Savannakhet Report (+ some weird mistakes by the consulate?)

[banglassie]

Ok, so I finally got it all sorted out.

Took a flight to Ubon and a bus to Mukdahan, slept a night at ploy Palace, really nice place and not that expensive for the standard. However, I had been ignorant enough to forget it was a public holiday the next day, so I was stuck in Muk for another day.

I changed hotel due to price (and to see something else) and went to Riverfront. Nice as well. Not at classy as Ploy, but well worth the money.

Went for the breakfast 7:00 and was at the bus station about 8:00, took the bus to Laos 8:30.

Met some other visa travelers and we shared a taxi to the consulate. It was all very straight forward.

I handed them the a printed form I had filled in before + 2 photos,

a copy of marriage certificate,

a copy of my wife's ID and wife's Passport,

Copy of 'Tabian baan' book + a copy of her income, all signed.

+ a copy of my passport. And the 5000 baht fee

I know the copy of her passport and her income was unnecessary, but better safe than sorry.

It all took about 10 minutes max. and then we all went to Bon Cafe for a gruesome long wating... At 15:00 the tuktuk came and picked us up. And we went back to the consulate (after he had to pick up his brother, no stress in Laos).

The line when we came back was long, but it all went rather fast when they opened the doors, after all we where all only there to pick up our passports.

All set and ready we jumped into the tuktuk again and headed for the border. By this time I had found out a mistake in my passport, there was an extra digit in my the passport-number stated at my visa. My number is 8184****, but they had written 88184****, needless to say it made me worry a bit. But it was too late to do anything about that now. (Lesson learned, always double check).

We stamped out of Laos, the counter wanted 40 baht for 'Overtime' which he claimed was after 16:00, fun thing is it wasn't even 16:00 yet. Our French companions asked for a recipe, which he of course could not produce, instead he just closed the counter. So we headed to the next counter and finally we where out of Laos again (40 baht may seem like nothing, was I alone I would probably just have payed it, but then again it's better to not feed any corruption no matter how small).

So time for more waiting. After 40 minutes or so the bus arrived and we went over to the Thai side. Nobody seemed to say anything about my weird passport-number in my new non imm "o" visa. And I got stamped in for 3 months. I'm still abit confused how this could have happen (not only where the passport number is written on the visa, but at the bottom where all the personal information in code-format is written as well).

Anyway, we got stamped in and that was about it. Next time I will fly into Thailand, since IF someone would ever have a problem with this little incident I presume it's better to come in by air, and the immigration has already accepted my visa, so I would like to hear what reason they might have to not accept it the next time.. But I did everything by the book and kept my recipe, so I guess (hope) it could not turn in to a bigger problem.

Would I be better off going to Chaeng wattana and try to clarify it now? Or should I just ignore it like I had never seen it? usually I never notice stuff like this, it was just a pure coincidence.

I am not too fond of returning to Mukdahan at the moment after just returning to Bkk with the bus this morning.

But if necessary I could do it again in three months, but I prefer not to loose 5000 baht again for a ridiculous mistake like this.

All in all it was very painless. Way easier than Vientiane, however there where instances where I would have preferred Vientiane for the fact that you can return to your hotel, have a beer and get some sleep and then head out to pick up your passport the next day. The waiting part was not all that fun, but nothing worthy to complain about really except if looking for flaws.

So that's it, the non imm "o" based on marriage was still very straight forward.

One of the other visa companions was heading for a non imm "o" based on retirement, but he had no problems as well. nor had the two volunteers or the English teacher.

Great consulate, good service and all in all very straight forward.

Not much more to say.

Thanks to Ubonjoe, Litebeer and others who gave me valuable information on the way, would have been hard to do it without your sound advices!

[ubonjoe]

I am not sure immigration even pays attention to the passport number on the visa. If they did it would be such an obvious mistake it should never be a problem. They apparently hit 8 twice or pushed the key down to long.

[banglassie]

That's what I hoped to hear I would assume the Visa number is more important, I'm assuming they have information connected to the Visa number and my passport stored somewhere would the question ever come up.

[wpcoe]

Greetings, banglassie. I was the American you hung out with that day.

One incident, which I found odd and a bit inconvenient, was that while the four (five? wasn't there another foreigner completing the forms?) of us non-Thai/non-Lao travellers completed the visa-on-arrival formalities after crossing the Friendship Bridge, the bus for which we had paid B45, departed to Savannakhet without us. Our only options were tuk-tuk or taxi, or wait an hour for the next bus. So, we shared a taxi.

I recall that our bus had departed the Thai Immigrations point at exactly 0900, and that by 0925 we were already in the taxi to Savannakhet, so it didn't take *that* long for us to clear Lao Immigrations.

The incident with the Lao Immigrations officer asking for the B40 overtime fee from the French gal was too funny. Her French husband had just been processed (without the overtime fee) and was standing off to the side waiting for his wife. Then -- slam! -- the window closed and all of us in line had to get to the end of the queue at the adjacent kiosk. The other kiosk did not charge the overtime fee.

[KED]

There are times when you cannot afford the "overtime" fee but glad you pushed back even if it meant waiting longer. The more we refuse to give tea money - the more often these scams wither and die, hopefully. Allbeit, I understand there are times when the government/police/other official does create unwarranted obstaces that cannot be bypassed without a bribe.

[paz]

One incident, which I found odd and a bit inconvenient, was that while the four (five? wasn't there another foreigner completing the forms?) of us non-Thai/non-Lao travellers completed the visa-on-arrival formalities after crossing the Friendship Bridge, the bus for which we had paid B45, departed to Savannakhet without us. Our only options were tuk-tuk or taxi, or wait an hour for the next bus. So, we shared a taxi.

When I was been there, I was thinking the same, but I was wrong. The Thai bus does not continue in town goes back to Mukdahan after taking up people waiting for it. Only if you wait a good while, then the Laos bus turns up. You see that is a left hand driven bus. So eventually it brings you to the bus station.

[wpcoe]

Thanks for that clarification, paz.. I think we all thought the same bus would continue on to Savannakhet. Good to know in case I ever have to do this again. How much is the fare from the bridge to Savannakhet?

[hullupullo]

Everytime I have been there, same bus from Mukdahan busstation to Savannakhet busstation and vice versa.

[teatree]

Similar thing happened to me. An 8 in my pp number turned into a B on the visa.

Since getting the visa last month I have come back into Bangkok via the airport and had no probs.