Savannakhet Trip Report

[PJ71]

1 minute ago, Tod Daniels said:

The one year non-O multi-entry has NEVER EVER been listed on the Savannakhet website, you WRITE one year multi on the application and you hand them 5000baht

My point is that you said the info on the consulate website is spot on, it's not, far from it.

 

I've never had to write anything about one year ME on my application form, just tell the guy.

 

my report is accurate, all you're doing is complicating this...

 

If you're a mod, pls close this thread now pls.

[Tod Daniels]

1 hour ago, Stevey said:

Ok @PJ71 @Tod Daniels @Bigz@Caldera

If you don’t like long interminable posts skip this. It’s not for you. 
 

 

Tod mentioned Non-O’s no problem here. I have just bumped into a guy from Pattaya Norway guy speaks with Irish accents is loaded and has all the stuff in Thailand house etc. he told me he was refused with 800k in the bank and only got a Tourist visa and told he must go to his own country to apply and has lived here 20years. 
 

 

Sorry I should have qualified that as NOn-O's based on marriage to a thai (where you can get the year/multi) or based on having a thai child (where you can get the 90 day single entry) Unfortunately for that guy who visa ran on his own they haven't issued 90 day non-O based on retirement at Savannakhet since BEFORE they closed the borders because of the covid-sh*t show.. Had he even called ANY visa run company that goes there they'd have told him that and it could have saved him the wasted trip

I'm surprised you were not asked for a bank book showing the 20K baht or the equivalent in it to apply for a tourist visa. There is no amount of time the funds need to be in the bank just 20K baht or the equivalent on the day you apply for the visa. 

So at the end of the day, after all the bluster, bloviating, pissing, bitching and moaning, you just followed the actual process, turning in your application one morning and picking up your passport the afternoon of the following business day (which in your case will be Monday). ..  <- Hint, that's why there weren't 150 people in line today, NO ONE wanted to get trapped in Lao over the weekend by turning in an application for a visa today ????

Congrats, glad you got the application turned in, the up side is I have NEVER EVER seen anyone who applied at Savannakhet (where they took your money, passport and application) get denied so Monday afternoon you should be entering thailand on a new 60 day TR-60 entry stamp ???? Congrats ???? 

[Tod Daniels]

5 minutes ago, PJ71 said:

My point is that you said the info on the consulate website is spot on, it's not, far from it.

 

I've never had to write anything about one year ME on my application form, just tell the guy. ????

 

my report is accurate, all you're doing is complicating this...

 

If you're a mod, pls close this thread now pls.

Thanx for weighing in with your two satangs worth of opinion. Appreciate it. ????
Feel free to skip the thread if you don't get value out of it ????

[Stevey]

3 hours ago, jimn said:

Thats funny. Do you know you are calling one if the most knowlegable people on here and is also a moderator a troll. Your topic is a good reading car crash.

Moderator yer say , permanently banned yer say ? Well I've always held @Tod Daniels in high regard as far as info vis a vis Visa runs are concerned.

[Tod Daniels]

16 minutes ago, Stevey said:

Well I've always held @Tod Daniels in high regard as far as info vis a vis Visa runs are concerned.

Stevey I appreciate the detail you went into about the experience. I think a LOT of people who "wing it on their own" can benefit from your tale of what transpired. 

Thank you for taking time to post how it played out. There is a LOT of useful advice in there, especially for people who don't use a service provider to lug them there and back.

Please note I meant no outright disrespect toward you with my comments, I apologize I am blunt, terse, acerbic and coarse.. ???? (and that's putting it mildly)

[Stevey]

2 hours ago, Caldera said:

Thanks for the update. I'm surprised you didn't know about the need for a bank statement, as you had checked the appointment site for Vientiane before (where this is also required). Great that you could sort it out on the spot.

