26th June 2012 - The Visa Fixer

So, it was time for a visa run.... a big one.

This time, we needed to head to Kota Bharu in Malaysia. The whole journey was to take 50 hours.

We left Koh Tao on the ferry, and once in Koh Samui transferred to another port by taxi cab. Once the car ferry arrived, we stepped on and headed to Donsak on the mainland. From there, we met the guy who arranges the whole visa trip..... this is where my temper started to flare.

If any of you have watched Seinfeld there was a character called The Soup Nazi.. The clip below will explain all if you have never seen it.



Click Here for Soup Nazi Best Bits



This guy was the same... if you didn't stand where he said, met at exactly a time, and do exactly what he said then it was "NO VISA FOR YOU!".. I found it extremely difficult to keep my big gob shut.. but I did... I kept telling myself.. "Visa, Visa, Visa".

We get to the hotel near the border.. go into the conference room, where the visa interogation started. He questions everyone on their paperwork and barks at you if any piece of paperwork is not in order. Someone did not come in to the room in time, so was locked out with the words "No Visa for you!"  Very aggravating.

Anyway, after a night in a very rundown hotel that reminded me of a council estate block of flats... grubby walls, light fixings hanging off, carpets that looked like they had been cleaned in 1945, we left the hotel at 6am to go through the border.

Once stamped out of Thailand, an 1 hour cab ride to Kota Bharu where we were sat down at a cafe, and the paperwork again examined. Then we had to hand over our passports to him so he could visit the consulate and sort the visas out. We were commanded to stay there for 2 hours in case there was any issues, before getting back in our taxis and going to the KB mall, where we were to wait for 6 hours..

After 6 hours of totally mind numbing wandering around a relatively small shopping centre, we got back in our taxis and headed back to the border, where we had to wait for the fixer to return.

He came back 2 hours later, proceeded to give everybody a lecture about stuff (I had tuned out to his voice by then).. and then we went through Thai Immigration. Then the drive back through the night, returning to Koh Tao the next morning.

I am glad its done... but WOW it was tough..... shame I have to do the same in 3 months!

Some bad news... As soon as we returned to Koh Tao, we were told about Tim (videographer), who had been in a bike accident the previous night with some guy who was driving on the wrong side of the road. They hit head on. Looking at the photos I have sourced from the rescue crew, Tim looked in a pretty bad state, and many people thought he was dead on scene. The other guy broke his collarbone.

Tim was in the hospital when we arrived back, with lots of stitches in his head, mouth, and foot. He is going to be out of the water for a while, and at the moment is a bit wobbly but improving by the day at home with close monitoring by his friends. We spent the whole day sorting him out with a place to stay where someone could watch him, then I went looking for witnesses etc.. was very tiring after such an exhausting visa run.

I shall update you with Tim's status as and when I know further details.

xx

SD