My Border-run Field Report: January 2008

[worldquester]

To help others that need to choose a Bangkok visa run service, I thought I would give another new LONG border run field report to follow my May '07 report to Ban Laem (Thailand) / Daung (Cambodia).

For this border run, I used Quick Thai Visa Run for the first time.

After re-reading my old report, a lot of the Ban Laem border info seems to remain the same with the following additions from last year: if you are coming back in to get another 30-day stamp, for 200 baht, the visa run company will "buy" you a bus ticket as your continuing-on travel document that you must present upon re-entry to Thailand...but not necessary if you have a valid visa. Also new to me, I was told to bring a photocopy of my passport inside page, and that was taken from me upon re-entry to Thailand. Also, you can only buy one bottle of booze at the border (last year, it was two).

Brief history: I have a non-immigrant "B" visa that's running out this month, but I needed to run two weeks before expiration. Last time, I used Jack Golf after finding out that companies I had used in the past weren't doing visa runs anymore (East Meets West Travel and FineDay Tours). Seems that there are just four visa run companies left in BKK: Quick Thai Visa Run (QTVR), Thai Visa Run Service (TVR), Jack Golf (JG), and SM Silom (SM).

I was not impressed with my first try with Jack Golf (everything about our travel was late), so I checked out the websites for TVR and QTVR.

Considered TVR as I had seen the owner/operator at the border on my Jack Golf run, and he seemed professional and attentive to his customers.

But, I decided to go with QTVR for three reasons: big VIP bus, the latest departure time (9:30am) of all the services, and they give you a Thai lunch on the bus instead of the usual Cambodian casino buffet (which I absolutely dread).

Called their mobile and left my name with a European of some sort but not sure if that was necessary or not. I just wanted to confirm that they would indeed leave on the date I needed. They advertise that they run on Tues., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. Was told to arrive at Banrai Coffee at Ekkamai BTS at 9:00am and the bus would leave at 9:30am. Was also told to bring passport, two passport photos, a photocopy of the inside front page of my passport, and 2000 baht.

Arrived five minutes late at 9:05am. Most of the runners had already filled out paperwork and were headed to the bus--good sign about this crowd. Filled out my paperwork quickly and gave everything over to the Thai operator.

Got on the double-decker VIP bus and found it to be mostly full. By the time we left, it was full with 34 passengers.

Bus was clean and in good shape. Seat reclined properly and was comfortable. Bus had a posted sign about 60-day tourist visa run service to Laos on Sundays for 5900 baht--phone number is same as regular visa run but they don't advertise this service on their website(??).

A few more stragglers after me. A Thai man helping with the paperwork gets on the bus and gently tells a middle-aged foreigner that he needs to get off the bus as he won't be going with us. Guy drags his feet. Thai guy looks embarrassed that he has to confront this guy but is firm. Ooh, interesting.

Hear only a little bit of a confrontation outside with the Thai man saying something very emphatically like "they check every page now." Confrontation ends quickly. Good luck, dude...and, take out the very silly earring--I'd check you out throughly too with that in.

Wow! We leave exactly at 9:30am, as advertised. Already an improvement over my JG run last year.

They throw on a movie that will be coming to Bangkok movie theaters in two weeks, so I try to ignore it by reading but that's pretty difficult b/c there are speakers for every row of seats.

Bring ear plugs if you want to sleep or read. And bring something warm (I brought a sweatshirt) for the bus...the big ones get pretty cold.

Here are my biggest complaints about the whole day: the woman who operates the service is super-friendly and hard-working BUT she seems to be taking on too many tasks and/or is a bit disorganized. I think it's that she needs an assistant. First, I had to fill out all the paperwork myself which was a visa-run first for me. I'm not lazy and it's not a big deal, just used to the other services filling it all in. However, there was a lot of inefficiency and confusion going on with handing back passports and photocopies and bus tickets both on the bus and at the border...a big wad of passports, etc, put in our hands or dumped in front of us. It's not that much of a problem on the bus. At the border, sorting it all out was the one of the biggest things delaying our return to BKK, along with a few knucklehead runners.

Anyway, the woman operator returns our passports inefficiently on the bus and gives us a bottle of Singha water. Then, the operator went row by row with a menu and took everyone's lunch order. Five non-spicy fried rice dishes with various meat/vegetable choices or Ka-prow gai (chicken with basil and chili, slightly-moderately spicy) offered along with choice of Pepsi, water, or coffee or something like that.

