I went for my first 30 day tourist visa extension today and was surprised how smooth it went, considering all the reports about a hundred or so people waiting infront of them.

The immigration place was a bit of a hassle to get to from Mo Chit, as the taxi driver didn't really know where to go just by mentioning soi chaeng wattana 7 and it turned out to be 120 baht each way.

I didn't have the form or copies of my passport with me, but it was easily handled in a copyshop in the basement of the building and filling out the form didn't take long.

I got my ticket at 10am with 4 people ahead of me and picked up my extension at 11am, which in my opinion is a very reasonable waiting time for bureaucratic stuff anywhere in the world.

What hassle? You can get a bus direct to Immigration. Too many taxi drivers these days are newly arived from upcountry and haven't a clue where places are in Bangkok. Others will take advantage of your like of Thai and try to add kms to the meter charge. Learn a few basic Thai words for giving directions, of course tht assumes that you know where you are going.

I went for my first 30 day tourist visa extension today and was surprised how smooth it went, considering all the reports about a hundred or so people waiting infront of them.

The immigration place was a bit of a hassle to get to from Mo Chit, as the taxi driver didn't really know where to go just by mentioning soi chaeng wattana 7 and it turned out to be 120 baht each way.

I didn't have the form or copies of my passport with me, but it was easily handled in a copyshop in the basement of the building and filling out the form didn't take long.

I got my ticket at 10am with 4 people ahead of me and picked up my extension at 11am, which in my opinion is a very reasonable waiting time for bureaucratic stuff anywhere in the world.

Yes I had the same experience today. Considering that in April I went for a 30 day extension stamp and it took all day. Yesterday I was there at 10 am and by 11:45 all was done and dusted. Smooth service.

... Others will take advantage of your like of Thai and try to add kms to the meter charge....

Very few taxi drivers are this stupid. This is the non-profitable part of any trip, long periods followed by one-baht on the meter. Taxi drivers pretty much all want to get you to where you are going so they can get another fare, put the flag down again and earn that 35 baht.

This is my experience with taxi drivers here in bangkok too. There service has improved drastically since the new regime. The long wait for a taxi to actually take you somewhere has seemed to have all but gone. This makes a nice change. ;-)

What hassle? You can get a bus direct to Immigration. Too many taxi drivers these days are newly arived from upcountry and haven't a clue where places are in Bangkok. Others will take advantage of your like of Thai and try to add kms to the meter charge. Learn a few basic Thai words for giving directions, of course tht assumes that you know where you are going.

Agree with you !

Its a very easy thing to tell a taxi driver where toi go in BKK !!

Aska taxi driver which rides 10 years in BKK,

how many roads he know ??

What hassle? You can get a bus direct to Immigration. Too many taxi drivers these days are newly arived from upcountry and haven't a clue where places are in Bangkok. Others will take advantage of your like of Thai and try to add kms to the meter charge. Learn a few basic Thai words for giving directions, of course tht assumes that you know where you are going.

What's the number of the bus and where does it leave from in central Bangkok? Thanks in advance..

What hassle? You can get a bus direct to Immigration. Too many taxi drivers these days are newly arived from upcountry and haven't a clue where places are in Bangkok. Others will take advantage of your like of Thai and try to add kms to the meter charge. Learn a few basic Thai words for giving directions, of course tht assumes that you know where you are going.

What bus?

There are bus numbers and etc on this from the immigration website. http://bangkok.immigration.go.th/en/location1.html