Report: Visa Run To Mai Sai (burma) Piece Of Cake

[tampasailor]

Visa Run to Mai Sai (Burma)

Bkk-Chiang Rai by Thai Asia Air approx 5500bt return. Friends pick me up in CR as they have visa run too. Flight is easy 1 hour and open seating. Pay for food and water. Taxi to downtown CR is 200bt and sign up and pay at airport taxi office. 20 min ride in nice ac quite Toyota with nice driver. Drop off at Doi Chaang Coffee and suck back a Latte and read the paper while I wait for my ride to the border which is an hour away. Cross at Friendship Bridge and declare overstay and pay 500bt per day fine and you are clear to enter Burma. On the Burma side pay 500bt so they will hold your passport for a shopping stay. They give a photo receipt and return to you very quickly on the way back. On the street you will be attacked by a herd of hawkers selling Viagra and Cialis un-relenting. Prices start at 500 bt for pack of 4 reduce quickly to about 80 bt when you show no interest. Apparently this is small fraction of the price in LOS so not sure if they are counterfit or not. Nothing much interesting in the border town but not sure what happens further into the city. Most like me turn around, hit the dufy free for good wine/booze at great prices and go back to Mai Sai for some good food. I packed 10 bottles carefully in a suitcase and brought as checked luggage to BKK no problem. If you buy more than two bottle you will get discount of 10 pct +. The owner of the store (Tim, a lady) wants us to come back! Don't try to carry on as its is not allowed. I'm in for another two weeks and had nice visit with my friends in CR. HK is next and will get a 30 day visa due to airport entry. kup

Edited December 26, 2008 by tampasailor

[ubonjoe]

Nice report and pictures.

Why not spend the money for a trip to Vientiane Laos and get a 60 day tourist visa (1 or 2 entry) that can be extended for 30 days per entry.

[tampasailor]

Nice report and pictures.

Why not spend the money for a trip to Vientiane Laos and get a 60 day tourist visa (1 or 2 entry) that can be extended for 30 days per entry.

I wanted to go to Vte but the flights I needed were booked and I am going to HK befor my next expire and can do the TV then but might have to return to US soon too. How is Vte for a run and a few days holiday? I might try again as have friends living there and an opportunity to explore some.

Please find the prices listed below for your trip to Loas Departing

23 December and returning to Bangkok 26 December.

Ticket Price: 8,615 THB

Booking Class Economy

Total Price: 8,615 THB

[IMA_FARANG]

Visa Run to Mai Sai (Burma)

Bkk-Chiang Rai by Thai Asia Air approx 5500bt return. Friends pick me up in CR as they have visa run too. Flight is easy 1 hour and open seating. Pay for food and water. Taxi to downtown CR is 200bt and sign up and pay at airport taxi office. 20 min ride in nice ac quite Toyota with nice driver. Drop off at Doi Chaang Coffee and suck back a Latte and read the paper while I wait for my ride to the border which is an hour away. Cross at Friendship Bridge and declare overstay and pay 500bt per day fine and you are clear to enter Burma. On the Burma side pay 500bt so they will hold your passport for a shopping stay. They give a photo receipt and return to you very quickly on the way back. On the street you will be attacked by a herd of hawkers selling Viagra and Cialis un-relenting. Prices start at 500 bt for pack of 4 reduce quickly to about 80 bt when you show no interest. Apparently this is small fraction of the price in LOS so not sure if they are counterfit or not. Nothing much interesting in the border town but not sure what happens further into the city. Most like me turn around, hit the dufy free for good wine/booze at great prices and go back to Mai Sai for some good food. I packed 10 bottles carefully in a suitcase and brought as checked luggage to BKK no problem. If you buy more than two bottle you will get discount of 10 pct +. The owner of the store (Tim, a lady) wants us to come back! Don't try to carry on as its is not allowed. I'm in for another two weeks and had nice visit with my friends in CR. HK is next and will get a 30 day visa due to airport entry. kup

My Thai girlfriend has a friend who travels often to Mae Sai for business reasons. She always asks her friend to buy black market DVDs in Mae Sai. She is addicted to those Korean "sopa opera" type stories. You can buy Korean DVDs at big discount over even Thai prices in Mae Sai. Good quality too. I understand they are in Korean, but with Thai subtitles.

[ubonjoe]

I wanted to go to Vte but the flights I needed were booked and I am going to HK befor my next expire and can do the TV then but might have to return to US soon too. How is Vte for a run and a few days holiday? I might try again as have friends living there and an opportunity to explore some.

