kanook

What is your home country Yuhani?. The Thai embassy in the U.S just released their requirements (ubonjoe posted the link on another thread) and they mirror the ones from two other G7 nations, Germany and Italy. The details you have given us appear to show that you live in Thailand year round, but take a trip back home every year. The problem with this is that every country that has posted the requirements for the METV has required proof of employment. Many foreigners living here long term on tourist visas are understandably nervous, but we really need to wait until the consulates in Vientiane and Savannakhet post their requirements and more importantly, how strictly the various embassies and consulates will enforce these requirements.

I just checked with the consulate website in my home country (Germany). For the new visa they ask for proof of funds and tickets for one onward trip. Also no mention about proof of employment (even as i'am selfemployed that should be no problem). So as I always will apply for METV in my homecountry and get another 1 Entry Tourist Visa abroad later, the situation should to work out for me i think.

I always hate the uncertainty about the rules, because makes it difficult to plan (long term rent etc.) I hoped the new METV would make it easier, but looks like it's the opposite :-)

I am glad you will not be adversely affected.

What is your home country Yuhani?. The Thai embassy in the U.S just released their requirements (ubonjoe posted the link on another thread) and they mirror the ones from two other G7 nations, Germany and Italy. The details you have given us appear to show that you live in Thailand year round, but take a trip back home every year. The problem with this is that every country that has posted the requirements for the METV has required proof of employment. Many foreigners living here long term on tourist visas are understandably nervous, but we really need to wait until the consulates in Vientiane and Savannakhet post their requirements and more importantly, how strictly the various embassies and consulates will enforce these requirements.

You have it covered. You asked for tips. Do your Vietnam visa letter of approval online. Good service. Not sure what you mean by photocopy of flights. You need a print out of your flights into Thailand and out.

Hey Jacksam,

That is the thing. I will have my flights for Bangkok to Hanoi and then Hanoi back to Bangkok. But I will not have any more flight info. When it is time to get the extra 2 months I will just get the bus to Cambodia like I usually do.

Good luck, you will need it.

Vientiane will do METV, I saw it on the big billboard inside the Consulate.

I will take a picture of it Thursday.

What did the billboard say exactly; METV for all nationalities or only for Laos nationals and residents? I hope you understand that you have posted information that many people are very interested in.

Out of curiosity, why are you looking to get the visa from Vientiane instead of Savannakhet . For someone who doesn't want a crowded consulate and is planning to travel within Laos, Savannakhet is the better option especially from Chiang Mai.

I don't want a crowded consulate, but i don't want to travel back to Thailand from there and from Vientiane it is another 300b for the bus to Savannakhet.

I agree, always good to keep the costs down on a visa trip; just throwing out other options.

Out of curiosity, why are you looking to get the visa from Vientiane instead of Savannakhet . For someone who doesn't want a crowded consulate and is planning to travel within Laos, Savannakhet is the better option especially from Chiang Mai.

Savannakhet is better is from Bangkok. Chiang Mai is good for Vientiane and Luang Prabang...more so Vientiane. I don't want a crowded consulate, but i don't want to travel back to Thailand from there and from Vientiane it is another 300b for the bus to Savannakhet. I would only go there if for some reason Vientiane denies me the 2 entry visa.

I want to travel laos, but more so in the north. and i want to apply before nov. 13

Have you been to Savannakhet? I have been to both consulates from Chiang Mai and since you stated a desire to visit Pakse, why not fly from CM to Ubon Ratchathani (Kan Air) and then work your way up Laos to Luang Prabang. From there you can take the boat upriver to Chiang Khong or fly direct to CM. That's a great trip and brings back memories.

Out of curiosity, why are you looking to get the visa from Vientiane instead of Savannakhet . For someone who doesn't want a crowded consulate and is planning to travel within Laos, Savannakhet is the better option especially from Chiang Mai.

I have always wondered about these fictitious borders that we humans have created between 'countries' on this planet. On a map you see them all clearly but from space there are none whatsoever.

