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Thailand : SG - Ko Samui - Phuket - SG - 3300km Solo Trip

Nainar

By Nainar,
in Travel & Road Trips

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SDK

SDK

1st Gear

Thanks much for all your advises & suggestions. This forum is of great help in deed. I'll post about my trip later and about the road conditions.

 

Cheers!

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Tommisu

Tommisu

Clutched

I have just returned from a Koh Samui roadtrip in May. I did an overnight drive, set off from JB at 11.00pm, arrived at Thailand border at 7.30am (SG time). Average speed of 120km/h, with 3x 15 mins break in between. The trip from Sadao border to Hatyai city is 1 hour, where I stopped for breakfast. From Hatyai to Krabi is 4-5 hrs (depends on how fast you dare to drive). Arrived in Karbi at around 3.00pm. On nice straight roads, even though it might be countryside, I went up to 120km/h (some local cars and pickups drives at this speed too).

 

There was a stretch of road across the hills somewhere halfway through the journey between Hatyai and Krabi, which was under heavy construction a couple of years back. The construction has mostly been completed left for some small stretches, and cut down the travelling time significantly.

 

The stretch of road (3-400m) of Sadao town immedately after the Thailand Immigration is under construction. So if you have been through this checkpoint a while back, it might looks different now as you do not exit the Thailand Immigration through the usual exit (they have closed the metal gates). Instead you exit through the big carpark behind the Custom, and travel along a small back road, skirting the Sadao main road and 1st stretch of shops, then join back in again a few hundred metres down. But clear signs are everywhere so no worry.

 

Remember to get your Thailand car insurance before leaving Malaysia Immigration, as the detour has made locating and purchasing of insurance at Sadao difficult.

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Cba6p

Cba6p

1st Gear

Hi Tommisu. If you happen to drive to Krabi again, u may want to try a different route. My last trip to Ranong (further up) was done via Satun/Wang Kelian exit. Very scenic. That was my 9th driving trip to Thailand since 2012...

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SDK

SDK

1st Gear

Completed the Krabi trip and reached SG today.. [bounce2]

 

I'll share the experience and photos later.. [wave]

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SDK

SDK

1st Gear

Hi, I've tried getting my car number printed in Thai but can't get it done in Krabi. Tried at many places but no luck. Do you have any idea if it can be done in Singapore? Or any car bumper sticker provider customize and print for us here?

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SDK

SDK

1st Gear

Nice. Looked like you had a good time there.

Driven there twice but have never thought of recording it all down. Thanks for sharing.

 

Yes the place was nice but we've had our worst time ever at the sadao checkpoint. The immigration officers wasted our 4 hours for not bribing while heading up and the same happened on the way back. They just said "Give us money or go back". Never seen such rude behavior to tourists anywhere else and we were not alone; there were many other tourists waiting for the same reason.

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TameDriver

TameDriver

Twincharged

 

Yes the place was nice but we've had our worst time ever at the sadao checkpoint. The immigration officers wasted our 4 hours for not bribing while heading up and the same happened on the way back. They just said "Give us money or go back". Never seen such rude behavior to tourists anywhere else and we were not alone; there were many other tourists waiting for the same reason.

This is unusual. If u had your papers in order & RM2 in your passport, pretty much smooth passage thru.

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SDK

SDK

1st Gear

This is unusual. If u had your papers in order & RM2 in your passport, pretty much smooth passage thru.

They demanded to produce these per passport;

 

1. Hotel booking confirmation printed out,

2. 2 Photos with 10,000 Bahts,

3. Photocopy of passport (they wouldn't let us use the machine in their office).

 

If we don't have all these, pay 600 Bahts per person. If not, they can't let us in. The guy who acts as an assistant there told me the printing machine and photocopier are available in the DFS complex. When I walked back, the policeman interrupted and asked where I was heading to and when answered he said there isn't any such shop in that complex. After I added that I was told by the immigration office to print out, he said "ok, you can go there and check". Upon arrival, I realized there is no such shop/cafe in that building. After spending about 30 minutes there, a kind-hearted Malaysian salesperson helped us obtain the printouts from his office.

 

After going back to their immigration office, that guy said each should show 20,000 Bahts as proof for self-funding during our stay. I told him that I'm just a tourist and there is no importance to me that I should visit his country and I would rather go back to Malaysia to spend my holidays. My friends talked to him and we finally had to pay 200 Bahts per person to enter their so called "kingdom of thailand".

 

While returning back, we were asked to queue for an hour and when it was our turn, the person who was about to stamp the passports walked out saying he will be back in 5 minutes. After that there was another person came down and took us to their office. He said we were late and moreover there is no queue for Indian passports. So he said that our passports need stamping fee of 10 MYR.

 

And this is what exactly happened at Sadao to and fro. I don't want to use any derogatory here to express my opinion about their government.

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SDK

SDK

1st Gear

Typically, they are happy with anything offered ... One time I had no change, and put in a red, the service was extraordinarily quick and good. But they open the passport and find nothing .. they could be very very angry.

 

 

Yea I do agree. After exiting Sadao, Malaysian immigration officer heard our story, laughed and said "Even I'll have to bribe them if I need to enter their country; so don't worry". They were nice and spent about 15 minutes chatting about this in their office :-)

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TameDriver

TameDriver

Twincharged

Typically, they are happy with anything offered ... One time I had no change, and put in a red, the service was extraordinarily quick and good. But they open the passport and find nothing .. they could be very very angry.

 

 

 

There was mention in some thread about the amt to place inside passport. The brothers here stated RM1 is enough but I always gave RM2 to make it smoother. Once, at the counter where passports were stamped, an envelope was handed to me for contributions 'to feed the monks'.

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Spinelli_ck

Spinelli_ck

6th Gear
(edited)

There was mention in some thread about the amt to place inside passport. The brothers here stated RM1 is enough but I always gave RM2 to make it smoother. Once, at the counter where passports were stamped, an envelope was handed to me for contributions 'to feed the monks'.

 

standard rate is RM2 nowadays. on my return trip, i decided not to pay. the officer mumbled something sheepishly after he stamped the exit chop on my passport. i quickly took the passport and ran off. [laugh]

Here is the trip video

 

Cheers!

 

thanks for sharing the video. hope you have had a good trip.

Edited by Spinelli_ck
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