Padang Besar Border - my experiences

[SpanishExpat]

I crossed at PB yesterday and wanted to share my experiences, as this border has often been declared as problematic here. 

I arrived from KUL by train. The ride was smooth, but quite long. After arriving, my friend ( he was on a visa exempt) and I (METV) got stamped at the Malaysian Side and walked the 300-400m to the Thai side. It was quite empty...just a bunch of Malaysian ppl, 2 Vietnamese ladies and one European backpacker. After waiting around 10 min we were asked to go one by one to the small office next to the immigration booths. After reading all the horror stories here (and my problematic visa history) I was prepared for a long interview.

 

Well what should I say...I was out in less than 2min:) It was male IO, I didn`t have to show any money, onward flight and after seeing my long history he smiled and said `Welcome back to Thailand`. My friend had no problems as well (he spends like 2-3 x 15 days per year on exempts in LOS). We were both dressed like we usually dress. Long pants, moccasins and polo shirts.

 

After passing immigration, they told me that the bus to Hat Yai just had passed and the next one would come in 1hr. Option B would have been to take a motorbike to the local market and take a minibus from there. My friend had a big luggage so that wasn`t an option. As we both had a flight from Hat Yai to DMK and we were lazy to walk those 1-1.5km to the market, I just went to some parked cars right of the immigration building asking who would like to earn 1000 Baht. We got our private driver within 10 seconds:) 

 

I know some guys will say 1000 Baht were too much, but for those 40-45km, no mood for other options and valuing convenience more than money, it was the best solution. 

 

Maybe it was just luck, but that experience (apart from being time-consuming) was super smooth. Hope the experience helped, as I know that there are many guys here under 50 with a similar visa history. 

 

[gk10002000]

Just curious what you and your friend do.  Purely traveling spending down money from home?  Purely tourists, albeit for multiple and long times?  Online blogging trying to earn while flitting about asia?  My interest is not in pointing our nor finding anything wrong, just wondering if some better Visas or processes should or could be made available to travelers to Thailand

[Puchaiyank]

You sir, have entered the immigration twilight zone!  Few pass through unscathed...may the remainder of your journey be so joyful...????