland on to the island, and I've read that it's impossible to get back to Thailand the same day you collect your visa because the train goes at 3PM. I know people from Bangkok might want to sit on the train all the way to Butterworth without changing, but from what I can see the Bangkok train is very slow and a night in Hat Yai then get the mini-bus may be better if you have the time and certainly offers more flexibility.

The main tourist area in Penang (George Town) is Chulia Street with a selection of bars, hotels, shops, money changers, Indian and Chinese restaurants. I have stayed at 3 hotels in Chulia Street, the Swiss Hotel (20MR, 220THB) is very very basic, only stay here if you don’t mind mosquitoes constantly biting you and rooms with open tops for that sharing a room with 10 other people type of feeling, I will NEVER stay there again, but maybe you’ll like it. Better is the newly refurbished E&A  Budget Hotel (great name! (35MR, 370 THB)) is opposite the Swiss and has Aircon, newly painted white walls and it’s clean, no TV (can’t understand Malaysian, Indian or Chinese anyway), but more importantly no Mosquitoes. I’ve also stayed at the Hong Ping Hotel (57MR, 600THB) they have everything that the E&A has but it has more of a ‘proper hotel’ feel and the rooms are decorated to a higher standard. These 3 hotels are all within a few minutes walking distance of each other, so check them out for yourself. My choice would be the E&A if you’re on a budget but you still have standards.

The Consulate is situated in a quiet residential area quite a way from shops or banks, so make sure you get your photocopies, photos and Malaysian Ringgit before you go there.

A taxi will get you from Chulia Street to the Thai Embassy in 20 minutes or so, he won’t want to use the meter and will want 10MR, don’t pay more than 5MR.

The Consulate is open from 9AM to Noon for Visa Applications and from 2PM to 4PM for Visa Collections (collect the next day after application).

The fees for Non Immigrant Visa's are, Single Entry 200MR, 1 Year Multiple Entry 500MR.

Currency: 1000 Thai Baht buys you 95 Malaysian Ringgit with the money changers on Chulia Street, Penang.

It is very unlikely that the Consul will be available to discus your application and whilst the Consulate staff are friendly and helpful they will not enter into long winded discussions about missing paperwork or the possibility of you getting this or that visa. If you want to be sure of getting your visa, do you homework on ThaiVisa.com and take all the required documentation to the Consulate, in the absence of any document, provide a good excuse in writing.

Actually I quite liked Penang this visit, it still has that old style colonial feel, and the mixture of Malaysian, Indian and Chinese cultures makes it interesting and provides some great restaurants.

Be aware that there are bag snatching gangs active on the island, we met a couple who had lost 20,000THB+ worth of belongings as well as passports and documents. The guy in the Thai Consulate told me there are lady snatching gangs as well (to extort money from the foreign man), but I didn’t meet anybody it had actually happened to so I can’t verify this. But as with all traveling, keep your belongings secure and your eyes open, but handcuffing myself to my Thai lady wasn’t really an option, not in public anyway.

The result, a 1 Year Multiple Entry Business Visa.

James

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[lopburi3]

Good information.  Would point out that it is not a problem to get from Butterworth Train Station to Georgetown and back as the same ferry that takes your mini-van carries pax on the upper deck and there is a overhead walk from both train and bus station to it.  Also Chula is backpacker class and better hotels can be found along Penang or Leith; just off Chula.

[plachon]

Having just made the same trip, can ditto what James has said, with a couple of minor corrections:

1/ The minibus down, should only cost 200 B if you shop around. Try the Cathay guest house, 3 blocks down (5  mins walk) from the train station on the right, which also offers cheap, basic accom. and food if you need to stay over. The girls at the travel bureau downstairs are friendly and helpful if you need to travel anywhere else in the South or Malaysia.

2/ The fare back is 20 ringgit, (not 200), and if you pick up your visa around 2.00 pm, can comfortably make a 3.30 pm minibus, which will get you into Hat yai early evening. However, there's been a lot of rains down there recently and the main highway was shut from floods. Hence, all the traffic was diverted onto the narrow Alor Setar road and so really slow. We made the border at around 7.00 pm and there were still long queues. Figure on being checked twice at Immigration - once by the dodgy stamp boys and then the normal line. Slows things up considerably. Another tip: don't smoke in the queue unless you want to raise the ire of your passport stamper!

