Padang Besar and my illegal entry into Thailand.

[Seastallion]

I did my (first ever) visa run a few days ago. Interesting.

I caught a minivan from Hat Yai (50 baht) which dropped me off at the gates of the border crossing area.

Went through Thai Departures ok, and caught a motosy through to Malaysia, stopping at Malaysian Arrivals on the way. I didn't do the U-turn, but decided to have a look around and get some foods.

Not much to see, but the food was distinctly different and nice.

Walked back to the border, stopping at duty-free on the way...they had a buy one get one free promo on Captain Morgan rum, for 40 ringit (400 baht). Very happy with that.

Had I known what would happen next, I would have bought 5 bottles and carried 10 bottles home!

I walked on up to the crossing area and a chap pointed me to the right....odd, that was departures, so where is arrivals? So I walked past the departures windows and found myself out on the main road in Thailand! (Here is where I could have stashed my extra duty-free)

"This is not good, I don't have my arrival stamp" I said to myself, so went back inside the gate and to departures. The chap recognised me and asked me had I been to Malaysia yet. I said yes but now I want to "arrive" in Thailand. A female officer looked worried and demanded to see my passport, then angrily said I have to go "over there" to Arrivals. Ok.

I wandered over to the other side of the Customs House, found the Arrivals window, filled in the form, got my stamp, strolled past Customs guys who weren't the least bit interested in anything I was carrying, and went out into Thailand again.

[phuketsub]

It's been that way for many years. As for duty free, at either Padang or Sadao, if you employ a motorbike taxi that'll double the amount of duty free you can buy, not that they are likely to check.