What it is about the bank statement is I applied to the UK Hull Consulate for a 2 months TR 4yrs ago and I wasnt asked for funds, only for the 6mths TR plus the two previous TR visa over 10 years ago at lao and Cambodia never asked either So I never gave it a thought again. I can feel the springs coming thru this mattress, but it's 200baht a night so u can't complain.

[Stevey]

16 minutes ago, Tod Daniels said:

Stevey I appreciate the detail you went into about the experience. I think a LOT of people who "wing it on their own" can benefit from your tale of what transpired. 

Thank you for taking time to post how it played out. There is a LOT of useful advice in there, especially for people who don't use a service provider to lug them there and back.

Please note I meant no outright disrespect toward you with my comments, I apologize I am blunt, terse, acerbic and coarse.. ???? (and that's putting it mildly)

See you on the next one. Moral of this is I need to read the embassy website at least once ????

[PJ71]

1 hour ago, Tod Daniels said:

Thanx for weighing in with your two satangs worth of opinion. Appreciate it. ????
Feel free to skip the thread if you don't get value out of it ????

I've 'weighed in' with facts, not opinions or incorrect info.

 

You're welcome.

 

 

[Stevey]

On 12/16/2022 at 5:33 PM, PJ71 said:

If you're a mod, pls close this thread now pls.

Er.. sunshine ? Close the thread ? Shouldn’t we wait till I’ve picked my passport up and managed to get boots on soil in Thailand before we start closing threads ? 

[MrJ2U]

On 12/15/2022 at 1:51 PM, Stevey said:

And the chat was of a tone that looked like it was real

Yes it is real. 

 

Aura a nice hotel and I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself.  

 

Nice report!

[lamush]

Presuming all went well on Monday.  Thanks for the report, fun to read.  Something caught my eye that would like to hear a bit more on..  You mentioned something about ATK covid tests and hospitals.  If you have a minute would be great to hear what that's all about?  Something to do with looking a bit off colour? (you mentioned having a cold).

 

Incidentally, on your way in to Lao, were there any covid requirements?  ATK test or vax papers?

[lamush]

On 12/16/2022 at 5:38 PM, Tod Daniels said:

Sorry I should have qualified that as NOn-O's based on marriage to a thai (where you can get the year/multi) or based on having a thai child (where you can get the 90 day single entry) Unfortunately for that guy who visa ran on his own they haven't issued 90 day non-O based on retirement at Savannakhet since BEFORE they closed the borders because of the covid-sh*t show.. Had he even called ANY visa run company that goes there they'd have told him that and it could have saved him the wasted trip

I'm surprised you were not asked for a bank book showing the 20K baht or the equivalent in it to apply for a tourist visa. There is no amount of time the funds need to be in the bank just 20K baht or the equivalent on the day you apply for the visa. 

So at the end of the day, after all the bluster, bloviating, pissing, bitching and moaning, you just followed the actual process, turning in your application one morning and picking up your passport the afternoon of the following business day (which in your case will be Monday). ..  <- Hint, that's why there weren't 150 people in line today, NO ONE wanted to get trapped in Lao over the weekend by turning in an application for a visa today ????

Congrats, glad you got the application turned in, the up side is I have NEVER EVER seen anyone who applied at Savannakhet (where they took your money, passport and application) get denied so Monday afternoon you should be entering thailand on a new 60 day TR-60 entry stamp ???? Congrats ???? 

Hi Todd,

 

Sorry to hijack this thread.  You mentioned at Savanaket a Non O based on supporting your Thai child only bears Single Entry.  Just wanted to double check that if you don't mind?  And in that case, is there anywhere to obtain a Multi Entry based on this scenario?

[BritTim]

7 hours ago, lamush said:

Sorry to hijack this thread.  You mentioned at Savanaket a Non O based on supporting your Thai child only bears Single Entry.  Just wanted to double check that if you don't mind?  And in that case, is there anywhere to obtain a Multi Entry based on this scenario?

