Happy New Year, Everybody!

 

I did a border bounce through Padang

Besar the other day no problem.

 

I first took a mini-van at Hat Yai Bus

Terminal 1 (Old Bus Terminal). The sign

at the ticket booth said (in Thai) that

the first mini-van was at 7:30am (60B)

but it left at 7am when it got full. (The

Hat Yai - Padang Besar train services

were yet to resume at the time.)

 

The mini-van arrived at Padang Besar

1hr 15mins later and stopped in front of

The Immigration Complex. I first joined

the queue for one of the immigration

counters, but the officer told me to go

to the office, where another officer asked

me some questions (more questions to

me because I've got so many stickers of

Thai visa and stamps of visa extension).

It was actually a nice conversation with

the officer for 5mins, I got stamped out

and then started to walk (600-700m) to

The Immigration on the Malaysian side,

where I got stamped in with no problem.

 

I actually went to Penang for a few nights

before coming back to this border. After

getting stamped out of Malaysia, I walked

back to the Immigration on the Thai side.

I saw some people selling immigration cards

at the entrance for 20B so I walked in to ask

one of the officers for one of the cards (for

free, of course!). What the officer told me

was I wouldn't have to queue for the counters

but to go to the office (again!) I waited for

a few minutes before another office came

back to the room.

 

Yes, the officer started to ask me one question

after another (this is my 2nd visa-exempt entry

to Thailand in the calendar year). I answered his

questions and got stamped in no problem! It was

another nice conversation with the officer, too.

What the officer added was that only Thai and

Malaysian nationals could queue for the counters.

 

When I left The Immigration Complex I saw several

bike-taxi drivers saying, '50B to the mini-van station

for Hat Yai!' but I decided to walk around 1km there.

The mini-van didn't drive past The Immigration

Complex on the way back to Hat Yai so you have to

go to the mini-van station first to go back to Hat Yai,

while the mini-van from Hat Yai did stop in front of

The Immigration Complex.

 

Hope that helps! Sorry it's a long story, though.

Thank you.

 

That is very helpful to me as I will be doing the same border run in about three and a half months.

Most helpful report! Thanks for your time and effort.

No worries, Mate!

 

If you drink, maybe you'd stop over at

Duty Free Shop 'The Zone' right before

going back to The Thai Immigration 

from The Malaysian Immigration, where

the booze there is too cheap to be true!

A small can of Scandinavian beer costs

RM2.80 (21B) and a 1.5L of Carlo Rossi

only RM50 (390B) for instance! It's cheaper

to pay in RM, though, because the cashier

would charge you 450B for the wine! There

are lots of other booze to be sold, too!

4 hours ago, Saigon said:

The Hat Yai - Padang Besar train services were yet to resume at the time

The train service between Hat Yai and Padang Besar resumed today Jan 1st.

1 hour ago, Stocky said:

The train service between Hat Yai and Padang Besar resumed today Jan 1st.

That's great news!

 

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2473084/hat-yai-padang-besar-train-services-resume

16 hours ago, Saigon said:

Yes, the officer started to ask me one question

after another (this is my 2nd visa-exempt entry

to Thailand in the calendar year). I answered his

questions and got stamped in no problem!

Questions, questions, questions... Are you sure it's called "no problem"?

Yes, I did get stamped in and out of

Thailand no problem, I'm pretty sure!

 

I was actually surprised to be told to go

to the office when I left The Kingdom. I

was afraid that I'd surely get asked at

least 1 or 2 questions then. The IO might

of been curious to know what I've done

in Thailand as I've got so many Non-B

stickers and stamps of visa extension

in my passport. (I got my last Non-B

visa extension stamp and visa-exempt

entry stamp in the same 2-page spread

of my passport.) The last question by

The IO was if I was planning to come back

to Thailand again soon, and I answered

him that I had no idea because it would

depend upon how long I'd stay in Malaysia.

 

I did decide to stay in Malaysia for at

least a few nights to stay on the safe

side, as I heard that you might get in

trouble or even get turned back if you

came back to Thailand on the same

day without a visa on you. I'm not sure.

On 1/1/2023 at 10:37 AM, Saigon said:

The mini-van didn't drive past The Immigration

Complex on the way back to Hat Yai so you have to

go to the mini-van station first to go back to Hat Yai,

Why did you not get the van from Penang to Hat Yai?

On 1/2/2023 at 1:31 PM, edwardandtubs said:

Why did you not get the van from Penang to Hat Yai?

Because I wanted to take the train back to Padang

Besar, hoping that the train service back to Hat Yai

had resumed by then (but in vain). I went to one of

the travel agencies in George Town to check how

much a Penang- Hat Yai mini-van cost and they said

that it was RM55 (440B), while a Butterworth- Padang

Besar train cost RM11.40 (90B) and a mini-van back to

Hat Yai 60B from Padang Besar (150B altogether).

On 1/2/2023 at 1:31 PM, edwardandtubs said:

Why did you not get the van from Penang to Hat Yai?

Actually with the potential for being held up for some time at immigration, your van may go on without you. Pre Covid coming through Sadao there was a poor lad ahead of me who was becoming quite frantic because immigration were refusing him entry but the van with his bag on it was waiting on the otherside.

44 minutes ago, Stocky said:

Actually with the potential for being held up for some time at immigration, your van may go on without you. Pre Covid coming through Sadao there was a poor lad ahead of me who was becoming quite frantic because immigration were refusing him entry but the van with his bag on it was waiting on the otherside.

My only experience with the Penang to Hatyai van was when a family who were traveling in the van were being held up at immigration. We waited and waited and waited with no end in sight and it looked like I might miss my flight so I paid 800 baht for a taxi to the airport instead.

50 minutes ago, Stocky said:

Actually with the potential for being held up for some time at immigration, your van may go on without you. Pre Covid coming through Sadao there was a poor lad ahead of me who was becoming quite frantic because immigration were refusing him entry but the van with his bag on it was waiting on the otherside.

That reminds me of the time that I was moving

from Savannakhet, Laos to Huế, Vietnam by

land. At the immigration on the Vietnamese side,

a Chinese couple from the same bus got denied

entry because they didn't have a visa on them.

They thought that they could get a VOA at the

land crossing. The Vietnamese officials wouldn't

even care about them flashing bank notes before

them and the couple ended up fuming like crazy!

No wonder they got sent back to Savannakhet for

a VN visa (240km each way)! And we ended up

having to stop at the border crossing for more

than 1 hour thanx to them, though..