Apart from that, there seems to be a whole bevvy of lady boys on Chulia Street these days, who are quite persistent and have a nasty habit of lurking in shadowy doorways and then jumping out with a baritone: "Allo, darling, you come with me?". At which point, (if you know what's good for you)you try to avoid jumping into the path of a car and rapidly dive into the safety of a bar for a jar of Guinness or Danish Royal Stout (highly recommended at around 6 MR for a small bottle). Unless, that is, you're one of those people overcome with curiosity, and like the cat, follow one of the LBs home and end up being ripped off of your cash, credit cards or worse horror of horrors: your passport. Heard a second hand story of it happening while I was down there, which raises a question: Why are the Malaysian cops so tolerant of these imposters, but don't tolerate the real McCoy(ette)?

One more question for Malaysian readers - given that ASEAN is supposed to be an exclusively economic grouping, why is it still the case, 12 years after I first went to Penang, impossible to find a bank who'll accept Thai baht (cash)? This is an incredible situation to me, given that Thailand and Malaysia are not only neighbours but also founder members of Asean, and explains why the Money changers are so wealthy in Penang. Is there some rational explanation or is it still the case that Asean is little more than a talking shop, with a penchant for suppressing democracy in its new member states?

[JonnieB]

jay,

do you work for a thai company or have your own company?  what documentation did you provide to obtain the 1 year multi non-imm B?

in the past, i have taken lots of paperwork down from a company wanting to employ me in bkk and still seems they hem and haw and wanted some copy of some company doc. i didn't have.  in the end, they did take what i had and coughed-up the B visa.

[keestha]

A friend of mine who has his own company (or well, 49% of it) and a work permit went to Penang about 10 days ago, before he left he telephoned the Thai Consulate (+6042269484), and was told to bring along the following documents:

1)passport

2)work permit

3) 2 passport pictures

4)ภ.ง.ด.50 + receipt : tax declaration for the previous year

5) ภ.ง.ด.51+receipt: tax declaration which has to be submitted after the first 6 monhs of the current year, of course this one only applies if you go for for your visa after the final date this declaration has to be submitted.

6) ภ.ง.ด.1 +receipts: declaration forms for your salary tax for the whole year up to last month

7) ภ.ง.ด.91 +receipt: declaration form of the balance of your salary tax for the previous year, also this one only applies if you go for your visa after the final date this decalaration has to be submitted.

8) A letter writen by the company confirming that it employs the applicant(besides full name, state nationality and passportnumber) in the function of so and so and that it intends on continuing to do so, and that it vouchsafes for all the costs incurring from the applicant’s sojourn in the Kingdom, including a ticket back to his/her own country if the need would arise.

9) Just to make sure, I would also bring the company book (nangsue laplawng) along.

10) Note this guy's company doesnt make enough turnover to have to pay VAT, possibly if the company is in the VAT system extra documents would be required, but I am not sure about this.

For those living in Southern Thailand it might be good to know that Hatyai World Tour has minibusses running to Penang from different places in the South, from Krabi for instance this will set you back 430 Baht. Their phone number is 075/623139.

[jayrockwell]

I am a 49%er.

I provided Visa Application, My Passport, 2 Photos, 500 Malaysian Ringgit, My Curriculum Vitae, the Company’s Registration document, List of Shareholders, Memorandum of Association, VAT Registration document, tax registration card, Bills of Lading showing exports and a letter from the company guaranteeing my stay, that it's planning to employ me and requesting that they provide me with a 1 year multiple entry visa. Every document was stamped by the Company and signed by the Directors.

I was also asked to provide Por Ngor Dor 50/30, Por Ngor 20 and Balance Sheet, however because the company has only just completed it's first trading year they were unavailable, and a letter from our Accountant explained this.

I have not had a work permit before, so also not available.

I wore tidy clothes*, I didn't smoke*, I didn't drink beer*, I didn't shout at the Consulate staff*, I smiled, briefly discussed a few points that I thought were relevant, answered a couple of their questions (my GF/the Co. Director answered some questions in Thai) and left, the next day (after 2PM) I picked up my passport.

*Unlike some of the applicants I saw.

In the absense of a document make sure you provide a letter from the Company, Government Office, Accountant, Lawyer advising why it cannot be provided, just to be sure!

J