A tourist leaving Phuket by bus on January 17, told me that at the checkpoint close to the bridge, the bus was stopped and all the passengers had to show their ID. There were like about 6 westerners on the bus, and they also had to show their passports. Most of them had their passports ready, but there also was an elderly Italian couple on the bus who had their passports in their suitcases which were in the luggage department, they had to partially unpack to get them, which made the delay about 10 minutes longer.

My general experience with bus passenger ID checks in border areas is that westerners are left alone, is what happened now a common thing?

Never heard of it happening before, but I see nothing ontoward about it.

I hope the elderly couple learned to always keep valuables with them?

Sometimes got stopped doing the Ranong visa run. Cops wanted to see the passports of everyone in the minibus.

Had to do it about 12 years ago.

My identity was checked only once, in 1993 when leaving Moh Chit bus station in Bangkok, looking not very prosperous carrying my luggage in a large size plastic bag. Oh and once again in Phuket Town in 2013 by an immigration officer, but he let me off the hook when I told him I left my passport in my car.

As the OP said, they were only LIKE Westerners,so they had to be checked.

Was it Police or Army?

I have been checked in the southern bus station by some cheeky try it on police officers in 1999. More recently when travelling by bus from Ubon to Mo Chit the bus was stopped on route 24 close to the Cambodian border. They were looking for red shirts I beleive .

Checking your passport is ok. Stopp[ng and taking a pee test is another matter entirely.

Nothing unusual here. Immigration and Police have the right anytime, any day. That applies to everyone. Ever consider they were looking for some one?

Stiff cheddar if you are on overstay and caught on the way to a border crossing.

85 - 87 I travelled phuket - Bkk more than a few times. Standard practice was for all bus passengers including farangs to be videod by police at the last checkpoint.

Twice that I recall on those trips the bus was stopped at the next checkpoint on the mainland and 1 or 2 passengers were escorted off the bus by police.

Stiff cheddar if you are on overstay and caught on the way to a border crossing.

You shouldn't be on overstay. It's pretty simple. Why foreigners always think they can overstay, not have their visa in order etc... Let your Thai girlfriend try that in Europe and she will be banned right away for a while... up to 10 years.

You shouldn't be on overstay. It's pretty simple. Why foreigners always think they can overstay, not have their visa in order etc... Let your Thai girlfriend try that in Europe and she will be banned right away for a while... up to 10 years.

not in the uk, your gf would be very lucky to get into the uk in the first place, our government prefers spongers from eastern Europe and terrorist muslims

Passports in suitcase and in the cargo hold is a big no-no.

85 - 87 I travelled phuket - Bkk more than a few times. Standard practice was for all bus passengers including farangs to be videod by police at the last checkpoint.

Twice that I recall on those trips the bus was stopped at the next checkpoint on the mainland and 1 or 2 passengers were escorted off the bus by police.

In 1984 I traveled by train from Singapore to Bangkok. After leaving Penang our first stop, if I remember correctly was Hat Yai. All passengers were told to leave their PP's at a railway office on the platform, then ordered to get back on the train and off it went. I was travelling alone in first class. About half an hour or more while the train was travelling along at speed four Thai officers came into my cabin thrust a stack of PP's in my hand and asked me to find mine. I can only assume they were checking each individual foreigner at their leisure which would have been hard to do on a narrow crowded platform. Amazing Thailand

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Passports in suitcase and in the cargo hold is a big no-no.

Not to mention just plain stupid.