Travel documents

Tickets

Tickets can be purchased cheaply on the internet through booking and airline websites. Online ticket sales work well if you are doing a simple one-way or return trip on specified dates. However, online fare generators are no substitute for a travel agent who knows all about special deals; has strategies for avoiding layovers; and can offer advice on everything from picking the airline with the great vegetarian food to the best travel insurance to bundle with your ticket.

In Thailand, most travel arrangements are done through an agent. Most firms are honest and solvent, but there are some rogue fly-by-night outfits around. Paying by credit card generally offers protection, as most card issuers provide refunds if you can prove you didn’t get what you paid for. Agents who accept only cash should hand over the tickets straight away and not tell you to ‘come back tomorrow’. After you’ve made a booking or paid your deposit, call the airline and confirm that the booking was made.

Booking flights in and out of Bangkok during the high season (December to March) can be difficult and expensive. For air travel during these months you should make your bookings as far in advance as possible.

Also, be sure to reconfirm return or ongoing tickets when you arrive in Thailand. Failure to reconfirm can mean losing your reservation.

Round-the-world (RTW) tickets

If you’re travelling to multiple countries, then an round-the-world (RTW) ticket – where you pay a single discounted price for several connections – may be the most economical way to go.

Here are a few online companies that can arrange RTW tickets:
Airstop & Go (www.airstop.be)
Airtreks (www.airtreks.com)
Air Brokers International (www.airbrokers.com)
Around the Worlds (www.aroundtheworlds.com)

Land

Thailand shares land borders with Laos, Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar. Travel between all of these countries can be done by land via sanctioned border crossings. With improved highways, it is also becoming easier to travel from Thailand to China. See Border Crossings for specific immigration points and transport summaries.

Bicycle

Many visitors bring their own touring bicycles to Thailand. No special permits are needed for bringing a bicycle into the country, although it may be registered by customs – which means if you don’t leave the country with your bicycle, you’ll have to pay a huge customs duty.
It’s essential to bring a well-stocked repair kit and be sure to have your bike serviced before departure.

Bus

You can enter Thailand by bus through Laos and Malaysia at the moment – your bus will stop at a Thai immigration post at your point of entry so that each foreign passenger can receive an entry stamp in their passport. Thai visas are not normally included in bus fares. For overland routes through Cambodia, you’ll need to hire a shared taxi. You can exit Thailand into portions of Myanmar by bus or shared taxi.

Car & motorcycle

Road passage into Thailand is possible through Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos.
Passenger vehicles (eg car, van, truck or motorcycle) can be brought into Thailand for tourist purposes for up to six months. Documents needed for the crossing are a valid International Driving Permit, passport, vehicle registration papers (in the case of a borrowed or hired vehicle, authorisation from the owner) and a cash or bank guarantee equal to the value of the vehicle plus 20%. For entry through Khlong Toey Port or Suvarnabhumi Airport, this means a letter of bank credit; for overland crossings via Malaysia, Cambodia or Laos a ‘self-guarantee’ filled in at the border is sufficient.

Train

The only rail option into and out of Thailand is via Malaysia. The State Railway of Thailand (www.railway.co.th) and Malaysian Railway (www.ktmb.com.my) meet at Butterworth, 93km south of the Thai–Malaysian border, a transfer point to Penang or Kuala Lumpur.

Cambodia

Thai–Cambodian border crossings are typically straightforward. Most visitors cross at Poipet (Cambodia) to Aranya Prathet (Thailand). This is the most direct land route between Bangkok and Angkor Wat.

You can also cross by boat from Ko Kong in southern Cambodia to the coastal town of Hat Lek in Trat Province.

Several more remote crossings have opened between southeastern Thailand and southwestern Cambodia including: Kap Choeng-Chom Som, Chong Sa Ngam-Anlong Veng; Ban Laem-Daun Lem, Ban Phakkat-Pailin. Private or hired transport is required to access most of these crossings.

