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Schatten posted:BigSuave - thank you. Very informative post! Esp about the bug spray - mosquitoes love me =( Happy to help. This thread was infinitely helpful for me and in fact inspired my trip in the first place so I'm happy to contribute whatever I can to other's experiences. Yeah the mosquitoes love my sweet sweet blood too so I'm very conscious about that. Basically the more DEET the better. You can buy 95% DEET in little spray bottles but they're crazy expensive for like an ounce of the stuff and that seems a bit overkill but it's good to know you have the option I guess. I've only been here a bit longer than a month so I definitely don't have the experience of some like Rhombus, Ringo, ReindeerF, Sheep Goats, et al, but those are just my observations from the last several weeks. Like i81icu812 said, if I could tell myself these things a month ago that's what I would say but it's definitely not the end-all-be-all of Thai travel tips, just one man's experience. i81icu812, it sounds like we have/had the same plans so much it's scary. I flew into BKK for a few days, headed down south for a couple weeks and then popped back up to BKK for a couple days to catch the train up to CM, where I've been sucked into for the last week even though I honestly think it's not that great and full of hippie wannabe-locals. All entirely by the seat of my pants or by meeting other travelers going places and being like "that sounds fun, I'll come with and we can kick it". That said, I do respect Mr. ReindeerF's opinion so I may come back this way for Songkran and do my CM -> Pai -> Mae Hon Song bike trip then, when hopefully the weather will be a bit less crap. I hadn't heard of Sukothai before but that also sounds like a bit more my speed because I can only party on 2-3 hours sleep for so these days before I want to kill myself. Time will tell I suppose. Still trying to get my phone sorted. I'm going to be pissed if I permanently locked it or something. I guess worst case I'll just buy a burner and put my SIM card in there but I'll be a sad panda if I have to carry a phone and an iPod(phone) around like it was 2005 all over again.
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Mar 17, 2011 19:58
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Smiley Face posted:Our plan was to go into Thailand for 30 days (due to free 30 day visa), travel south and then fly up to Laos. Our first question is, which airport would be best to depart from in Southern Thailand and which would be best to arrive at in Laos? It's not southern Thailand, but Kuala Lumpur is close enough and Air Asia do Kuala Lumpur to Vientiane for $cheap. Otherwise, I'd fly from Phuket to Chiang Mai (again on Air Asia) and attack Laos overland from there. You'd cross the border at Huay Xai, and float down the Mekong from there... Malaysia is well worth a couple of weeks, particularly Borneo - Sarawak and Sabah. KL is missable, Penang is pretty cool, and the rest of the peninsula is interesting and delicious. Finch! fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Mar 17, 2011 |
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Mar 17, 2011 23:37
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Steve. posted:It's not southern Thailand, but Kuala Lumpur is close enough and Air Asia do Kuala Lumpur to Vientiane for $cheap. Otherwise, I'd fly from Phuket to Chiang Mai (again on Air Asia) and attack Laos overland from there. You'd cross the border at Huay Xai, and float down the Mekong from there... We would love to do this but as far as we were aware the visa we get when entering is only ok if you have proof you are going to exit the country by plane, or is this wrong? If we just book a very cheap plane ticket out, which we don't actually use, would this still count?
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Mar 18, 2011 00:03
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Songkran in Chiang Mai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtEKvBI_4Ws After living here I'm like every other expat and find the whole thing increasingly annoying, but it's impossible for me to hate it personally because it's so drat cute to look at. I just try to hide after the first day - unfortunately when it ends is totally arbitrary and different areas celebrate it at different times, so you'll think you're safe and find yourself in the middle of a week-late Songkran festival. Anyhow, yeah, it's a lot of fun the first couple of times - can't recommend it enough.
