Pak Bara unplanned trip

Here's another unplanned trip. I thought I was the only one who just love to make unplanned short trips, my Uncle Joe proved that he's also like me. I guess it runs in the family. LOL

1:30pm

While I was doing nothing and watching tv with my youngest son, I received a phone call from my uncle. Let's call him Uncle Joe, as I have another specific nickname for him which only our family preferred to call him.

Uncle Joe asked me whether I'm free today and tomorrow. I said, I'm free. He said he wanted to go to Satun and stay at Pak Bara. He haven't been to Satun before and asked my favour to accompany him and became his co-driver and the best part is, he'll sponsor the accommodation and food.

I asked him, "when are we going?"

He answered, "now".

"Ok, I had to settle some things first. I'll be ready by 3.30pm" I replied.

3:30pm

Uncle Joe arrived and fetch me at home. We drove straight to Changlun. We were caught in a traffic jam at the North-South highway near Seberang Jaya as there was a minor accident (involving other vehicles). We had lost some precious time as we need to reach Wang Kelian border before they closed at 7:00pm.

5:30pm

Arrived at Changlun to buy Thai car insurance and change the currency. 

5:50pm

Then we use the Changlun - Kuala Perlis highway and exited via Chuping & Padang Besar to Wang Kelian.

Chuping

Beautiful Perlis

6:25pm

Arrived at the Caltex Wang Kelian station to refuel. This is the last gas station before crossing the border. From here, we echange the driver's seat.

Stickers and patches from various bikers, cars, touring groups

6:40pm

Arrived at the border. As usual, the immigration part on Malaysian side is always smooth and efficient. However, it's a totally different story on the Thai immigration side.

A week before, there was a situation at the Sadao Immigration office. According to the news, the Thai antigraft agency had raided the Sadao Immigration office where they had been collecting "tea money" (Malaysians called it "duit kopi" a.k.a. "coffee money") between RM1 - RM2 from Malaysian visitors illegally. The practise existed way back 20 years ago. After the Thai govt abolished the "tea money", they introduced "overtime fee" to be collected from Malaysian visitors entering Thailand outside office hours. The new "overtime fee" is a legalised fee and official receipts will be issued.

Hence, apart from the white card (entry/departure card), the vehicle owner and passengers list form, the Thai Immigration officer need to issue an official receipt for the overtime fee paid to them. The fee is 25Baht (RM3) for the driver and 5Baht (RM0.60) for each passenger. Malaysian visitor need to pay in Thai Baht. RM is not accepted. We need to queue at a separate counter for this.

After we have settled all the documentation, then only we can proceed to stamp our passports. How I wish the Thai Immigration could learn and follow their Malaysian counterpart's process flow which is fast, convenient and visitor friendly.

After we're done with the Thai immigration, we then proceed to the Thai Customs for vehicle permit processing. As there was no queue, the Customs officer processed our vehicle permit smoothly.

For more info on the "'tea money" issue, click on the links below:
NST
Bangkok Post

Uncle Joe's first impression of the Thai Immigration counter, "Awat nampak macam reban ayam?" (looks like a chicken den) LOL

Separate counter to process the additional documentations and issuing official receipt for their overtime fee.

6:50pm

Everything was done and we are now officially entering Thailand via Wang Prachan at 10 minutes before the border closes for that day. We're just in the nick of time. LOL

The rows of shops situated along the border was about to close.

I drove straight to Satun town.

The distance from Wang Prachan border to Satun town is about 40km. 45 minutes drive.

7:50pm Malaysia time.

6:50pm Thai time. From here, I'll be using Thai time.

We arrived at Satun town center. There was a pasar malam (night market) near the Satun Central Mosque a.k.a. Masjid Mambang. We walked through the pasar malam, looking for anything interesting.

I was planning to get some light meal from the pasar malam and eat at a nearby cafe which I had been there previously. Unfortunately the cafe was closed. Then we decided to have our dinner at Pak Bara instead.

7:45pm

I drove straight to Pak Bara. The distance from Satun town to Pak Bara is approximately 60km, about 1 hour drive.

The highway to Pak Bara was well lit and I feel it's quite safe to drive there at night. Furthermore there was not much traffic at night.

8:50pm

We arrived at Pak Bara. We went around the area seeking for hotel.

9:00pm

We decided to check-in at The Lagoona Resort. The place is situated facing the sea. Nice.

9:30pm

After checking-in, we went looking for a place to have our dinner. Many decent seafood restaurants closed early at 9:30pm. Only the small stalls by the roadside were still opened. We're lucky there was one seafood restaurant that is still open. We had our dinner there.

11:00pm

After we have had our tummies full, we drove around Pak Bara. The place was quiet. There were some youths strolling around on motorcycles and that's all. I guess Pak Bara is not a place for tourists to hang around. The tourists came to Pak Bara just as a transit place for them to spend the night and catch the next morning boat to the surrounding islands such as Koh Lipe, Koh Tarutao and much more.

As we had nowhere else to go at Pak Bara, we just relaxed at our chalet until we dozed off.

8:00am

Uncle Joe went for a jog and I was just walked near the beach.

Our stay comes with breakfast. The meal is halal as the owner and staff are all Muslims.

10:00am

After we have had our breakfast, we went to Pak Bara pier. This is the main purpose of Uncle Joe asked me to join him here. He intends to bring his family for a vacation in Koh Lipe in a very near future. Hence, this is our recce mission to get to know how to get to Koh Lipe. The route, boat schedule, accommodation, parking and so on.

12:00pm

After we have done, we went back to our chalet to check out.

1:00pm

We checked out late and drove back towards the border.

2:00pm

Along the way we decided to have lunch at this place.

A lot of outlets in Thailand provide free wi-fi. Probably the broadband rates in Thailand are cheap.

3:30pm

Then we bought some beras pulut (sticky rice) and some things my sister ordered.

4:00pm

On the way to the border, we saw a stall by the roadside selling some durians and buah dokong. We stopped and have some durians there.

4:30pm

Upon reaching the border, we noticed a new area for shopping was erected. I didn't notice this place the last time I went there. We stopped by and look for anything interesting.

The new shopping area.

I bought a pair of imitation Mechanix gloves for 180Baht after bargaining. The price tag was 250Baht. Ok lah. LOL

Mechanix gloves. Please ignore the background.

Below is the old shopping area.

5:10pm

We arrived at the border checkpoint. There was only one immigration counter opened for departure. The queue was long as everybody wants to go back to Malaysia before the border closes at 6:00pm (7:00pm Malaysia time).

While we were queuing, saw a few Malaysian BMW motorrads arrived. Suddenly I heard someone shouted my name, "EG!"

I looked at the person who shouted my name. A man unmounted his GS1200 bike, took off his full-face helmet. It was Ezuan, my junior in PFS. Oh, I forgot to mention that Uncle Joe was also an Old Free. I asked Ezuan to join us and jump the queue.

The BMW motorrads are from Penang and they were returning from their daytrip ride to Pak Bara.

The long queue going back to Malaysia.

Old Frees reunion at the border

Me, Ezuan & Uncle Joe

5:50pm Thai time.

6:50pm Malaysia time (now I'm using back M'sian time).

It took us 45 minutes queue just to stamp our passports on Thai immigration side.

On the Malaysian Immigration side, it was very smooth as we just need to hand our passports through the window and voila! Done in just a few seconds.

7:00pm

We shoot straight back to Seberang Perai.

9:30pm

Arrived at home. Home sweet home.

That's all for this time. Till the next (unplanned) trip, adios!