China

Plans for land and rail links between China and member countries of ASEAN, including Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, have been increasing since the turn of the new millennium.

The China–Thailand highway will link Kunming, in China’s Yunnan Province, with Bangkok. As of 2006, 60% of the route (from Kunming to the Laos border town of Boten) has been completed. The routes from Boten, Laos across to Chiang Khong, Thailand, can be done relatively easily now, although roads between Boten and Huay Xai are rough.

Other roads emanating from China’s Yunnan Province will link to Myanmar and to Vietnam and then on to Thailand. The China–Myanmar highway stretches between Tachileik, which is on the border with Mae Sai, Thailand, to the Chinese town of Daluo.

It is possible to float along the Mekong River from the northern Thai town of Chian Saen to Jinghong in China ’s Yunnan Province.

Laos

The Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge (1174m) spans a section of the Mekong River between Nong Khai, Thailand, and Tha Na Leng (near Vientiane, Laos) and is the main transport gateway between the two countries. You can easily reach the Thai border crossing from Vientiane by bus, taxi or saaml áw (three-wheeled motorcycle taxi).

The construction of a second Mekong bridge between Mukdahan and Savannakhet opened in 2006 and creates a link between Thailand and Vietnam through Laos.

It’s legal for non-Thais to cross the Mekong River by ferry between Thailand and Laos at the following points: Beung Kan (opposite Paksan), Nakhon Phanom (opposite Tha Khaek), Chiang Khong (opposite Huay Xai).

Malaysia

Due to the unrest in the southern provinces of Thailand, many border crossers are opting for flights from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, Penang or Singapore instead of crossing by land.

There are very regular public buses and private minivans between Hat Yai in Thailand and various destinations in Malaysia, which include immigration stops at the border.

The train heading into Malaysia from Bangkok splits at Hat Yai with one spur heading east toward the border town of Sungai Kolok and on to Kota Bahru. The western spur trundles travellers to Butterworth, the transfer point to Penang or other destinations along the west coast of Malaysia.

There are several ways of travelling between Thailand’s southern peninsula and Malaysia by sea. The simplest is to take a boat from Satun to Kuala Perlis or the island of Langkawi.

Myanmar

The land crossings into Myanmar have peculiar restrictions that often don’t allow full land access to the country. Of the four border crossing open to foreigners, only two allow more than a day’s access into the country. These borders are also the most sensitive to periodic closures due to fighting on the Myanmar side between ethnic armies and the Burmese government, or other unstable factors.

The crossing at Mae Sai–Tachileik is the only land point through which foreigners can really travel into Myanmar. From the border you can continue to Kengtung, as far as Mengla on the Thai–China border and into China as long as you have arranged the appropriate visas beforehand. Interestingly, the bridge that spans the two border towns is Lo Hsing-han’s former ‘Golden Triangle’ passageway for opium and heroin. Many travellers use this border as a way to renew their Thai visas.

In the past, Mae Sai immigration officials have been known to ask travellers to produce evidence of sufficient funds (10, 000B cash, the legal requirement for a tourist visa) before issuing an entry stamp.
The Mae Sot–Myawadi border crossing is open to foreigners only as a day trip into a border market, even though the road continues to Mawlamyaing (Moulmein) via Kawkareik. Unlike Three Pagodas Pass, this crossing can be used for visa renewal.

Once a gateway for various invading armies and an important smuggling route, Three Pagodas Pass is accessible to foreigners only as a day trip to a Burmese border market. You must surrender your passport on the Thai side and are unable to use this point for renewing your Thai visa.

In the southern part of Thailand, you can legally enter Myanmar by boat from Ranong to Kawthoung via the Gulf of Martaban and Pakchan estuary. You’ll need to arrange the appropriate visas before arrival in Myanmar. Many people use this crossing only as a day trip in order to renew their Thai visas; for day passes, no Myanmar visa is required.



This website was designed and constructed by Szilvia Makan (szilviamakan@gmail.com)