11 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Just a quick question , not really worth starting a new thread, So I will stick it in here :

   My Thai visa history is :

Tourist visa from Vientiane

Tourist visa from Vientiane

Visa exempt stamp

Visa exempt stamp

Tourist visa from Vientiane

All consecutive . Days maxed out and all extended

Will I have any issues going back to Vientiane for another tourist visa or should I go to Penang next time ?

 

You will for sure get the dreaded RED stamp in your passport if you go to Vientiane again and maybe this would affect the chances you have getting a Tourist Visa from some Thai embassy/consulate in future ,maybe go to Savannakhet just buy a throw away ticket cost 1000 baht and you will get a visa no issues there and if you are long time in Thailand you will get 3 from there as well and of course 20,000 baht.

And if you have used your 2 land border crossings already your snookered if you get refused a tourist visa so for a sure thing I would go Savannakhet as its friendly ,if you don't have these then I would re-think your options.Other members will tell you where to go .

I think Penang is the easiest if down south and the curry is unreal.

 

You can give 500bht bribe at border if you don't have 20k on you.

15 minutes ago, 67Vagabond said:

I just returned from a visa run to Penang.   To clear the air here, if you’re willing to pay a little bit more money (600 baht or so) there is no requirement to show a flight out of Thailand or hotel accommodations to acquire a 60 day tourist visa in Penang via an agent.    Jim’s is the most popular agent there and the fee I was quoted was  190 ringgit with flight and hotel info and 290 ringgit without.  The exchange is 4.15 to US dollar.    

 

There are other agents near Jims and I used one next to Chulia Mansion Hotel and I paid 260 ringgit and only provided two passport photos and an address in the USA and signature.   If you have a flight out of Thailand and hotel info they charge 190 ringgit.   The process with the agent took 2 minutes and I had the next 36 hours or so to myself to look around.       

I highly recommend using an agent as the taxi fare, depending on where you’re staying, will most likely be more than the agent’s fee. 

 

The entire trip to Penang from Bangkok was just over 11,000 baht for two nights.   

Here’s a breakdown of what I spent: 

 

Air Asia R/T flight 3500 baht

Chulia Mansion hotel 2500 baht 

Visa + Agent fee 2150 baht

Four Uber rides.  To and from Airport and two sightseeing trips 440 baht total

Food + Drink 3100 baht. Booze is expensive there. 

 

This trip could be done for about 7000 baht by planning ahead and not drinking while there.  

 

There is no visa requirement to enter Malaysia and so no full page of my passport was used.  The infastructure was good and within 45 minutes of landing I was in my hotel.  I prefer the relatively hassle free visa run to Penang over going to Laos, but to each his own. 

 

Having done both I now prefer vientiane. It really was a breeze and whilst you do have that laos visa for 1500 to account for versus none with penang, it was just much easier IMO and I never had to fly but that is down to my location in the north east. If I was in bkk and had to choose I'd opt for vientiane via a sleeper train. Decent amount of Indian food in vientiane too. The authentic goods in Penang wold have contributed to my budget. Vientiane had none from what I saw so I spent nothing. Nice hand made bags in vientiane but I resisted.