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Mar 18, 2011 00:13
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Smiley Face posted:We would love to do this but as far as we were aware the visa we get when entering is only ok if you have proof you are going to exit the country by plane, or is this wrong? If we just book a very cheap plane ticket out, which we don't actually use, would this still count? The visa for Thailand? It's kinda wrong - you'll almost certainly get 30 days visa free when arriving by air, but anybody who enters is required to have evidence of onward travel. Doesn't matter how. With some trickery it's possible to, uh, draft an itinerary in a very convincing manner... for example, the booking confirmation for a Firefly flight from Koh Samui to Kuala Lumpur is just a text document attached to an email. In fact, it looks strikingly similar to this one, but with correct passenger and address information (note that the file name of the text document, booking reference, booking date, and the name are all imaginary but are in the same format as the real thing): code:Another option for avoiding this is just to get a 60 day multiple entry tourist visa for Thailand in advance. They were free for a while, I'm not sure if they still are. Either way, they're cheap enough. It would be worth having one if regional, overland travel is planned. Bangkok is a great travel hub.
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Mar 18, 2011 00:35
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ReindeerF posted:Songkran in Chiang Mai: Don't be such a hater. You just need to get into the spirit and carry two big super soakers around everywhere with you. For protection na! Gonna be in BKK but not until a week after Songkran 
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Mar 18, 2011 02:07
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Steve. posted:Not that I'd do such a thing, of course - but the option is there. If they check , you're boned. I've never been asked for evidence of onward travel when arriving in Thailand, only when departing from somewhere to Thailand by air. This is because if I am refused entry to Thailand, the carrier who took me there is responsible for getting me home or somewhere I'm allowed to be. Weird. Is this a US thing or something? I go to Thailand every 3 months or so and I'm still yet to ever be asked for proof of onward travel (when I enter on my Australian passport rather than my Thai passport obviously)
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Mar 18, 2011 02:11
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brendanwor posted:Weird. Is this a US thing or something? I go to Thailand every 3 months or so and I'm still yet to ever be asked for proof of onward travel (when I enter on my Australian passport rather than my Thai passport obviously) It's not so much an entering Thailand thing, but a leaving-somewhere-for-Thailand thing. I'm Australian, and the only time I've been asked for evidence that I'm actually planning to leave Thailand and not enjoy some kind of permanent illegal existence has been when checking in for flights to Thailand: in Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur, and in Brunei. Arriving in Thailand... I've never been asked. Even the consulate here in Adelaide, when giving me a multiple entry visa, were only interested in how I was getting there (so they could give the visa the right start date, I guess) but didn't care how or when I was going to leave.
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Mar 18, 2011 02:19
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Steve. posted:It's not so much an entering Thailand thing, but a leaving-somewhere-for-Thailand thing. I'm Australian, and the only time I've been asked for evidence that I'm actually planning to leave Thailand and not enjoy some kind of permanent illegal existence has been when checking in for flights to Thailand: in Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur, and in Brunei. Arriving in Thailand... I've never been asked. Even the consulate here in Adelaide, when giving me a multiple entry visa, were only interested in how I was getting there (so they could give the visa the right start date, I guess) but didn't care how or when I was going to leave. Yeah that's what I'm saying though, I've never experienced it from departure points OS either. Maybe I'm just lucky though  On a totally different topic, for those of us here who can understand Thai, http://www.farangland.net/ site I just came across consisting totally of vaguely weird comedy farangs-speaking-Thai videos (pretty good Thai as well)
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Mar 18, 2011 03:08
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brendanwor posted:Yeah that's what I'm saying though, I've never experienced it from departure points OS either. Maybe I'm just lucky though Ah, gotcha. I guess I must look untrustworthy
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Mar 18, 2011 04:26
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Just chiming in to agree with the above. When I flew in I was a bit nervous because my return ticket is semi open-ended and the set return date was way outside 30 days but they never asked to see anything. It's one of those things that I think is technically a rule but, as you can see, they don't really enforce it at all. Maybe if you look like a smelly hippie hobo with no money who is looking to take advantage of their sweet social system (I'm looking at you, Steve.) then maybe they'll ask but yeah just keep an "itinerary" like the one posted above if you want to be really safe but I guarantee you won't have any problem as long as you are "wearing shoes" and "don't keep your dreadlocks in one of those poofy red, yellow, and green rasta hats" and "smell like patchouli". These are the things the really look out for. As ha been said many times before, they're all about appearances here. Wear a shirt with a collar on your flight (even if it's just a polo shirt) and some long pants that aren't tattered and you will breeze through customs no problem. Oh, one more pro tip: on the immigration form they give you I'm no expert but I would avoid checking the "no income" and probably the "seeking employment" box as well just to be safe. Have fun! E: Misread your post, Steve. Yeah I could see your carrier checking before you go because, as mentioned, if you do get rejected at the border it's their responsibility to fly you out of there. But again, nothing a quick fake itinerary can't fix - it's not like the stewardess is going to call up bumfuck air and confirm the reservations of every passenger. BigSuave fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Mar 18, 2011 |
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Mar 18, 2011 06:36
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brendanwor posted:Yeah that's what I'm saying though, I've never experienced it from departure points OS either. Maybe I'm just lucky though Of course if you have a visa you don't need proof of onward travel, only if you're getting the stamp. I always just show my work permit re-entry visa stamp and they wave me in.