Please find the prices listed below for your trip to Loas Departing

23 December and returning to Bangkok 26 December.

Ticket Price 8,615 THB

Booking Class Economy

Total Price: 8,615 THB

Vientiane is not bad for a visit. Lots to see. Take your girl friend along she would enjoy it and help you get around. If she has a passport she doesn't need a visa. Or she can get a border pass for 30 baht.

You can fly to Udon for less money than to Vientiane. If you get a visa at the Lao embassy in Bangkok you can take a bus direct to Vientiane from Udon.

If you want to make it easy and don't mind spending the weekend you can apply for your visa on Friday morning and have it back Monday afternoon at 1. Friday is least busy day at consulate.

Monday is not a good day for visa app. it's very busy.

See the last few pages of this 30 page topic for lots of good info.

Link: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Vientiane-La...sa-t158561.html

If you go to the states most honorary Thai consulates will give a quick turn around for visas applications mailed in. Houston is real good from personal exeperience.

Use the pull down menu for a list near top of this web page of the DC embassy.

Link: http://www.thaiembdc.org/AboutEmb/EmbDirect.aspx

[wimpy]

how did you get ten bottles across the border??

[TerryLH]

Technically, shouldn't the title be 'border run' instead of visa run?

[Maestro]

Yes. Technically, a lot of things regarding visas, extensions and permissions to stay should be called something different from most people are calling them but some terms have become so ingrained that it would be futile to try and change them.

--

Maestro

[Lite Beer]

Post containing prices of various types of Viagra deleted. Off Topic.

[tampasailor]

how did you get ten bottles across the border??

You are legally supposed to only have 3 bottles but you are not checked and they dont care I am told. I had a cheap 260b zipper suite case. Duty Free Ms Tim put them all in bubble pack sleeves for me and its routine to do this there. The bigger problem was getting them home to bkk and packing carefully for check in baggage. Dont try to carry on as all carry on is carfully checked and bottles of liquid not allowed in the aircraft and you will have to dispose of at the airport. I have a friend in Chiang Rai who comes over to Burma once in a while and carries wine back by the case in a wheel baggage thingie. She is us citizen and doesnt need visa run as she is resident.

I buy at duty free just as I leave the Burma side and when I come to the Thai side I just get my passport back and check in at the window and they stamp me in and thats it. No physical checks at all. They look at my face and my passport and stamp stamp in I go. As easy as going to a movie. Am I taking a bit pigeon? I am really trying hard not to 555. Time go go statside soon for a while!! kup!

[tampasailor]

Technically, shouldn't the title be 'border run' instead of visa run?

Main reason for the run was for my visa which was due. I try and kill two birds when I make a run, Dont you think its a good idea? And I had a visit with my Chiang Rai friends too. Three birds with one stone!!

[ubonjoe]

Technically, shouldn't the title be 'border run' instead of visa run?

Main reason for the run was for my visa which was due. I try and kill two birds when I make a run, Dont you think its a good idea? And I had a visit with my Chiang Rai friends too. Three birds with one stone!!

You did not get a visa. You got a visa exempt entry. So it was a border run. Or even better would be to a call it a re-entry run.

A visa run is going to Consulate and getting a visa.

[tampasailor]

Vientiane is not bad for a visit. Lots to see. Take your girl friend along she would enjoy it and help you get around. If she has a passport she doesn't need a visa. Or she can get a border pass for 30 baht.

You can fly to Udon for less money than to Vientiane. If you get a visa at the Lao embassy in Bangkok you can take a bus direct to Vientiane from Udon.

Ubonjoe thanks for the info. This is my first extended stay but will be coming more often for longer periods so need to get the visa situation tweaked. I will go to HK on business shortly so that will give me 30 days on return I believe which will carry me till its time to go back to the states for a while. I will probably return for 2-3 months again in Nov 09 and lots of time to get a proper visa from the embassy in the US. I wish I had known about the Udon flight earlier and I could have probably gone there instead of up North as I need to visit friends in Vte. Relatives of folks I know in Clearwater Florida who own the Chiang Mai restaurant there! Yes she is Lao and he is Hawaiian 555. They bought the place and wont change the name.

More photos of Mai Sai and the Burma Crossing here http://picasaweb.google.com/lymanduggan/MAISAIThailand#

[tampasailor]

Here are prices from the duty free on the way back to LOS

French bordeau

Chateau Franc Perat 2002 590.00

Chateau Sainte Marie 2005 550.00

Chateau Vrai Caillou 2003 420.00

Chateau Lemayne Barreau 2005 299.00

Mouton Cadet 2006 399.00

Millet Cab - Meriot 2004 199.00

Bombay Sapphire Gin 100CL 500.00