My Border Run Field-report-may 2007

[worldquester]

A couple of days ago, I dug around here for a long while looking for current info about visa run agents.

Was hoping to find more recent reports, so I thought I'd pay-it-forward and give my own field report for my border run (visa run) today.

Background: I have a one-year, multiple-entry Non-Immigrant 'B' visa, and this is my first border run after the first three months.

First, I went to Jack Golf's (jackgolf) office a couple of days ago since it's a couple of blocks down from me. I wanted to go at 5:00am, but they told me that service won't start until 11-May-2007...1 day too late for me.

Second, yesterday, I called Fineday Tours (finedaytour -- specializing in Korean customers). I had used them about a year ago for a 30-day entry stamp run and wanted to use them again since I knew they also had had an early run (like 4:50am or something like that). Anyway, the guy I spoke to said they don't do runs anymore.

Today, I walked first to East Meets West Travel's (eastmeetswesttravel) office on Soi 12 since it's right near Jack Golf's meeting point. I was just before their usual 6:45am departure time and asked if they still run to Cambodia, and the guy there said no. He might have misunderstood me because in Jack Golf's van, I saw an ad in the Bangkok Post for them about doing visa runs. Maybe they didn't do it today, or I just don't know what. Anyway, didn't happen with them...someone else will have to chime in about them.

Then, I joined up with a large group waiting next to the 7-Eleven at Soi 12 and Sukhumvit. Announced myself to the Jack Golf crew waiting there, gave them my passport and photo, filled out my address, signed 5 different places, and they took the forms from there. Three vans showed up a good bit late after 7am and picked our large crew of runners up to take us to Ban Laem border. Copies of Bangkok Post and The Nation handed out, no beverages, no movies (good, most wanted to sleep or read anyway). Van was a spacious one but one person shy of capacity. Leather or faux seats reclined way back. Comfortable enough, but I was in the back seat which creates quite a bouncy ride on badly-surfaced roads.

Started out later than I had wanted, oh well, and then traveled until we took a 15-minute (or so) break along the way. Our stop was kind-of grungy with about a bajazillion flies, two of which got in our van and bugged everyone trying to sleep 'til the border.

Got to the border about 11am. If you are doing the 30-day entry stamp thing, you definitely need to heed the air-ticket/travel document warning; but, other visaholders and I didn't need that. The Jack Golf crew separated out and held a couple of people who didn't have tickets/documents. Heard later that they were just given the "this time only" warning and told they need to have something next time. I think if you're with a visa run agent, your odds are much improved. NOTE: just now, I see that Jack Golf's website has news about this requirement based on today's visa run.

TIP that made life easier: Going out and in of Thailand, I handed over my passport held open to the page with my Non-Imm 'B' visa showing. I noticed that doing that made my counter time measure in seconds, not minutes like others that just handed their closed passports to the official. They usual didn't even bother going to the photo page until just the last second.

Stamped out of Thailand, handed my passport to Jack Golf crew guy (you don't have to worry about Cambodian passport control in or out, Jack Golf crew takes care of that), told walk the bridge, turn right in the little alley with all the duty-free shops, go to Ban Laem Casino, had free-but-god-awful-and-under-heated "brunch." Got two free glasses of Pepsi (there was a big counter sign leaving the next room stating: "Soft drinks free for Foreigner only!"). Used restroom, went out to Jack's VIP lounge where I was offered free foot massage. Nah, I wanted to go home(!) but others did do that and that slowed our break that was supposed to be 40 minutes to way past an hour. I quickly bought two bottles of booze at a duty-free (saved 200 baht per bottle from Bangkok price) and waited and waited for us to leave.

Ugh. Finally.

Picked up my passport from Jack Golf crew. Breezed through Thailand immigration in seconds (AGAIN, because I held my page open to the relevant one with the visa on it...I have many, many, many stamps and added-pages in my passport, but if you hold it open to the right one, bam, you get through much quicker). Waited for the other runners to get through. As we loaded back in, the crew handed us a bottle of water each and then played a movie of our group-selection: Pirates of Caribbean 2. The TV lost power (but most everyone was asleep, so sound only) just before stopping on way back for 15 minutes at a much better stop than before. Got back to Soi 12 about 4:45pm.

I saw another company advertise in the Post as leaving at 5:00am: SM Travel (smsilom). I might try them next time (does anybody have first-hand recent knowledge about them?), or go the other route and try one of the companies that leaves LATER: ThaiVisaService (thaivisaservice) leaving On Nut BTS at 7:30am or Quick Thai Visa Run (thaivisarun) at 9:30am from Ekkamai.

Oh, and I have done the casino bus option from Lumpini park a few times with my Thai fiancee (left at 6:00am). It's 200baht round-trip for falang (100baht for Thai) with free lunch, but you have to hang out in Poipet (noooooooo) awhile until the bus is ready to bring everyone back. Cheaper but less convenient, I think.

Hope this very lengthy report helps someone out with some mid-2007 info. If I didn't address something, please feel free to ask.

Best, worldquester!

Edited May 10, 2007 by Totster
Removed URLs

[Badbanker]

Good trip report!

These sort of trip reports give everyone an opportunity to understand what they are up against and how to plan their next visa run.

Thank you

Badbanker

[JimsKnight]

Yeah, agreed on that, nice details, but whats the price for Jacks Visa runs, I'm figuring in the 1500 baht range?

[worldquester]

Yeah, agreed on that, nice details, but whats the price for Jacks Visa runs, I'm figuring in the 1500 baht range?

2000 baht, all-inclusive (service, transport, Cambodian visa, bottle of water, and "lunch").

Lowest I've seen online is Jack Golf's 5:00am service (which I guess starts today) for a promotional price 1800 baht and ThaiVisaService for regular price 1900 baht.

BTW, I see now on SM Travel's site (which doesn't work well with Macs, don't know about PC) that they advertise it leaving at 4:30am from Silom Rd/Chong Nonsi BTS area and Asok BTS at 5:00am with a estimated return of 1:00pm.

Jack Golf's 5:00am service is estimating back by 12:00pm.

I'll believe that when I see it...it seems in general, you should expect a visa run through any of the companies to take about 9.5-10 hours turnaround.