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Mar 18, 2011 08:26
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BigSuave posted:Maybe if you look like a smelly hippie hobo with no money who is looking to take advantage of their sweet social system (I'm looking at you, Steve.) Hey, I'll have you know that there's not a dreadlock on my body and that I smell of roses (but not in a grandmotherly manner) and that my wallet is bulging with cash 
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Mar 18, 2011 08:55
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Yes, you will need Lao and Vietnamese visas in advance. Actually you should be able to get a Lao visa at the border (Friendship Bridge) but IIRC it's only 15 days, might as well get it in advance. Have a travel company do them for a nominal fee while you're in Bangkok (although you will need to set an entry date for the Vietnam visa). You can do it yourself, but it's generally not that much more to have someone else do it for you, and you don't have to waste half a day + cab fare to and from the embassy/consulate. Getting a lao visa in advance is definetly a good idea. I took a plane to udon thani (very cheap with air asia) and took the bus from there to vientiane. They will not let you on the bus if you don't have a visa. Otherwise everyone else on the bus would have to wait while you get one at the border.
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Mar 18, 2011 13:49
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Thank you for all the help everyone. We are probably just going to buy the cheapest tickets we can find out of Thailand just to be safe - I'm a bit of a worrier! Can't wait for this trip, it starts about 5 days after my contract at this job ends so I'm just getting more and more excited!
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Mar 18, 2011 14:12
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So many people have told me that Chiang Mai has a way of sucking you in and many people plan on just visiting for a few days and stay for months. I can't claim to understand this phenomenon (maybe it's the cheap rent) but I have to say it's definitely worked its way into me. As I was saying before this has been my least favorite city in Thailand. I shouldn't still be here. Yet I've been here over a week now and will be around for a few more days most likely. I can't quite explain why but it does just suck you in, even if you hate it. In unrelated news, does anyone know if the government has been cracking down on Valium (diazepam) sales in the pharmacies lately? When I was in Bangkok last month every place had it for like 10 baht/pill and even as recently as two weeks ago when I was on the islands it was no problem to find. When I flew into Bangkok last week I was looking for some more (for you teetotalers out there know that I do have a legit prescription back in the states for GAD, if you must know) and every place was like 'no, must go to clinic/hospital for that'. One or two places have copped to having it but they wanted 250 baht for a ten-pack, which is a bit ridiculous. Even in Chiang Mai, where apparently drugs are all over, I'm having trouble finding a pharmacy that will sell it and I really don't want to have to deal with another Thai clinic. I called my doctor back home but he said he couldn't really help me other than maybe to verify to the local doc that I've been on it because (obviously) he can't write prescriptions outside the US. Anybody know if there's been a recent crackdown this month or something? I'm in a bit of a pickle because if you abruptly stop benzos like diazepam you can have seizures and I'm not trying to have a seizure while on vacation in Thailand. Edit: Another delicate question for you guys. So I've finally given in, embraced the local culture, and tried the ol' hose to the bum in place of toilet paper (mainly due to the lack of the latter in a lot of the less touristy areas). I don't have a problem with it but there is one thing I don't understand that I'm hoping you can help with. I find after I give myself a good spray down I'm nice and clean down there but my rear end is dripping with water which drips down my legs, leaving me with a moist rear end, balls, and thighs. I'm accurate with the spray so it's not like I'm just soaking my lower half but gravity being the cruel mistress it is things just drip down. Am I doing something wrong here? Am