Anyway, I do not have overstay but I am musing here, how hard can it be to simply find a passage to a neighbouring country which is not an official border crossing point. Like walking through a jungle or something, it must be impossible to guard the entire border of a country

I don't agree or disagree with you from a philosophical point of view with respect to man made borders, but If the OP reads your post and decides to cross illegally into one of the neigbouring countries he should consider the problems he may face . It is possible to cross into Myanmar unofficially and let's just say I know from experience and leave it it that. Ok, now your are in Myanmar or any of the other neighbouring countries; how do you get back home or back into Thailand with an official (which is what you need) stamp without it costing more than 20000฿,if at all? Take the advice that many have already offered and find a way to come up with the 20K฿ and fly out.

The sign at the Mae Sai border crossing, 'No Visa Runs' means no visa exempt entries and this has been the general policy, with respect to foreigners who appear to be living in Thailand, for over a year now (Aug 2014). I had mentioned this on Thai visa last year since I was living in Chiang Rai and was friendly with a few of the IO's at the border crossing. Elviajero's advice seems very sensible.

Reports out of Yangon are not good.

Thanks for posting your experience KevWaters. I hope the young guys on this forum are reading this, because it's happened to a few friends of mine. A friend was refused in Ho Chi MInh (Ed Visa). Two more were refused tourist visas in KL on separate occasions. When I told them it was risky to try to get their visa at these locations, they said they were sick of going to Laos. Everyone I know that went to KL or Vietnam for a visa and was refused knew that others had problems there, but they went anyway.

Done some research and it seems going with plane is just better even tho i need to stay the night when arrive mukdahan.

Not looking forward to take a 18hour bustrip, CM-KK , KK-Mukdahan (arriving 6am KK)

Hurrying to arrive before 11am to do same day at thai consulate, being tired from the bustrip.

If i book plane ticket CM-BKK, then BKK-Nakhon Phanom, ride service to Mukdahan with nokair fly n ride, sleep in mukdahan, cross bridge at 8am, enter into Savannakhet, be in time at consulate.

I think the bridge opens 8am right, so that would leave me enough time to get to consulate before 11am I assume.

Then pickup passport next day 2pm, taxi to Mukdahan hotel, stay the night, ride to Nakhon Phanom airport ->bkk->CM

In total it would take me 4days to do the trip, so it isnt that bad i think. Correct me if im wrong.

I just bought a car, but nobody can drive me go there since i dont have driving license yet and my wife needs to take care our newborn.

EDIT; Question unrelated to thread, but do i need to cancel my ED visa extension before going to Savannakhet ? I used up all entries, my classes finish this month and currently on my last extension of stay valid until 14june.

No one has mentioned flying direct from Chiang Mai to Ubon Ratchathani with Kan Air, CNX (06:10) - UBP (08:20) with flights seven days a week. I flew Chiang Mai to Nakhon Phanom, transiting in Bangkok, at the end of April when I went to Savannakhet for a Non O, but many may want to avoid 2 flights. It is not that much farther to the friendship bridge in Mukdahan from Ubon airport (aprox 180km) than Nakhon Phanom airport (150km). I have flown the Kan Air route before and it was fine. The only issue for some may be that they use a turbo prop ATR, at least that is what I flew on.

