Life got more interesting in the last few days. When we reentered Thailand from Laos, we were only given a 15 day visa, which expires March 5. This is something of a problem, since our flight out of Thailand is not until March 29.
Lest you think we didn't do our research, we had. Based on all we read, we should have gotten a 30 day visa, and we should have been able to extend it for another 30 days with a quick stop in the immigration office. But the rules changed while we were in Laos.
Now you can only get a 30 day visa if you enter by air, you only get 15 days if you enter by land, and you can only get a 7 day extension from an extension office.
Our options, then, were to somehow leave the country and return, either by land (gaining another 15 days) or by air (30 days). You can overstay your visa for about 7 days, paying fines, but after that the govt gets pretty unhappy, and while you probably won't be detained, you probably also won't ever be allowed to return to Thailand.
So, after quite a lot of searching and weighing of alternatives (did we want to return to Laos, pay a quick visit to Burma, have a screaming temper tantrum and hope it helps?), we booked a budget flight to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, and we'll have three days there before returning to Phuket Thailand, where we are renting a house from one of my sister's friends (thank you Lori and Alex) for a week.
We're trying to be zen about the whole thing, and mostly we're succeeding. It helps needing to set a good example for the kids.
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