gobbledonk Posted June 21, 2008 Report Share Posted June 21, 2008 Hey All, Happy to report that I am now 'legal' : the stamp in my passport reads 18/8/08 and I should be able to get the final 30 days from Immigration here in BKK. Worst part of the whole thing is standing in a very long queue - easily 400 people - because I got hammered the night before and wasnt in the line before 8. When you get to Vientiane, you too will want to get hammered - it makes many Australian country towns look like the Vegas strip. Did find one place with views over the Mekong and 6 working girls (on my side of the bar - probably more on the other side) who seemed keen on taking some of my baht (they prefer it to the Kip), but the two Ausssies I met led me into bad ways and we ended up with a table full of empty BeerLao 'tallies' ... My f*ckups aside, this is the system: 1. Stand in endless queue under a 'tent' with your paperwork and some really outstanding Filipinas - the only folk who manage a smile in this frustrating environment 2. Give the Thai dude your passport/application etc and wander over to main building where you are crammed in with everyone who has already submitted their form. 3. Strain to hear the Thai woman call out names as she holds up each passport for about a microsecond. You are in a foreign country, no passport and no receipt for same, and this is the best they can do ? 4. Go to counter and give her 1000 baht - receive a receipt and run home to thank Buddha that it has gotten this far. 5. Return the next day at 1am and stand in the same line in the tent - much faster this time, but delays happen when someone wants to question the Consuls decision. 6. Finally, gaze at your new visa and find someone to get you out of this town ASAP. Happy to have the visa, not happy with the hoops the Thais want us to jump through. Hindsight is a fine thing, but CTO/SD and others were right - this is much easier to do in your home country. Everyone I spoke to agreed that the clampdown is making it harder on the people who would have been in the queue anyway i.e. the folk who don't have as many choices as your average tourist, and who need to be able to continue working in Thailand to send money home. Thankfully, that's not me - I just have to find other distractions in Malaysia to make retirement there a viable option in 5-6 years time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted June 21, 2008 Report Share Posted June 21, 2008 Nicely and simply put Gobbler. My last trip I arrived from Thailand in time to join the queue and it was a long wait but there was some nice eye candy. I'll still hold to my view that it's easier to live in Thailand as a foreigner than Western countries like Australia. Try getting a Thai girl into those countries with out endless rounds of paperwork and embassy interviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTO Posted June 21, 2008 Report Share Posted June 21, 2008 I wonder about the Australia visa thing - I have known legit girls get stuffed around - another girl - 1 week out of prison - got a multiple entry 3 Month tourist visa good for a year to go to Australia! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cardinalblue Posted June 21, 2008 Report Share Posted June 21, 2008 Wht the love affair with laos? Strictly from the visa process, it is always a headache, chaotic, inefficient and tons of applicants... Just got my visa O from Phmnom Penh. I was the second person in line arriving at the opening hour. Absolutely no hassle and out the door in five minutes dropping off my application and 90 seconds in picking it up the next day... The two drawbacks to Cambodia are the 3pm pick-up instead of the 1pm time in others and the getting there compared to other nearby countries. I will say I got a RT ticket for $100 on air asia - good deal this time... And the nightlife, there is no comparison between PP and Vientiane..PP is the best I have experienced in the surrounding countries as it is the most like Thailand in terms of openess, low prices and relaxing... Huge improvement in pubic safety and economic development from three years ago.... The one thing I have heard is a couple years back, they are/were not tourist friendly visa consulate as they warned you about trying to get a second one (meaning coming back). I don't know what the current status is on tourist visas from PP. But I think other types of visa no problems and so easy CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted June 21, 2008 Report Share Posted June 21, 2008 I suppose I like Lao and it's never been a hassle going there but I'll certainly follow up on your PP report. Only last year visa seekers on other forums were coming back with horror stories from the PP embassy so it sounds like it's changed for the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted June 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2008 Huge improvement in pubic safety and economic development from three years ago.... Mate, you've hit the nail on the head re why I didnt want to risk Cambodia - I like my body parts to remain attached to me where possible. Everyone seems to have a horror story to tell re their time in Cambodia (sadly, PI fares no better ..). How is it that the most beautiful women in the world (and I include some of the Lao women in that group (one in particular had my jaw on the ground) come from some of the shittiest conditions imaginable ? C'est La Vie, or something along those lines. Gobble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted June 21, 2008 Report Share Posted June 21, 2008 i did a solo visa run in cambo in 2000, overland/river/truck/motobike/mangroswamp boat via poi pet and leaving via sahukville, took just over a week. plus it turned out my travel insurence had expired several weeks before in thailand. makes me shudder just thinking about that! feels like a lifetime ago. i smile when i hear people wax lyrical nostagically about how reckless they were in the past going on the piss on a stag night in malaga or wherever. ha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted June 21, 2008 Report Share Posted June 21, 2008 Did I ever tell you about the time the army arrested me for not having a passport in Zamboanga City?.... I doubt your travel insurance would have accepted a claim via a Cambodian hospital anyway Phil. I was knocked back on a perfectly legitimate "urinary tract infection" claim once because the receipts were from a PI hospital so you probably worried about nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted June 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 i did a solo visa run in cambo in 2000, overland/river/truck/moto bike/mangroswamp boat via poi pet and leaving via sahukville, took just over a week. plus it turned out my travel insurence had expired several weeks before in thailand. makes me shudder just thinking about that! This one time, at band camp, I stuck a flute in my pussy ! Hang in there, Phil - after Laos, I'm definitely not man enough to go to Cambo : even if I didnt get attacked, anything poorer than Vientiane would absolutely bore me to death ! I can see why Asian societies value large families so highly - in addition to a ready workforce, you have some entertainment when you are done in the fields. Shit, even when we were fighting (most of the time), I have to admit that one's family can be bloody amusing. At least thats how I feel when I'm several thousand kilometers away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted June 22, 2008 Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 fortuantly i dont hold dinner partys to bore poor bastards to death with pointless 'travel' storys....i just let them go to strangers in cyberspace! often the wind was taken out of my sails in cambo thinking i was brave when i sat there on a boat or truck going somewhere on seeing jeremy or sara going solo on their gap year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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