Welcome to the forum, SwissCheese, and if you do decide to come and live in Chiang Mai, I hope you and your family enjoy your stay here. You have probably already realized this, but moderators like ubonjoe and supermario give excellent visa advice. I just want to focus on the cost of living in Chiang Mai, because I feel some of the posts may lead you astray.I actually dislike the terms cheap and expensive when used to describe the cost of living in Thailand and specifically Chiang Mai. It is better to describe the the costs of living (comfortable standard) as having a much greater range than most places in the world. I don't doubt that other forum members spend what they say they do; I have many expat friends that overpay for most day to day items although surprisingly most expats in Chiang Mai seem to work hard at paying the local rate on accommodation. The social norm in Thailand is expensive means better quality and to many Thais if they can afford it they will usually choose the more expensive option. Unfortunately if you are an expat and married to or dating a Thai, it is easy to get sucked in to the same thought process and before you realize it you are actually spending a lot of money to live here. I will also offer a real world example. Your family needs to purchase toiletries (hand wash, shower gel, shampoo, toothbrushes etc). Most expats and Thais in CM will buy them at Watson's, Boots or the big supermarkets like Big C, Tesco Lotus, Tops or Rimping. I rarely see any foreigners in the modern Chiang Mai Direct and their pricing is even cheaper than Makro and you don't have to buy in bulk. Back to the question, can a family of 5 live on $1500 (50,000฿) in Chiang Mai? Let's apply logic; a very common salary for a university educated citizen living in CM is 15,000฿ per month. That means thousands of locals are raising families on 30,000฿ per month and most will also own a vehicle. I do agree that 50,000฿ is not ideal (I noticed that you are not against raising your budget to 65,000฿) for an expat family new to CM and you will most certainly spend more to set your family up the first few months. Feel free to send me a PM if you want the names and locations of places to shop (Thai and international brands) that price their products considerably lower than the usual Tesco, Big C, Home Pro, Rimping stores that most foreigners use.

Vientiane is a good choice if you want to arrive by air and keep costs down. Nok Air has a special price for the month of June to Udon Thani from both Bangkok and Chiang Mai if you book May 11 or 12. I have never needed transport from the airport into town, but I have taken the local minivan service from Central Plaza mall to Nong Khai and it was very cheap, 55฿. I recently returned from another popular place to receive a visa, Savannakhet, Laos and even though I was flying from Chiang Mai I transited through Bangkok so I essentially followed a route that many would take from BK. If you decide on this route and wish to keep costs down fly from DMK to Nakhon Phanom with either Nok or Air Asia and from there it is 100 km to the Thai city of Mukdahan that borders Savannakhet. Arrange a metered taxi to meet you at the airport in Nakhon Phanom or take the public bus (100฿) to take the 18 km ride to the bus station into the city. There you can catch a public minivan for 80฿ to take you directly to friendship bridge in Mukdahan. The authorities will not allow you to cross the bridge on foot and you will need to catch the bus (45฿) to cross the bridge and in theory you could hop back on once you clear Laos Immigration but in practice it will not wait for you if you are getting a visa on arrival. When you clear immigration there will be jumbos (tuk tuks) waiting (price negotiable) to take you wherever you wish to go into Savannakhet. I rented a scooter in both cities and spent a few extra days in each and the conclusion is that I preferred Savannakhet (less visa applicants, friendly locals, maybe cheaper on the ground) over Vientiane,(Udon is closer to the border and Vientiane is a bigger city with more entertianment options) but if you fly (Nakon Phanom or Ubon Ratchathani) you would not make it in time to apply the same day at the consulate.

Good trip report Eddy B. We had a beer together at the guesthouse the night before we picked up our visas at the consulate. I picked up my Visa the same day as Eddy and can confirm the bus crossing the bridge was beyond full. It's actually difficult to describe how many people they packed onto the bus, but to get an idea; after it was completely full standing room only, the bus driver kept screaming at the passengers to move back and jammed another 15 or 20 people into the 'can of sardines'. I probably crossed over about one hour after Eddy.

(Part of) the problem here was that he was late for flight as it was and had to leave. So nothing could be done anymore at that point in time. Now if you can not leave because your passport is missing the problem of 'having to leave in a hurry' is sorted. So plenty of time to go to the police station.

Probably not. As mentioned in the report, the police station that covers the airport is at Tha Chat Chai, right next to Sarasin Bridge at the far north of the island.

That police station is no doubt, very useful for incidents at the Tha Chat Chai checkpoint, but hardly much good for the airport.

When someone needs to report an incident that occurs at the airport, such as losing their wallet or luggage, they have to make a police report at Tha Chat Chai, (eg for insurance purposes).

The police at (more accessible) Thalang Town will refuse to provide the insurance report - the airport is outside their jurisdiction.