Historically, a multiple entry Non O to visit your Thai child used to be available sometimes in Penang. They would often only issue a single initially, but a multiple on subsequent applications. However, you needed to be able to show financial proof (iirc 200,000 baht for a single and 400,000 baht for a multiple). That information is old. I can recall no reports for several years.

[lamush]

9 hours ago, BritTim said:

Historically, a multiple entry Non O to visit your Thai child used to be available sometimes in Penang. They would often only issue a single initially, but a multiple on subsequent applications. However, you needed to be able to show financial proof (iirc 200,000 baht for a single and 400,000 baht for a multiple). That information is old. I can recall no reports for several years.

Cheers Tim. That's a good thread for me to follow up. Actually got one of those MEs many years back before being married but having a child.

[Stevey]

On 12/23/2022 at 3:24 PM, lamush said:

Presuming all went well on Monday.  Thanks for the report, fun to read.  Something caught my eye that would like to hear a bit more on..  You mentioned something about ATK covid tests and hospitals.  If you have a minute would be great to hear what that's all about?  Something to do with looking a bit off colour? (you mentioned having a cold).

 

Incidentally, on your way in to Lao, were there any covid requirements?  ATK test or vax papers?

Standby for the last word about Savannakhet. I did a full final report then I went off my Wi-Fi, even though I’ve got a Sim card in, and when I open my phone later it was all gone, my fault, I must remember to write reports out somewhere else and then copy and paste them into, Thai Visa later. I’ve opened my phone before and it says this was a post you were writing earlier and it’s all there for you, nightmare !!! 

[Stevey]

On 12/23/2022 at 3:24 PM, lamush said:

Presuming all went well on Monday.  Thanks for the report, fun to read.  Something caught my eye that would like to hear a bit more on..  You mentioned something about ATK covid tests and hospitals.  If you have a minute would be great to hear what that's all about?  Something to do with looking a bit off colour? (you mentioned having a cold).

 

Incidentally, on your way in to Lao, were there any covid requirements?  ATK test or vax papers?

Ok let’s write this entire post again.

 

For those who cannot tolerate detail’s skip to the end where I bullet point all the salient points.

 

So I arrive back through Mukdahan on Monday after the weekend, after picking up my passport. 

My dog was sick before I left and asked my girlfriend to make sure she was looked after. She showed me her condition on my first night in Savannakhet and she looked bad so that was the Lao holiday cancelled and my mission was to get back to NongKhai to look after her Asap.

 

Whilst waiting for the Monday 14:00 embassy passport pick up I decided rather than hang around the town again I would take a trip on the Sunday down to Pakse in the south of Lao. I’d hired a Honda Wave from my lodging Souvantha guest house for 300Baht a day. It was the owners personal bike so I told her that I may not be back that night but don’t worry about bike. I was just gonna explore around but I may stay out if I found a nice town. She told me don’t go too far so I omitted to ask the best route to Pakse. 

I set off with Google maps reporting a 3hrs 49m journey for a motorbike. It was about 1030 and although it was gonna be mid afternoon when I got there it had to be better than staying in Savannakhet all day. I rode about 55-60kph all the way with the odd stop. After filling up with fuel a couple of hours in and re-mapping the Journey I now saw it was saying 3 1/2hrs further !! Jesus Christ Mary mother of God ???? I had to make a decision whether to turn back. After a coffee at Café Amazon where every outside table had a full ashtrays I asked a Lao guy if this was normal for Lao and he said yes. 5 tables with 5 full ashtrays ????. I decided to carry on with the journey because turning back would be soul destroying. Eventually I got there at 16:30 ready for sunset. Not the first time google maps has been totally off for me in Asia. Stayed at the Langkam Hotel about 400 baht for an Air room which was not needed as it was coat and hat weather, all fan rooms taken by filthy back packers. Langkam Hotel has a balcony looking out onto the main thoroughfare of the town if you can see anything thru the hundreds of wires going down the street from pole to pole. Surrounded by mountains Paksey is quiet and well worth a visit and looked like Oxford town centre.

