Thailand Visa - Tourist Visa Extension
My original plan was to go overland to Bangkok from Phnom Penh but after the experience of traveling from Ho Chi Min City to Phnom Penh with locals I flew to Bangkok with my sanity in tact.
Up until September 2009 if you stayed in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok you had approximately a 80-100 baht taxi ride to the Immigration Bureau in Silom to get the visa extension.
Silom was convenient for the majority of foreigners in Bangkok. In fact, you could take the skytrain for most of the journey from Sukhumvit. The Thai Government decided to move this part of the Immigration Bureau about as far away as you can get from the areas that foreigners mostly reside.
Unfortunately, the Thai Immigration website only shows the old location and forms for getting a Thai Tourist Visa Extension. Normally, it is best to check some Thai travel forums to find out the actual address of places.The new location is a boon for the Bangkok taxi industry.
The new Immigration Bureau Offices are in Government Building B on a massive office estate in Chaengwattana Road. This location is not even close to either Skytrain or the Subway routes.And - no surprises here - none of the Bangkok taxi drivers I have used to go there before have even heard of it.
The times I have been there have all been difficult journeys.The most unpleasant side of being in Bangkok is taking taxis. This time I got in and showed the driver the address written in both English and Thai. No problem he both gesticulated and said. And off we went.
For some reason Thai taxi drivers do not understand about tailgating other vehicles. If you are in the average Bangkok taxi it will usually not have ABS, and you will need to be about 2 seconds behind the front vehicle to stop if the car in front of you is braking hard.Bangkok taxi drivers often follow just a few feet behind the vehicle in front of them no matter what the speed.
With a fast rear-end collision with the vehicle in front the taxi's engine block will come through the firewall of the engine bay and crush the driver's and front passenger's legs and the front seats.Although this will provide some cushioning for passengers in the rear seats,
I have never been in a Bangkok taxi with working rear seat belts. The likely result of a high impact collision will be that the rear passengers shoot forward into the mess in front of them.If they are in the centre of the rear seat the chances of dying will be higher if they go through the shattered windscreen area into the crushed rear of the vehicle in front.
We went to Chaengwattana Road by taking the Highway as well as the standard road. The Highway fee was 45 baht. It is usual for the passenger to pay for the toll at the toll boothes. Sometimes the taxi driver will pay but the amount will be added to the metred fare paid later.You can also ask for a receipt.
We got to Chaengwattana Road and the taxi driver asked where the Immigration Bureau building was. You told me you knew I said. He didn't know.We kept driving and came to a building that looked like the one I wanted. But there was a policeman standing in front of the entrance on Chaengwattana Road. No taxis were allowed to drive in.
My driver suggested I get out and walk.I knew this was not the correct building. This building and the one I wanted to go to, Government Building B, both had glass exteriors that sloped away from the centre of the building towards the top.We had to u-turn and look for the other building. In the far distance at one street entrance I saw the sliver of the side of a building that looked about right.
We u-turned on Chaengwattana for the second time and, with me having to give directions at every crossroad and turn we got there. The fare was 171 baht. The taxi fare in total including tolls was 216 baht.Glad to be out of the taxi I went inside. The queue was about 30-40 metres long and the Immigration Office was closed.
It opened at 1 pm. For any copies of documents I had, there was a copy shop on the opposite side and down a level of this enormous building.They did a one page copy of my passport for only 1 baht. I searched largely in vain for some food.
The cafe I went to last time was sold-out of food at 1 pm.I went to Immigration expecting to stand in line. Surprisingly at 1.10 pm the queue had disappeared which was a relief.
The Tourist Visa Extension process took about an hour because when I showed my passport at the first office they found that Immigration at Suvarnabhumi had stamped my tourist visa with the wrong stamp.
The stamp said I had entered the country with the tourist visa a month before I did and about 3 weeks before the visa issue date.I was packed up and taken to a different department and phone calls were made. Questions were asked.
Finally, they decided it was ok and I proceeded through the normal visa extension process getting 30 days in time added to the original expiry date for 1,900 baht.I wanted to try and save money by doing both Skytrain and taxi back to Sukhumvit.By 2 pm I was in a different taxi heading for Skytrain's Mo Chit Station; the closest station to the Immigration Bureau. To get there cost me 125 baht. The Highway toll was 15 baht.
It was then 40 baht for the Skytrain to Phrom Phong Station which is in Sukhumvit.The total cost for the return trip was 180 baht so I had saved only 36 baht by doing the return journey by doing the return journey by taxi and Skytrain.A taxi is cheaper than combining your trip with Skytrain especially if you go with other people and split the costs- which I didn't.
I have been told by another foreigner that the cheapest way to get to the Immigration Bureau, and it is miles believe me, is to take Skytrain to Mo Chit station and then take a motorcycle taxi to the Immigration Building.
However, I do not know how much cheaper a motorcycle taxi would be, but in my experience of using motorcycle taxis for other trips, you will not be given a helmet and your chances of getting hurt are much higher even withstanding the tailgating of Thai taxi drivers.
The whole process took about three to four hours from when I left my apartment to when I got back to Sukhumvit. So allow a half day for this Thai Tourist Visa Extension.