To reach that police station is about 500 - 600 baht (each way) in a taxi, or (if you are lucky and call me and I have the time), it is free because I drive the tourist to/from Tha Chat Chai and translate for the police report (if you don't speak Thai).

This typically takes a round trip time of at least 90 minutes, (including making the report), plus my petrol costs which I cover myself.

So..... as I mentioned previously, building a small police station to manage incidents at the airport seems to make a lot of sense.

Oh, and whilst they are about it, howabout building a petrol station by the airport, so that cars don't have to travel the 6-7km to the nearest petrol station at Meung Mai?

Sheesh! - A busy, international airport with no police station and no petrol station

Excellent post and I full agree that a police and petrol station are needed. The first time I visited Phuket, I spent 30 minutes looking for a petrol station near the airport. I didn't want to fill up too far away from the car rental office because I thought it was only fair to bring a back a full tank. I finally found a station, but I did question the logic of not having a station near the airport.

Walter Travolta, you seem to be interested in making side trips to bordering countries while on your tourist visa. A triple entry tourist visa from Savannakhet may be something to consider. This visa only has a 3 month validity, but it allows you to 'burn' entries if you plan on taking short trips to neighbouring countries and may come out cheaper than using a re-entry permit.

I believe Bali is the only place you can get a Triple Entry visa in Asia, would be a Double Entry from Savn.

Edit: Triple Entry from Bali would be valid for 6 months so you can get almost 9 months out of it, but they'll want to see each Entry mapped out & flights booked when you apply.

You can get a triple entry (3 month validity) from Savannakhet.

Walter Travolta, you seem to be interested in making side trips to bordering countries while on your tourist visa. A triple entry tourist visa from Savannakhet may be something to consider. This visa only has a 3 month validity, but it allows you to 'burn' entries if you plan on taking short trips to neighbouring countries and may come out cheaper than using a re-entry permit.

It might not work for everyone, but I have actually memorized the Thai and Lao holidays. This way I know when my wife has long weekends for a beach holiday for instance with the added bonus of being able to plan consular trips and even more importantly making sure that my visas never expire during songkran. Your situation is very unfortunate with the website error. I hope you didn't lose out too much financially.

The route doesn't work for me, but it will be a welcome addition for the budget traveler. Does anyone know if the airport taxi drivers still need to pay a hefty upfront fee plus extra monthly fee to ply the airport route. I usually just pick up visitors at the airport unless they are the type that don't really care if the taxi or transport is metered.

Thanks again for the advice.

So here's what I'm going to do. I just did a little research and apparently it's MUCH MUCH MUCH easier and faster to make sure I'm 100% legal driving a scooter (if I decide to do so) before I get there. That way I'll be covered by World Nomads travel insurance.

* It's only going to cost me $15 to get an international driver's permit from AAA which I'm going to go in for next week

* It's only going to cost me $200 to take a motorcycle driving course, which takes place on the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) over the course of 20 hours (8AM to 6PM) in which case, after I complete it, I am able to immediately go and get my motorcycle license and will be able to wave both the written and riding portions of the test.

So - pretty cut and dry!

- William

You seem to be a smart guy and I'm sure you will enjoy your stay here. Welcome to the Chiang Mai forum and soon, to Chiang Mai.

Not sure how long you plan to stay in Chaing Mai, but since you are coming here on a one way ticket, I assume that you plan on staying long term. If you plan on staying long term in CM you will probably need your own transportation. Hasn't been mentioned yet, but if you do plan on staying here for at least 6 months, it would be a better idea to buy a scooter. I recommend this for a couple of reasons, first it will be safer because there is a high probability that your rental scooter is not properly maintained and it's not worth the risk from a safety standpoint. The second reason is that it will probably be more cost effective to buy (new or used) your own bike. If you are planning to stay long term and you can afford to spend a little more for the first few weeks or a month, it is not a bad idea to find short term accommodation in a central area and take some time getting used to how traffic works here by not riding a scooter for the first few days or even a week. It cannot be overstated; driving a scooter or motorbike in Thailand is VERY dangerous, but there are many small things you can do to mitigate the danger and it will take time to figure out which work best for you.