Originally Posted by Blueskytoday
Well, that was the plan. Now thanks to Laos not willing to simply stamp me in for 30 days, I got to experience a few nights in the IDC, my dogs are currently with some random stranger in Laos, Leo is wandering around aimlessly in Bangkok, and I'm at my parent's house in Canada. All over a simple 30 day tourist stamp.
Working on rectifying it.
As I said, a Millenial with an exaggerated sense of entitlement. However, look on the bright side. Maybe you can get your eyes examined by someone who knows what he's talking about?
How am I self entitled? I understand I did wrong by overstaying, and tried to right things, which I did with Thai immigration. Thankfully so as well, as that's another reason I was out of IDC so quickly. Immigration cleared me of my overstay about 2 hours before I was arrested, so there's not much they could do to me.
Thhen I tried going through the proper channels and getting a tourist VISA for Laos beforehand. However, I didn't know about the rule of no crossing via land at Nong Khai with a blacklist stamp in your passport. If I would have knwon that upfront, I would have had Leo go ahead of me with the dogs, and get them into the house. Then come back, get me, and we would have flown to Vientiane together. Would have to make a dangerous trip to Bangkok to do that though, so uncertain if I would have.
It's ok, I'll get the four of us back together. As long as whoever has the dogs doesn't get them killed in the meantime. Already had Leo promise him money to take care of them, and we'll take them back within a week at the most.
How would flying to Vientiane made any difference? You'd still have a "gross overstay" stamp in your passport from Thailand and you would still be denied entry to Laos. It's got nothing to do with where you attempt to enter Laos. The Lao immigration authorities wherever you arrive are going to take one look at your passport and see its holder is someone who deliberately, flagrantly and persistently disobeyed the immigration laws of another country, in this case their nearest neighbour. How could you ever believe that they would do anything except deny you entry? I've got some bad news for you. The four of you won't be back together any time soon
christianpfc (April 9th, 2018)
I don't know, the Nong Khai cops seemed to believe that iw ould have made a difference. And Thailand has some special immigration rules depending on whether you're travelling via land or air.
Yes, we'll get back together. I should have a new 10 year passport in a month. From there, grab a Laos tourist VISA from the embassy in Vancouver, and off I go. As long as Laos didn't blacklist me as well, which I'm sure they didn't, then I'll be fine.
Being denied entry doesn't mean too much. Leo has been denied entry to Thailand before, but can now travel back and forth without issue. I've been refused entry into the US before, but bet I could cross the border tomorrow without problem.
You have been told to fly out via bkk many posts ago in this topic. But as usual you decided to ignore that advice....
The Lao should know, there are tens of thousands of Lao citizens in Thailand currently not only breaking immigration laws, but labor laws too!
To be honest, I don't think I would have travelled to Bangkok anyway. A quick trip up north to Nong Khai is one thing, but a trip all the way into Bangkok is totally different with a whole lot more cops around. If I would of had my passport checked before getting to that immigration desk at BKK, I would have been in for much more hurt than I was. Thankfully by the time I was arrested, my overstay was already cleared with I would have had a really rough time coping with a long stay at IDC, especially since I'm blind, as that made it worse. It's a huge room with about 100 people, and I was basically stuck the whole time on my little 5x2 foot mat in the corner close to the convenience store and bathroom. So I could get to the bathroom and shower, and buy some cigs or nana noodles or whatever from the store, but that's it. Wasn't really capable of wandering around the room and making friends with others like everyone else did, as it was too cramped, and I would just end up kicking and stepping on people all the time, which wouldn't go over well.
People there were honestly far friendlier than I thought they'd be. Nobody was really interested in making friends, but just acquantances to hang out with while they killed the time and got out. Everyone somewhat had each other's backs though, and took care of each other. I never ate any of the food, but each time a meal would come, they'd come over and offer me a plate. They always helped me walk around when it was ecersize time, hekoed ne fubd my way around the bathroom and shower, store, etc.
Tintin (March 31st, 2018)
Oh, and I forgot, I did get other special treatment as well. Visitation starts at 10:30am every day. This consists of a wire fence with visitors on one side and inmates on the other, the inmates get headbands to wear depending on their country so the visitor can identify them, and they just yell at other through the fence,
They were nice enough to let Leo into some office with a sofa, and let us sit together and talk in private. We were able to sit there and call my mom on Skype, Leo was able to give me some money and bring me food, etc. That was actually a huge help, because without that,, there's a decent chance I'd still be in the IDC.
Tough to get out if you don't have pre-arranged plans in place before you go in.
Tintin (March 31st, 2018)
Without a shadow of a doubt that post wins the non sequitur prize for this thread
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