Visa Run Reccommendations

[racyrick]

Who has the best, safest and easiest visa run to Penang?

Thanks

[falkan]

fly with firefly or airasia to penang and sort it out your self or you want to sit on a minibus for 20 hours 555

[Ministry of Som Tam]

www.thaiair.com!

[SeanPhuket]

I just had to do an emergency Penang trip.

I went with KBV Visa Run. It had been about 7 years since I last did the Penang trip and boy has it changed- much easier and very fluid now.

Very nice minivans, easy border crossing early in the morning, safe arrival at a nice hotel, gave over passport to hotel 'visa attendant', ate some lovely Muslim food during the day, slept, then got passport back in the morning ready for the trip home. The trip was roughly 48 hours, door to door, with a bag full of Crunchie bars at the end.

No sweat at all, I was very surprised and recommend KBV. I was that pleased I even gave the driver a Tip.

[steelepulse]

As an alternative, airasia to KL for 3K R/T.

[racyrick]

I just had to do an emergency Penang trip.

I went with KBV Visa Run. It had been about 7 years since I last did the Penang trip and boy has it changed- much easier and very fluid now.

Very nice minivans, easy border crossing early in the morning, safe arrival at a nice hotel, gave over passport to hotel 'visa attendant', ate some lovely Muslim food during the day, slept, then got passport back in the morning ready for the trip home. The trip was roughly 48 hours, door to door, with a bag full of Crunchie bars at the end.

No sweat at all, I was very surprised and recommend KBV. I was that pleased I even gave the driver a Tip.

I just had to do an emergency Penang trip.

I went with KBV Visa Run. It had been about 7 years since I last did the Penang trip and boy has it changed- much easier and very fluid now.

Very nice minivans, easy border crossing early in the morning, safe arrival at a nice hotel, gave over passport to hotel 'visa attendant', ate some lovely Muslim food during the day, slept, then got passport back in the morning ready for the trip home. The trip was roughly 48 hours, door to door, with a bag full of Crunchie bars at the end.

No sweat at all, I was very surprised and recommend KBV. I was that pleased I even gave the driver a Tip.

Thanks for the reply.

What type of visa did you get?

Any negatives?

[racyrick]

fly with firefly or airasia to penang and sort it out your self or you want to sit on a minibus for 20 hours 555

Only firefly goes to Penang and the times are no good to get back passport and return to phuket

Also does not fly everday

Do not want to go to KL

Thanks

[gamba]

A few months ago I took for the first time a bus trip and did not fly. I get a 1 year visa. Pay total 4000 baht + visa

fee. The trip did not feel long as I expected. The hotel quite good and the
driver took care of visa and everything. Just have you paper work ready from home and everything are easy. I do the same trip next time. l can recommend the trip with http://ab-phuketvisarun.com

[Ministry of Som Tam]

Good luck to anyone doing a visa run with a Yaa Baa'd up,speeding,untrained driver who is generally unlicensed and will run away leaving everyone for dead in the event of a crash!
The last time I drove myself to The Andaman Club in Ranong I saw just such a crash and 4 people died in it. (Yes,the driver ran off and left the victims for dead!)
Save on intensive care or funeral bills and just fly for the same price!

[GiantFan]

I'm off to Penang early May. Firefly gets me to Penang around 6PM. Drop off PP and docs with agent that night after checking into hotel (Cititel about THB1600 / night). Day 2 is free and easy. Day 3 the agent picks up my PP in the AM and I am on a 2PM flight to Phuket (no need to collect at 2PM like KL). Overall, not a bad little holiday. You need to get off this island once in a while (although Penang is also an island?).

I'm looking forward to the Indian / Malay curries. My mouth is watering.

[IrishIvan]

KL is the way to go. I cant stand Penang. Full of hippies and other undesireable backpackers that choose to avoid soap. I cant believe the way people dress when they go to the consulate in Penang. Hairy armpits everywhere. Caps on backwards. Also the street hookers and bar freelancers would have to be the ugliest women in the world. Much more of a night life and variety in KL, also its easy to get to from Phuket. I just wish Singapore made it easy to get Thai visas there

[Archie Pelago]

KBV Visa run - good outfit. Used them for a Penang run in January.

Sat in the front next to the driver - very safe, did not feel concerned at all with his driving.

Arrived at the Banana Hotel in Chulia Street around 9am on the Friday morning - agent was waiting for our passports.

Excellent buffet breakfast laid on.

Rooms were good, nothing to do that day, so slept until late afternoon, then went and explored Penang with another 2 Brits on the same trip (there were also 6 Russians - nice folk, had a good laugh with them)

Breakfast the next morning (set menu as it was a Saturday). Agent handed us our passports during breakfast - all good.

Chaos at the border on the way back (Thai side) as it was a holiday in Malaysia. Took over an hour to get through Thai immigration.

Stopped for lunch on the way back at about 2pm - excellent meal.

Got back into Phuket around 6pm, dropped back at the hotel in Phuket Town.

Some other funny stories on the way back, but the info above might help.