The 'Visa Run'
11 May 2013 | Thai / Malaysian Border
Day 25 - 31 : May 6 -12
Straddling the border between Thailand and Malaysia.
When we arrived at the shipyard and did our entry paperwork, we were given a month's visa to stay. To extend that visa was going to be costly, so we opted to leave the country to get new visas. This also became complicated because, Thailand requires that a bond be posted if we leave the country without our boat. Of course, the only reason we are leaving the country is to renew our visas and Gromit is on the hard so, we have to leave without him! As soon as we return, the bond money is returned. The bond is $700 per person - in our case $3500! The bond is to encourage boat owners to come back to their boats. Over the years, lots of boats have been abandoned and then the Thais have had to deal with them. So, now we were faced with withdrawing $3500 in a day. We were very fortunate and grateful that the director of the boat yard offered to pay our bond.
The Visa Run
This involved renting a car, driving to the border (35 minutes), from the parking lot, walking 300 feet to the Thai Immigration check-out, then walking 500 feet across the border to the Malaysian Immigration office, handing our 5 passports through the check-in window to have them stamped and then stepping literally 2 steps to the right and handing them through the check-out window for another round of stamps. From there, we walked back across the border and checked back into Thailand.
To sum it up: a colossal bureaucratic waist of time!
The good thing about the whole process was that we had a car for a day.
A NOTE TO SAILORS
If you want to avoid these hassles, when you sign into Thailand, be sure that the Immigration officials do not write 'captain' / 'crew' on your paperwork, but rather 'passenger' for all members aboard - even the captain! They might question you about this, but insist that you are all passengers. This way, you won't have to post a bond if you need / want to leave the country.