Padang Besar Border run.

[Seastallion]

Did it again today.

3 hour round trip. Captain Morgan Rum is still 400 bt for 2 bottles (that's cheaper than Hong Thong @ 239/750 cl!) and the motosy taxi guy who took me on the round trip thru customs (50 baht) said "Customs no problem, you can take 4 bottles, ten bottles, no problem". He was right! Customs only questioned my 4 bottles because they were in the motorbike basket and they thought they belonged to the driver. I showed the receipt....waved through!

Oh, and heaps of quality chocolate at 50% off.

Have to do this more often!

Went through Sadao border a few months ago after a trip to Penang. Duty free was expensive, and no promotions or discounts and not much selection, plus the duty-free shop follow the regs and wont sell over the limit, plus they carry it over for you so Customs scrutinise it quite closely.

Padang's they place to go.

[recom273]

I just completed my 3 monthly visit to Padang Bezar.

I was quite surprised how sloppy this border post has become - It took me a few days to pass my bike test, transfer the bike to my name and obtain a translation of green book, so i was really surprised when i was told i didn't need to check my bike out of Thailand, mai bpen rai and waved through ??? huh ?

All I did in Malaysia was stamp my passport and then I carried on riding though the customs and police without stopping. So seastallion, you could save yourself the hassle of catching a van, just go on your bike - 45 mins to the border and ride yourself round - save a lot of time and money.

I also filled up with petrol, a tank costs 370B in Thailand, but 220B in Malaysia.

I carried on all the way to Alor Setar before returning. It was quite a nice run, its quite refreshing to see flat roads and never once did i see any locals flashing headlights as if its an excuse to kill you after jumping a red light.

When I got back, the IO was too busy chatting to his buddy, he ignored my TM6 card, my 12 month multi-O and just stamped me 30 days exempt without even looking up, just like the good-old days. Crackdown ? huh ? 20,000B, huh ?

I did also see Malaysians handing over 1 RMB notes for a stamp - without a receipt - This OT charge seems to be the norm at Sadao, now it seems accepted here too.

I didn't see any offers on Rum, but there were some good deals on wine, buy 4 get one free.

Edited December 7, 2014 by recom273