Just Back

[midasthailand]

Hi all, well, I'm glad that's over! Arrived back last night after taking the Thai Visa travel, visa run to Penang. It was organised at short notice and was definitely more expensive than the advertised rate. There were serveral reasons that it was more expensive, firstly due to the short notice, there was a paucity of available seats, this meant that I had to arrive in Penang on Wed after the Consulate had closed so I had to wait until Friday afternoon to receive my visa, therefore I had to spend two nights in the Continental hotel. Secondly, also due to the lack of available seating, I had to return to Bangkok via KL. This involved a Malaysian airlines flight to KL, a bus trip to the Low cost carriers terminal (LCCT - only a 15 minute trip and the bus leaves every 20 minutes - cost 1.5 ringit) and an Air Asia flight back to Bangkok. Total cost (not including money spent in Penang) for the flights, hotel and visa services 19,450 Baht! expensive? Yes, but worth it IMHO because when I handed my paperwork to the agent at NJ bookstore (whose main business is money changing) and asked about my chances of success, Mohammed said 100%, no problem.

So I now have what I went for and didn't need to do anything except fill in the application form and provide the documents required. For information the only documents I provided were:

A letter from my employer, in English,

2 Thai documents relating to the company which employs me which were - Company registration document and a document giving details of the company

A stat dec obtained from the Australian Embassy listing all my qualifications and attaching certified true copies. ( Be aware that each certified true copy will cost you 930 Baht, unless you have a friend at the Embassy with the appropriate stamp).

A receipt from the Labour department for form WP3 - essential!

My passport.

As for the hotel, the Continental, The Ritz it's not, but location is excellent for the many attractions around Georgetown, for those of you that cannot live without farang food there is Soho just down the road, Guinness and Kilkenny on tap as well as the usual suspects, pleasant surroundings and reasonable food. The markets are pretty close (walking distance) and the closest mall is also walking distance. The people are friendly and have the advantage of all being able to speak good English, the local food is very good with an infusion of cuisine from all over Asia.

At the end of the day, I was happy with the service provided by Thai Visa travel and would use them again.....hopefully with more notice and subsequent reduction in cost of flights.

Cheers all, next step, change the 3 month single entry to a twelve month multiple!

Edited August 30, 2008 by midasthailand

[bigbadthaijohn]

This is posted in the wrong section. This section is for visas to OTHER countries. Not Thailand.