I supposed to towel off afterward or something? I know some people just hose off a little and use their finger to do the cleaning but that seems disgusting so I just let the high pressure water do the trick for several seconds until everything is clean on its own. Am I using too much water? Seriously, what do people do because I can't imagine they just walk around with a wet rear end all day but I'm not finding an alternative short of drying off with a bit of TP after, which kind of defeats the whole purpose. What am I doing wrong here or is that just how they roll? Inquiring minds I'm just thankful I haven't had to use the bucket and finger (yet) where there's no running water/hose, like I've seen in some places. BigSuave fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Mar 18, 2011 |
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Mar 18, 2011 15:06
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I'm yet to figure out the bum gun, too. Same problem as you. I've taken to bum gunning then wiping with some kind of paper/baby wipe. Which is a problem on trains with no TP readily available. I thought I was really getting down with Thailand when, on a train, I used the squatter AND bum gun only to find nothing to wipe with and my bag was all the way back in my compartment...  Regarding Chiang Mai: I'm not a fan, either. I tried to like it, but after only a few days I just had to get out. A friend's friend lives there, and she visited for a month and absolutely loved it. I don't get it.
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Mar 18, 2011 21:46
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Glad I'm not the only one. The baby wipe doesn't sound like a bad idea, actually.
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Mar 19, 2011 05:33
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I have literally wiped my rear end with Cambodian money when I got caught out taking a dump with no BYO TP.
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Mar 19, 2011 06:05
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Pompous Rhombus posted:I have literally wiped my rear end with Cambodian money when I got caught out taking a dump with no BYO TP. Lucky it's worth less than the toilet paper you would have paid for, then!
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Mar 19, 2011 06:59
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First of all the rear end sprayer rules. If I ever stop being so poor as to actually own a home the first loving thing I'm going to put in is an rear end sprayer. Second, no Thai person has ever been able to give me a name in Thai or otherwise for the rear end sprayer. So I doubt there are any rules as to its use. I can tell you for sure that they don't jam a finger up their rear end when a sprayer is available though. The old bucket of water technique is usually done with a finger and then washing the finger, but that isn't in vogue in Thailand any more (for hot rear end finger action check out the jungles of Indonesia and/or the streets of Mumbai). Third, you bring a little packet of tissues or some TP with you and use that to dab your butt/balls/whatever else dry. If you have a house in Thailand you just use your bathtowel to dry off before putting your pants back on (you probably took them off outside of the bathroom because your bathroom probably doesn't have a shower curtain so the floor is probably still wet from one of your daily showers). If you forget your drying apparatus then you have to make do, but it is Thailand so going outside for a couple of minutes will probably dry anything out that's wet. Fourth, the Thai elderly population doesn't have nearly the problem with hemorrhoids that the US population does. They also go through a lot less toilet paper. rear end sprayer comes out ahead on all counts. Fifth, there is one bathroom in MBK that has rear end sprayers (it's the one nearest Tokyu on the floor where you come in from the skytrain walkway -- second floor I think...) and that one often has a line for the shitters even while the others are vacant because people know this. Sixth, someone please post some pictures of rear end sprayers. raton fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Mar 20, 2011 |
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Mar 20, 2011 06:40
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As requested, here is some hot and wet rear end sprayer action.