We stop two hours into the ride for fifteen minute toilet break at a gas station...same one as last year but less flies now. I buy another bottle of water and a Pepsi.

Get back on the bus fifteen minutes later and find my lunch in a styrofoam container with a metal spoon waiting on a tray in my seat...along with my ordered Pepsi. Oops, didn't think about that. Plenty to drink now.

The lunch was pretty efficient, I have to give credit for that.

Big portion, good taste, good temperature, GOOD LUNCH. Yes, the biggest improvement over any other visa run service that offers the casino lunch.

Operator takes all 34 trays as they finish and stacks them up in the aisle. This seems to me to be yet another opportunity begging for a helper, but if she wants to knock herself out on the bus ride....

Another 1.5 hours, we're at Ban Laem/Daung border. Get off bus, throw away my trash, queue up at the empty Thai immigration station to stamp out. A runner has overstayed and doesn't quite get where to go though there's a window with big letters saying OVERSTAY. I stamp out quickly, go to the end of the station and am asked by the operator for my passport. Another complaint: no direction to anyone from the operator on what to do now. Sit down and chill? Go across the bridge to the Cambodian side? So most of us gather up and generally get in the way of things. A lot of people start smoking. I sit. A frantic, ridiculously-dressed (baseball cap askew, wife-beater t-shirt, baggy oversized shorts) young guy runner calls out: he has overstayed and not brought any money. What?! Woman has to go deal with that. I later saw him sheepishly bum a cigarette off of someone. Mm-hmm.

After most people have gone through, the woman seems to have disappeared, still without telling anyone what to do or where to go.

A Thai immigration officer walks up and shoos everyone away to the Cambodian side. Look out, here come the kids asking for money. I see one girl who makes me realize it was a mistake to throw out my Pepsi cans on Thai side. She collects them, and I support this instead of begging. Next time, little girl, I promise.

We all trudge over the bridge to the Cambodian side and find some stone picnic tables in front of their immigration. The BEST thing about Ban Laem/Daung is the lack of attitude projected by Cambodian immigration compared to Poi Pet. I just don't have that same feeling that I'm about to be pistol-whipped. I wonder if they still run all the same scams though.

Most everyone lights up again and talks that visa-run talk: 30 days, how many stamps, tourist visa, blahblahblah.

The operator comes back to us holding up a runner's photocopy (and all of our passports) and calls out many times over: "Who is this? They didn't give me a passport?" Heads turn looking for the fool holding us all up. Finally, after some time, he shows up having bought a bottle of whisky and hands over his passport and says "oh, you need this?"

We all wait some more.

Then, we realize (though no one has called it out) that it's time to walk back over to Thailand. Our passports are inefficiently handed back to some of us (people rummage through passports and then block the way of others whether they were or weren't in the bundles), and not all of the passports are there as some are still being processed. The operator repeatedly calls out for "U.K. guy. U.K. guy" that needs a bus ticket but no reply. She goes off to get the other passports. British guy was in the queue to get back in and then comes back a bit looking frantically for the woman b/c he needs his bus ticket but she's gone off. Oh, man.

I get my passport finally, get in the queue, and get everything ready to hand over to Thai immigration by having the page that has my non-imm B visa held open with my immigration card right next to it. I'm in-and-out within one minute, maybe thirty seconds. Not the guy at the window next to me. Why? Because he has everything he needs to hand over (immigration card, bus ticket, passport photocopy) in his messenger bag and acts surprised when asked for each item and then has to look for each one in his bag. And, he's wearing a baseball cap and big sunglasses that totally covers him up. Hmm.

We are at the virtually-empty border for well over an hour (maybe two?) unnecessarily because of some of the runners and--I'm sad to say--b/c of the inefficiency of the operator/service. For the last time, she needs an assistant that's as hard-working as she.

My point in talking in so much detail about these certain runners is some advice to make your life easier:

Dress--up to you however you want to dress. But, you're going to get through faster and without much hassle if you dress appropriately: button-down shirt (short sleeve is fine), pants (normal jeans okay), take off hat and sunglasses.

Overstay--if you know you have, then tell the service and be prepared with your money.

