The Lost Boy

Another visa run to Penang

It’s that time of the year again: I need to do a visa run. It’s been three months since I’ve been in Penang, but here I am once more, waiting for my visa. One of the pains about working for a smaller company outside of Bangkok is that the visa situation is a little different. When I was in Bangkok, I got my three-month, non-immigrant B visa and then the company I worked for arranged my work permit and my one-year extension to stay without me having to leave the country again.

In Phuket, after getting my three-month visa, my company arranged my work permit, but then I’ve had to leave Thailand once more to get a multiple-entry, one-year non-immigrant B. Such a bind! And so expensive.

The only airline I know of that flies Phuket to Penang is Flireflyz. I had never heard of the airline before, but I had no choice but to use it. The airline has one flight a day to Penang and the ticket cost me the equivalent of about 2,600 baht. Although I did eventually make it to Penang, the flight was more than four hours delayed. I became quite ill at Phuket Airport and passed out shivering on a row of chairs for the majority of those four hours.

The plane was the smallest I’ve ever been on, and it had actual propellers as opposed to engines. But still, we made it. To my disgust, the taxi from the airport to Chulia Street cost me RM57 (about 570 baht). It was about 1 am, so I may have been paying a nighttime fee, but considering the fee has been about RM40 in the past, I was a little annoyed. I was too tired and too sick to argue about the matter and just fell into the taxi and took a nap.

I’m staying at Banana guesthouse. My room is little more than a box, but at RM18 a night I don’t care. They have wireless Internet too, and so I have my laptop along with me.

A one-year, multiple-entry non-immigrant B visa costs RM550 (about 5,500 baht). As of July 2, the visa prices went up 10%. A three-month non-im B is now RM220. I arranged for the agent at Banana to deal with my visa because I didn’t think I was going to be able to wake up in time to go to the consulate myself. The fee was RM40, which is actually the same as a taxi to the consulate and back twice (once to take your application and once to pick the passport up the next day); not a bad deal.

As it is, I’m now broke, sick, tired and have nothing to do until I go home on Saturday. I have nothing against Penang – it’s a great place – but I’ve been here twice already and have seen all I want to see of it.

What’s a boy to do?

Techno' tags: Malaysia, Penang, Thai visa