 

Next day had a nice coffee from the hotels very small breakfast restaurants. After yesterday’s 55kph drive I decided to up the pace and sped back to Savannakhet leaving at 08:30 at an insane 80kph Joey Dunlop style swerving across the road to avoid potholes and the popular goat livestock which has zero Road sense unlike dogs and will just walk out into the road, extremely dangerous.

Reaching the outskirts of Pakse I pulled up for a minute at a roadside French bread pâté stall out front of a house. The woman immediately shouted out to the back for an English speaker. An old guy about 75 years old appeared and started speaking English. Works out he had recently retired to Lao from Los Angeles when he’s made a family after leaving Lao in his late 20’s he came back to Lao with his second wife who he had shipped to the US to replace the original who died early on in the marriage, she was the one who was making my sandwich and couldn’t speak a word of English after being in the US for decades.

 

After an exciting death ride back broken up with lots of fuel fill ups as the fuel tank tried to keep up with the carburettor I arrived back to the Sounantha hotel Savannakhet at 12:10 midday.A little concerned I might have to pay another day for being 10 mins late for check out I was amazed and heartened to see they had emptied my room of belongings and they were in reception, even the stuff I’d hidden so they couldn’t steal ????. I Checked out and I had a couple of hours to kill before the 1400 rendezvous with my passport so killed time until I made my way to the embassy.
 

I was wondering if I’d meet the Filipino teacher at the embassy. She was a strange character we had exchanged Line IDs, her idea, and had a chat going and evidently I was a great guy as I’d given her that 4000baht to bolster her bank balance a few days back to help enable her to get her visa. I did meet her by chance on the Friday evening the day I first met her near my hotel as I walked back, it was now Monday, I asked the half brain to take her mask off for a second so I could see her face to which she obliged. Not bad, from the hour I’d spent with her in the passport copy shop from her eyes I had her pegged as 50 years old  but now she revealed her face she looked more like late 30’s and if any wine lovers are listening I had a Semion. I told her I’ll message you later, and went and purchased a can of anti-perspirant and a selection of Lao beers. To cut a long story short even though I made it clear I would finance everything with my huge wealth she gave me excuse after excuse all weekend when I tried to meet up with her saying she had flu and she didn’t want to spread it, pretty much the opposite of me who had a stinking face cold and made no provisions for ‘ stopping the Spread’ other than not sneezing directly into someone’s face. I’m 47 not 67 I just cannot fathom women at all. 

Anyway I missed her at the embassy and apart from a couple of unsolicited messages on line that relationship is basically dead in the water. I made my way to the bus station with Passport and visa , nearly there ! Now 1440 The guys running the bus told me the big white and blue bus left at 1630, long time to wait and not gonna happen. A Tuk Tuk driver offered me the ride for a 1000baht I told him to do one and produced google maps that said it was a 17 minute dotted line walk to the Mukdahan side. He dropped the price to Loy Baht. I waltzed off out the bus station but while leaving I saw another bus that was obscuring the 16:30 bus I doubled back and enquired at the Bus Station office. This bus leaves at 1530 , oh so it’s every something 30Hrs then. With a 45mins wait i decided to walk as someone did say here it’s walkable. well again Google Maps done me over and I ended up at the border point in 45mins, not 16mins. Picked up a pack of Lao Bear Dark from the border shop at equivalent 30 baht a can. More expensive than shops at 12000kip about 24baht a can but I forgot to buy some. Girl in the tells me 1 pack is the limit. 
 

By now it’s 1530 and I approached the Lao passport control and got ushered to a kiosk window with a male and female Lao IO inside. They start flicking through my passport like they can’t find my visa. He then asks me “Thai Embassy give you Visa ?“ I replied yeah ! “ Ok….Loy Baht ! “ I haven’t got any Thai money more than the money I need to pay the storage of my bike at the Mukdahan side. I throw all the Kip I have down and that seems to be enough and I’m released. That was a relief as at this point I’m still not entirely convinced that this TR visa is gonna get me into Thailand over a land border for the 3rd time this year. Alight the bus to Mukdahan side and entered the Thai passport control building filled out arrival departure card. 