Money--bring some anyway just in case you need to pay for a bus ticket or overstay, snacks, import goods, or something unexpected.

Your items--know or find out what you need to be holding to hand over. Have all those items in order and ready to hand over. Passport, completely-filled immigration card, ongoing bus/air/train ticket if you're getting a 30-day entry stamp, copy of passport info page at Ban Laem. If you have a visa in your passport, hand passport over with that page open. Bring a pen.

Your brain--use it. I saw a window that's marked for overstay. That's the one you need to go to if you know or find out that you have overstayed. Your passport is needed at both sides of the border: Thai and Cambodia. Figure out what the operator is doing before you go run off and buy your booze/cigarettes/trinkets. So far for every visa run service, I have seen that they handle the Cambodian side of things with your passport and you take care of everything else on the Thai side in and out. Go run off to get goods or to the toilet (though I suggest you do that on Thai side after you've stamped back in), but do it quickly and get back to the group. Generally, you'll cause less problems and not slow everything down if you stick with the group.

By the way, as I said my visa expires in two weeks but my stamp is for another three months, so I am getting 15 months out of my 12 month visa.

After stamping out, I go to the toilet near the bus...well-worth the 3-baht toll as it's clean and they have soap. Get back on the bus. More typical visa run talk going on. Then, we take off and see two more movies with a punctual 15-minute only stop at the same gas station. We make it back to BKK at 7:00pm. Bus lets some people off near Ratchada (I'm guessing near MRT) and then somewhere along Soi 71 and then everyone else at the staircase to Ekkamai BTS. Done.

Before my recommendation, I have one last complaint. The operator--while super-sweet and polite--way overuses Thaiglish. So much so that it confuses a lot or most of the runners. Everything she says in English ends in "ka" or "na ka" which is not really the problem. It's that she will say some things in Thai as if everyone understands what she's saying. I understood the Thai she used; and some others could tell that I understood, so they'd ask me what she said. There are a lot of runners of different nationalities, mostly European, who need simple English. As her English seems competent, I believe that she needs to not say anything in Thai, including the polite feminine endings. Keep it simple. And, give direction to everyone.

Having mentioned all the downsides, this has been the best service I've tried after East Meets West Travel (they rocked on efficiency but went only to Poi Pet) stopped running.

The later-scheduled start time, the clean and comfortable big bus, the current Hollywood movies, the Thai lunch on the bus (hands-down, the best selling point for me), the drink offerings, and the punctuality (except at the border) all added up to a better experience.

I will most likely repeat with QTVR though I'm still curious about the service provided by TVR and SM (especially SM advertising that they leave at 4:30-5:00am and return at 1:00pm...this was similar to FineDay, another Korean outfit).

I know this is a book of a report, but I hope it helps at least one of you needing info on visa run services from Bangkok to Cambodia.

And, I have no interest or knowledge of any of the owners of the visa run companies that I've used. None have been perfect and some better and some worse, about half the ones I used have stopped running. I just present these reports as my opinions and observations only. Good luck, good runs!

--Worldquester

Visa run services:

http://www.thaivisarun.com

http://www.thaivisaservice.com

http://www.jackgolf.com

http://www.smsilom.com

Edited January 12, 2008 by worldquester

[Guest]

A very detailed and no-doubt useful report for those that need a visa run. Reading it, I'm thankful that its not something I have to do...

[Tod Daniels]

I used the Quick Thai Visa Run Company several times when I still had to do my 90-day runs, and found them friendly, punctual, and more than willing to help people who were too stupid to read figure things out.

The thai-english comment, while valid, is something you're exposed to every day living in the glorious "Land 'O Thais". Be thankful she spoke more than a semblance of english at all. Her being too 'thai polite' is not a discredit to her english skills. Even students from Chula and Mahidol will khrap/ka, and na khrap/ka at the end of their sentences in english simply because there are no polite particles in the english language. The thai language is structured around non-direct, non-confrontational, and/or pleasant interaction, so this is an easily forgiven "fox-paw".

I concur with the statement about the appearance of some 'runners'. While I am ALWAYS proud to be an American; I am sometimes ashamed to be a foreigner here. The actions, dress and mannerisms of the 'low end' foreigners with the scruffiness, the 80 baht Singha t-shirts, flip-flops and oversized cargo shorts is often times disheartening. No wonder the inhabitants here in the glorious "Land 'O Thais" who work in the tourist areas have the opinion of foreigners that they do.

