Padang Besar border 'bounce' report August 2025

[Dilligaph98]

FWIW, here's some info on Padang Besar (PB) as it stands in August.
For reasons I won't bother to explain, I have just had to do an urgent, cheap, out-in of almost any description from near BKK against the background of the big holiday weekend, no Cambodia and frightening reports of savage, snarling IOs demanding baksheesh for immediate return.

Lao was an option but looked like 2x20 hours in a minivan for B4K -plus, not to mention the visa.
Malaysia is attractive because no visa required but no planes to Penang and KL was B3K each way when I looked plus an overnight to avoid paying the stormtroopers.
PB doesn't quite select itself, but nearly. The two trains south were full, of course, so I booked a bus….. (I am surprised at how good the online booking systems are – specially by comparison with SRT!).
There are many website mentions of the general chaos surrounding train passage through PB and its immigration. Trains are never on time, especially the two “shuttles” per day from Hat Yai which are said to be overcrowded. They stop way short of the border, unlike the two international services where at least there is some organisation to move passengers through the border.
To Hat Yai, then. 16 bleddy hours.
From HY it gets easier, contrary to many websites' info. The main HY bus station is on the east side of town (very close to Central Festival). Bus from airport also comes in here. Ignore any touts or services offering “border for B300”; minibus to the border is B70 (from ticket counter 24), runs roughly hourly – in practice, as soon as one fills; I waited literally one minute – and takes 40-60 minutes.
Minibus will drop you right at Thai Immigration building. No need to stay on until the small van station in PB's Thai town.
No queue at all in IO (at 2pm on a holiday). Two minutes' amiable chat with officer before stamping out. She asked if I was returning immediately but I said no, “you don't like that, do you?” She just nodded.
Now walk across truck park (ignore a few nitwits suggesting you need a motorcycle taxi) to Malaysia, around 6 minutes. Option to visit the laughably expensive duty-free en route.
Malaysian IO (don't forget, they too now have the silly pre-trip form to fill) also no queue. One-minute chat; stamp; out.

I chose to stay overnight to avoid reported demands for B2000 for an immediate return. I would like to like PB, but it's a nothing place, though there are some cheap and passable cabins to stay. Kangar, 35km away on a frequent local bus from near the border office, is a better bet and from there one could go to Butterworth if contemplating a more expansive round trip. But best is the idea of Malaysian trains (clean, modern, cheap) from PB to somewhere like Alor Setar or Ipoh for a couple of days.

 

NB: PB is essentially dry; I did a very thorough search for you all and found one sole location with a fridge of Tiger/Carlsberg (RM19/large bottle) at: https://maps.app.goo.gl/3ABWaR8N85d6SunX9 . 

 

Next day, repeat. 1015 MAL border, no queue, immediate stamp. Walk to TH; again no queue. IO on desk said: “British? Go to that room to the side. VIP room.” This worried me as I have not heard the like since the end of the Soviet Union. Officers (two of them) told me to sit down (and, oddly, made it clear it was an order). But then merely asked where I had been in Malaysia. And stamped me for 60 days exempt. No questions at all about my previous visas etc. Out.

From this building go immediately across the dual-carriageway and there is a shack selling B70 tickets back to HY. “Ten minutes”, said the lad, but it was 6. Back to HY bus station 3.5 hours early, which was hardly their fault. There are tables and chairs within Central to sit and relax.

 

Summary: Nothing's perfect, and a bus to HY is not a picnic, but HY-PB-HY is so simple I may investigate a BKK-HY flight next time as the actual border bit is as easy as any I have ever experienced.