BigSuave fucked around with this message at 12:20 on Mar 20, 2011 |
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Mar 20, 2011 08:53
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Pompous Rhombus posted:I have literally wiped my rear end with Cambodian money when I got caught out taking a dump with no BYO TP. On the rear end sprayer, those things are awesome. It took me a year before I even touched one, but now I can't go back. I told a friend once back in the US, "I am like 10,000x cleaner on a daily basis thanks to those things." He sort of laughed derisively as if to imply that this was ridiculous, so I came back with, "Hey, every day when you wake up to get ready for work, do you go into the bathroom and towel off or do you take a shower? GAME SET MATCH THX."
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Mar 20, 2011 09:12
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Make sure the rear end sprayer you use has its own water source and isn't attached to the flush tank. I learned that the hard way once when I used an older model on Samui that was attached to the tank and brown poo poo water dribbled out of it. I opened up the tank and it was full of nasty uncleaned backwash from flushing. Luckily it didn't touch any part of my body yet.
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Mar 20, 2011 09:31
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Don't tell me these things.
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Mar 20, 2011 11:57
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loving Chiang Mai. I meant to get out of here four or five days ago but my current travel buddy has been violently ill for the last 4 days and is reluctant to get on a train to BKK and then on to Laos after a couple days. If this continues I may just move on without him because I have a Thai friend flying in to BKK today who is going to show me the local side of things and possibly get me a job and she's only in town for a couple weeks. Plus my new visa only has a week left and I don't want to have to pay for a visa run just a couple days before I head to Laos anyway because I'm a cheap gently caress like that. He's also a bit stupid. His visa expired in January and he has done nothing so far to correct the situation. Do you think two months is too long of an overstay to bribe a border guard? I told him he may be able to slip like 5,000 baht in his passport (which would be way cheaper than paying the fine) but it's a bit of a gamble because if the guy doesn't take it then he's hosed so I said he should probably talk to a good international lawyer in Bangkok so as not to get blacklisted when he leaves the country. In other news my phone is still not working. I don't know if it has to do with the carrier settings update (which I doubt because from what I know about carrier settings updates [admittedly not much] is they just effect how you connect to the data network, not the phone network) or if my phone is just broken (it has been acting funny lately) or maybe there's just no TRUE coverage where I am but I doubt that because I used my phone in CM before with no trouble. I'm going to try my SIM in someone else's phone and see how it goes since that will at least narrow down the problem. If the SIM and network are working fine I guess I'll just buy a cheap burner phone and use my iPhone as an iTouch until I can get it repaired (maybe in BKK). Also, for the record, Mr. Goats, I stayed one night at a place on Koh Tao that had the bucket and no running water to the toilet so you had to manually flush with the bucket as well and not everything would make it down. Bad times. Luckily I had BYO TP then so I never had to use it to clean myself but flushing was still a pain. E: i81icu812, I tried to PM you regarding meeting up but it appears you don't have plat. Shoot me an e-mail at BigSuaveSA on gmail and maybe we can set something up. If my Kiwi travel buddy is still sick for another day or two I'm probably going to leave him to die and move on on my own, freeing up my plans a bit. I was going to head to Laos next but I do miss the islands so I wouldn't mind going down there for a week or so, maybe do some climbing, and then heading back north. I think I'm going to do Songkram in Chiang Mai but we would still have a week or so to kill before that so maybe I'll hit Laos then, which you'd be welcome to come along with. Anyway, like I said, shoot me an e-mail and we can possibly work something out. I would just say call me when you get here but for the time being my phone is hosed. BigSuave fucked around with this message at 12:40 on Mar 20, 2011 |
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Mar 20, 2011 12:32
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BigSuave posted:He's also a bit stupid. His visa expired in January and he has done nothing so far to correct the situation. Do you think two months is too long of an overstay to bribe a border guard? I told him he may be able to slip like 5,000 baht in his passport (which would be way cheaper than paying the fine) but it's a bit of a gamble because if the guy doesn't take it then he's hosed so I said he should probably talk to a good international lawyer in Bangkok so as not to get blacklisted when he leaves the country. They recently cracked down on overstays, he is going to get arrested and deported at a minimum (plus a big fine). He needs to talk to his embassy and a lawyer, best done in Bangkok.