Your complaints are mostly about the other 'runners' on the bus; their stunning lack of exhibiting ANY critical thinking and not about the service the company provides. When I used this company back in August of last year, we actually never left the covered area on the thai side of the border after we stamped out of thailand. We just sat and waited for our passports to come back from Cambodia.

I will agree with several points;

*The woman on the bus seems over worked but, there's not a lot to do on the bus once you’re on the way. She seems to get everything done in the time allotted; if not in sequential order.

*The passport return scheme at the border is less than orderly, and could use some refining, rather than the ever popular; 'table dump method'.

I also used Fine Day Travel many times with their 5am to 1pm 'warp speed' trip to the border at Poipet. While it was 'no frills' run; it was VERY fast. Too bad they stopped their visa service.

All in all an excellent, well written, well thought out 'book report'. I give you an 'A' for the detailed re-cap.

Take care na khrap,

[sriracha john]

Kudos to the OP for one of the best field reports EVER on thaivisa....

very well done..

[think2]

tried both quick thai visa run and thai visa service several times, they are quite reliable.

[Eugen]

tried both quick thai visa run and thai visa service several times, they are quite reliable.

Agreed, both companies and owners are very knowledgeable and helpfull in providing good info about visas.

[tijnebijn]

Very detaled report indeed , its like reality tv .

What a hassle to Cambodia pffff , Maesai is much easier

and relaxed .

But it was an interesting read !

[motoyen]

Fantastic report and very similar to my experiences with Thai Visa Run Service (TVR)

I have used TVR twice and both times I have been rather disappointed with the service.

My first trip with TVR I showed up at the On Nut Tesco Lotus food court at 7:00AM to see Claudio already there helping everyone with their paperwork. I filled out my papers handed them to Claudio and jumped in the van and we were off. TVR doesn’t use a double decker bus but rather a 9 passenger van which bounces around a lot on the bumpy Thai roads. Good luck on trying to sleep, especially if you sit in the back over the rear axels. I also noticed that one of the vans had practically bald tires in the rear and given how fast the drivers go it could pose a problem.

The trip out to the border was uneventful other than the fact that we got lost. When we finally arrived at the border we were more or less left on our own. Myself and many others in the van were here for the first time so we were unsure about the exit/entry procedure. Were we supposed to meet Claudio? What about the papers I have given him?

Luckily one of the passengers had done this before so she walked us through the whole procedure. Once we stamped out of Thailand we were not given any instructions on where to go, once again we just followed the one lady who led the way into the Casino. Without her help though I can see how this would be confusing for new people as there is no signage telling your where to go.

After eating a rather bland Thai meal we were instructed to go pick up our passports? Where? We all just started walking back to the border when I was approached by a Thai man with my passport and paperwork. He asked for the 2100THB and gave me my passport, I assume he worked for TVR. Stamped back into Thailand, hopped in the van and headed back to BKK.

The second trip was similar to the first one. This time I never saw Claudio and we met in the parking lot of the Tesco Lotus and were given our papers. Now instead of having a flat horizontal table to work on everyone was forced to try and write by holding their papers up to the sides of the vans. This time no one checked to see if our paperwork was filled out correctly.

At the border it was the same lack of instruction, with the experienced passengers helping out the newbies. This time we were not instructed on when to return to pick up our passports. After some considerable time I walked over to the room where I had picked up my passport last time. I was told it wasn’t ready and that I should come back later. No instruction were given on how long it might be or what time I should come back.

So I decided to visit the Jack Golf hut for an hour long foot massage. After I walked over to see my whole group sitting outside the room still waiting for our passports. We were never told what the delay was but we ended up waiting around for close to 2 hours.

The most frustrating thing about TVR is their lack of instruction to their customers. Starting from the morning at the Tesco Lotus where we casually gather in the parking lot. No one takes charge and says we meet here, let me check your paperwork, at the border you go here, pick up your passports here and the van will be waiting here.

I should say that I do not no if Claudio is busy taking care of things behinds the scene and that’s why I didn’t see him but it sure would be nice if we had a little more instruction at the border instead of relying on the other passengers.