Lost in Asia. Part 3.

When I crossed the border in Malaysia my first destination was Kotha Baru. It’s a small town near the north Border, where most of population are moslems. It looks more like being in middle east than in Asia. I wanted to move from there as quick as possible. I took a night bus to Kuala Lumpur and went to international airport from there. I got my tickets to Germany and was hoping to be in Europe soon. Once I went to my flight I was stopped by Malaysian immigration officers. They didn’t let me out of the country because I didn’t have the stamp of entrance in my passport. I was told to go to local main immigration office where they will decide what to do with me. Instead I travelled to George town – the capital of visas for travelers in Asia. I met there someone who has connections in immigration. I was told this guy could help me get a stamp. When he saw my passport, he said I should get out of there and get back to Thailand as soon as possible. I was illegal in Malaysia. He said it’s dangerous to be illegal in this country. I could end up in jail with illegal immigrants from poor countries and this is not good place to be. My passport looked like I never left Thailand. So I decided to make some cosmetic changes in my passport…

After that it looked much better, but I still didn’t get a stamp from this guy. He said I should just give myself up in embassy and pay a fine for overstaying in Malaysia. So now I had two choices. Either go  back to Thailand or give myself up in Malaysian embassy. I decided to try my luck first in embassy at Kuala Lumpur. Once I got there and explained my situation, they sent me to the main office. I decided not to go there, but take my chance to get a stamp on the border. Once I got to Kotha Baru and reached the border from there, I had to enter from the other side to get my stamp of entrance. But again they refused to give it to me without a stamp from Thailand with the same date on it. So I had to cross the border to get my stamp and this time I was lucky. They guy at the passport gate asked me a couple of questions about how long I’m going to stay and gave me stamp for entrance to Thailand. Now I was official in Thailand with my fresh stamp. I staid there for 10 minutes, listened to Thai hymn greeting me from my adventure and I went back to Malaysia. The migration office at the border of Malaysia was still confused with my passport but this time they had to accept this. They added some stamps to my passport so that it would look more official and let me in. Now I was clean! I didn’t pay Thailand for overstaying and I didn’t pay Malaysia for illegal entrance. But I lost a lot of money and time on tickets and travelling to fix my issue. I was surprised how long it took me to get out of the country. Asian people are not so easy to negotiate with. If anyone has overstayed in Thailand or Malaysia for long time and wants to save money, my recommendation to you is to “Loose” your passport and apply for a new one at your embassy. With clean passport no one will charge you for overstaying.