Parking At Mae Sai

[tung tsz]

New Year Festival Provokes Tighter Security in Mae Sai

"MAE SAI: -- Thai authorities plan to step up surveillance in border regions, particularly around the Mae Sai checkpoint, during the coming New Year Festival.

Pittaya Chinawat, director of the Office of Narcotics Control Board Section 5, told The Irrawaddy today that his office will collaborate with the Thai military and immigration authorities in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces to increase surveillance in high-risk areas along the Thai-Burma border.

Mae Sai, a popular border crossing among tourists in Thailand and Burma, is considered a particularly high-risk area, and Thai authorities are concerned that drug traffickers will attempt to use tourists as carriers. Large crowds are expected to pass through the immigration checkpoint into Tachileik, Burma, during the holiday.

Pittaya warned that tourists may experience delays on the northern route to Mae Sai, as authorities have established additional police and military checkpoints.

“In addition, travelers should also be careful when they park their cars,” Pittaya added. “Drugs may be hidden in your vehicle.”

He further warned travelers not to accept any packages from strangers, particularly from the Burma border area. “We think this time the movement from big traffickers may decrease because they know that we will be watching.”

The increase in surveillance is part of a national drug clearance strategy—first initiated in 2003—which has been in effect since December 20 and will continue until late January 2006. Other features of the strategy include the use of drug-detecting dogs and an x-ray machine to screen cars for hidden caches of drugs.

Mae Sai immigration authorities will also be on the lookout for migrant workers trying to enter the country illegally and smugglers attempting to transport illegal goods into Thailand.

According to Pol Col Jetsada Yaisun, head of the Mae Sai Immigration Office, additional security cameras have been installed around the Mae Sai border checkpoint to track illegal activity such as human trafficking and to monitor Thai travelers who cross the border to gamble in Tachileik.

Mae Sai’s border checkpoint will be open from 6:30 pm to midnight on New Year’s Eve. Thai officials anticipate that some 10,000 people will cross the border each day during New Years celebrations.

--irrawaddy.org 2005-12-27 "

Anyone else notice this in the news clipping forum

Must admit -I never even thought about this when parking in Mae Sai !

tung tsz

[Limbo]

The big hotel on the right before the bridge has a big parking place. You just drive to the bridge and turn to the right into the soi with the little tourist shops, pass the entry of the hotel, cross a little street and you are there. Always two or three boys keeping an eye on things. Give the boys a tip (20 Baht for instance) and you are always welcome back.

If you are guest of the hotel or you are going to enjoy the buffet, use the toilet or whatever, you are entitled to use the parking place.

Problem solved .

Limbo.

[tung tsz]

The big hotel on the right before the bridge has a big parking place. You just drive to the bridge and turn to the right into the soi with the little tourist shops, pass the entry of the hotel, cross a little street and you are there. Always two or three boys keeping an eye on things. Give the boys a tip (20 Baht for instance) and you are always welcome back.

If you are guest of the hotel or you are going to enjoy the buffet, use the toilet or whatever, you are entitled to use the parking place.

Problem solved .

Limbo.

Many Thanks Limbo

tung tsz

[Limbo]

Another alternative is to combine your visit to Mae Sai with a car wash

At the left side of the last traffic lights before the border you will see a Shell gasoline station.

It has an excellent car wash.

You put your car there, do your shopping, visit your friends or whatever and pick up the car when you are done.

Limbo

[PeaceBlondie]

For those who do their visa run on a motorcycle (I did a few times), can you still bear to the left approaching the border bridge, then continue straight ahead in the soi to its end, directly to the bike parking lot at the river's edge, under the bridge? They seemed like decent folks.