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Mar 20, 2011 13:18
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The overstay advice changes pretty regularly. There's an arbitrary time limit below which the immigration office will tell you to just go to the airport and pay your fee on the way out. Otherwise he needs to go to immigration, not the border, and ask to take care of it there. Unfortunately, the official line varies by week and by who's running immigration, so the safest thing to do is to go to immigration either way just to check. If he tries to exist on a huge overstay there's a chance they'll mess with him a bit. This is one of those things that's not about bribes or anything, it's just bureaucratic. Two months isn't the end of the world, but it's long enough that he should go to immigration himself with some humility and ask to correct the problem. It's either going to be "Go to the airport and pay it there" whereupon the fee will be thousands of Baht or it's going cost thousands of Baht in fines and a via extension at immigration. Either way, he's not going to slide on this one.
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Mar 20, 2011 13:20
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It used to be that you could go to the airport with a plane ticket and 20,000b to pay the max fine for overstay but there was some rumors going around that they now detain people for a minimum "processing" period of a couple days to a week. However, most people seem to get off the hook doing this all the time. You hear about multi-year overstayers and all they do is pay that 20,000 fine and then enter back into the country. Blacklisting is really rare unless it's a serious criminal violation or you write some books about royalty/high powered political person or something. edit: Oh yeah I really wouldn't try to bribe immigration guys in the well traveled border checkpoints. They put up with nonsense all the time and most of the ones I have seen absolutely despise foreigners. I remember I accidently forgot to sign that arrival/departure card once and the dude literally tossed my passport at me. Modus Operandi fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Mar 20, 2011 |
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Mar 20, 2011 14:02
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Yeah, so it sounds like bribing his way out is nixed. Money doesn't seem to be an issue for him (he's an older fellow and keeps 300,000 baht in his hotel safe with more on the way from his lawyer) so I'm just going to drag him to an international lawyer in Bangkok and see what he says about going to the immigration office and pleading with them. I just don't want to see the guy spend a week in Thai jail or anything but, again, he seems to have enough cash to avoid that one way or another. Is taking a shady boat across the Mekong into Laos and then returning out of the question? I've heard of someone doing that but it was a long time ago. Do they check to see that you have your latest exit stamp at the border? This is just more out of curiosity since I'll definitely make him go to a lawyer and get it sorted with immigration in BKK because that seems like the way to go. Anyone have any recommendations for a good international or immigration lawyer in the Bangkok area? Since I'm becoming a bit of a vaccine addict while I'm here I may take the opportunity in Bangkok to go back to the clinic and get my Rabies, Typhoid, Influenza, and Cholera jabs just to be totally covered since I haven't had any shots other than my Hep A/B in like 20 years. I might be going to some bumfuck backwater areas in Laos and Cambodia so better safe than sorry, especially after seeing my buddy deal with the violent shits for the last week. I swear I'm not a hypochondriac but it's just so drat cheap. Like a drug dealer in the states, the first one is basically free until they get you to keep coming back again and again. i81icu812, if you're planning on going to the clinic for your Hep A/B I'd be happy to wait until the 25th and take you there since it can be a bit confusing. Just let me know.
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Mar 20, 2011 19:59
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I'd ditch that guy btw, there are plenty of people who can ruin se asia for you if you let them and someone with money to burn who still lets his visa slide has that potential. You'd also be a fool to delay your thai inroads to bangkok for such an individual imo. ReindeerF posted:Hahaha. I had never thought of this, but that's hilarious. I think my creative use of this otherwise useless object involves using 100 Riel notes as bookmarks in various books I've read while in Cambodia. I've done both with the riel  Toilet talk is now a30 minute conversation for me back here on the states. Part one is squat toilets, two is horrible chinese toilets, part three is the glorious rear end sprayer, part four is indian toilet pigs, five is sandal prints on the seat, six is the pakistani guy who used the plastic bag he was given to cover his poo poo up rather than poo poo in it, and out just keeps going on like that. raton fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Mar 21, 2011 |
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Mar 21, 2011 00:17
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Sheep-Goats posted:Toilet talk is now a30 minute conversation for me back here on the states. Part one is squat toilets, two is horrible chinese toilets, part three is the glorious rear end sprayer, part four is indian toilet pigs, five is sandal prints on the seat, six is the pakistani guy who used the plastic bag he was given to cover his poo poo up rather than poo poo in it, and out just keeps going on like that. On a scale of 1 to disgusting please rate Chinese toilets compared to squat toilets on overnight Thai trains for me. Going to China before heading to BKK in a couple of weeks and I hope to arrive in BKK without any horrible memories scarring me for life.