The got two women as Thai IO they spoke Isaan Thai to me , always puzzles me how they know which Falang can speak Thai. They asked me about me having a Thai girlfriend as there was paperwork pertaining to her in the passport. ???? oh this could get spicy ???? surely they’ll ask next why I’m staying in a guesthouse near her address? I had a story ready about us having an argument and I’m gonna let her cool down, they never asked I they let me go. No checking for Covid nonsense tests or vaccines certificates and more interesting no checking for how many cans of Beer Lao I had in my bag. Also and importantly on this occasion at this time of day I was not asked to produce an onwards flight booking. This would have been a problem and this thing I was most worried about. My emirates return flight was cancelled a while back and as yet I have not confirmed the return date so I would not have been able to produce it and it would have been possible but less than convenient to produce one, so that was Fantastic. 

Made my way to the long stay carpark with fingers and toes crossed. Bike still there next to the office. Paid the woman though the window for the extra nights stays more than the first night I left it there, who informed me to my surprise that even though it was end of play I wasn’t paying for this day, it’s payment for nights past midnight it appears, gave her a 100baht tip and reconnected my battery I’d undone for added security. Looks like secure parking indeed. And headed for a night Nakhon Sakhon. 

Unfortunately my lovely dog died in an operation to remove inflammation of the Uterine caused by Pyometra which is caused by administering the contraceptive injections for 50baht rather than do a spade operation. My fault. 

“cystic endometrial hyperplasia and resulting pyometra, especially if the dose is excessive”

 

So that’s that. 

 

 

Summary.

 

• Lao Evisa worked great $50 and feels smug telling people filling out forms that you’ve got one

• Not asked by Lao IO for the Covid test I’d made even though I had a full face cold. This coincides with China dropping zero Covid and letting it rip it’s slave worker population.

•It’s 45 minutes walk to the Embassy from the Lao side of the bridge if you don’t want to encourage the touts. I’ve just spent a little time researching and the average wage is not more than 3000baht a month 100baht a day. So think of that when they want 200baht to the Embassy. To me it’s 50baht if that. Walk it with your thumb out.

• Get there early. Apparently there were half of China waiting there the day before I came have enough time to fix a problem and resubmit.

• Have a bank statement with a ending balance of 20k baht minimum, 2 pics6x4 cm a hotel booking printout. News to me but can be downloaded from you banking app. The copy shop opposite is helpful, although can only speak Lao or Thai. He has the application form and every thing is 20baht a go. Lovely guy, like me.

•Tourist visa 2months plus extendable for 1 month is a bargain 1000baht

•100baht was requested by Lao IO on exit of Lao, for what ? Who knows ? 

•Onward flight was not asked for on entering Thailand, maybe lucky. 

• Hotels. The Aura is more plush looking at 600Baht but the floor tiles were sticky and the shower was not powerful in this cold weather and needed to be of a trickle, go 200 baht and spend 400 baht on 20baht cans of Lao beer and French bread sandwiches (Kao jee Pâté) and  barbecue Pork and chicken. But be careful to buy the sandwiches from busy shops they refrigerate the ingredients which for small 1 baguette every 2 hours shops sit in plastic boxes growing bacteria. 

• Be careful about how long google maps says it take to get anywhere. 

•10000kip is 20baht, 1/2Mill Kip is 1000baht but big notes get better exchange rate at money changers. 

•Eat at Pilgrims restaurant and coffee and pay in Kip they exchange baht at unreasonable rates. Nice place by the Mekong that has views of the bridge from the outside seating. Has accommodation and push bike hire. 

•There’s an ATM and small shop at the Mukdahan border long stay Car park 

•Remember to take more than one pair of underpants preferably with a serviceable gusset that is still intact unlike my pair which had a failed gusset.