TIL the visa run advice from a bar guy in Chiang Mai cost me 12,000 baht

I met this guy at a bar on Nimman Road about 4 months ago and he swore up and down that the land border at Mae Sai was the easiest visa run in Thailand and I would have zero problems if I just showed up early. So I skipped the flight to Vientiane, took a van at 5am, and got to the border only to find out the crossing was closed for a holiday I had never heard of. Sat in a minivan for 9 hours total, paid 3,000 baht for the ride, and then had to overnight in Chiang Rai because immigration was already backed up. The next morning they told me I needed proof of onward travel and a hotel booking, which I did not have, so I burned another 4,000 baht on a refundable flight I will never take. Total damage was around 12,000 baht and two full days gone, all because I trusted a drunk guy's border intel instead of checking the embassy page myself. Now I want to know if Mae Sai is ever actually chill or if it's basically always this messy, because I am not doing that drive again unless someone who lives up there tells me otherwise.

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the_oscar7d ago

Mae Sai on a normal Tuesday is actually fine, but border towns in general run on their own weird schedule and nobody tells you until you're standing at a locked gate. Same thing happened to me at a crossing in Laos, showed up and found out it was a monk holiday, so now I just check the official page the night before no matter what anyone swears. Drunk bar intel is fun until it costs you two days and a refundable flight you'll never board.

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