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Mar 21, 2011 04:05
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brendanwor posted:On a scale of 1 to disgusting please rate Chinese toilets compared to squat toilets on overnight Thai trains for me. Going to China before heading to BKK in a couple of weeks and I hope to arrive in BKK without any horrible memories scarring me for life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COJv2ZvzHJc&feature=related#t=1m14s
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Mar 21, 2011 04:14
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brendanwor posted:On a scale of 1 to disgusting please rate Chinese toilets compared to squat toilets on overnight Thai trains for me. Going to China before heading to BKK in a couple of weeks and I hope to arrive in BKK without any horrible memories scarring me for life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ8bmZ2wXRw Chinese toilets were amazingly horrible and the bathroom etiquette - sweet Jesus.
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Mar 21, 2011 06:53
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not making me feel better here guys ไม่เป็นไร though right
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Mar 21, 2011 07:46
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BigSuave posted:Yeah, so it sounds like bribing his way out is nixed. Money doesn't seem to be an issue for him (he's an older fellow and keeps 300,000 baht in his hotel safe with more on the way from his lawyer) so I'm just going to drag him to an international lawyer in Bangkok and see what he says about going to the immigration office and pleading with them. I just don't want to see the guy spend a week in Thai jail or anything but, again, he seems to have enough cash to avoid that one way or another. That'd be cool. Email sent.
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Mar 21, 2011 11:55
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brendanwor posted:On a scale of 1 to disgusting please rate Chinese toilets compared to squat toilets on overnight Thai trains for me. Going to China before heading to BKK in a couple of weeks and I hope to arrive in BKK without any horrible memories scarring me for life. Mainland China is like some WWF wrestling superstar of nastiness, with his less often seen but somewhat more extreme ally India. In one of the schools I taught at in China they had a boys bathroom on the fourth floor. It filed the whole hall up with a pissy stench, and when you went in there there were no stalls or urinals or anything, just a room-long trough. It was tiled but it was a trough. Scattered along the trough were a variety of teenage boys in all aspects - some squatting facing the wall, some facing me, others squatting astraddle of the trough facing either the door or the giant leaky flush tank mounted on the far wall, the remainder similairly scattered around but standing and pissing rather than squatted and draining out their foul little loaves. Periodically the tank would unleash a slew of tinged water down the course of the trough, and if you had chosen, like me, to stay as near to the door to avoid the stench as possible, you were then treated to a processional of everyones poo poo, none of it solid, most of it one wrong color or another. It was, by the way, a popular prank among the kids to shove a classmate into the trough. The above scene, I will remind you, was in a regularly cleaned and somewhat regulated school toilet. So please do enjoy your unregulated and possibly even abortional version of the above on your visit. Oh, and by the way, while I almost never got the shits in thailand, I had them so often in China that a solid log was something to remember. raton fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Mar 21, 2011 |
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Mar 21, 2011 19:09
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What are indian toilet pigs? I can imagine all sorts of things, but i'm not going to type them because it will make me look weird. Sheep-Goats posted:I'd ditch that guy btw, there are plenty of people who can ruin se asia for you if you let them and someone with money to burn who still lets his visa slide has that potential.
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Mar 21, 2011 21:19
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http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&...iw=1600&bih=815
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Mar 21, 2011 22:08
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ReindeerF posted:http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&...600&bih=815 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_toilet I don't know if the wikipedia article mentions it but generally the pigs are eaten for special occasions...
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Mar 22, 2011 03:17
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