Border Run

Half way into our four month stay we will need to leave the Kingdom of Thailand, cross over a border and then return.  It is a little daft as the cost of such a trip may perhaps be better off just going to the government as "visa renewal tax" instead of watching the money disappear into Cambodia or Laos, but they know what they are doing and I suppose it also brings in cash to the companies that operate these "border runs".

We haven't fully looked into it, but we will need to grab a bus (it takes around 7-8 hours to the nearest border), enter into a neighbouring country, pay a visa (usually in the region of $20 or so), obtain the necessary Thai re-entry stamp (free) and then face another 7-8 hour trip back.  We could of course spend the night to break up the journey and I'm sure adequate accommodation would not be too extortionate, but it does seem very time consuming.

Or we could simply fly out to KL (Malaysia has to visa fee) in the morning and fly back in the afternoon, where each flight is around one and a half hours or so.  I've checked out Air Asia flights and if we book early enough, it's around £30 per person per leg, which in the scheme of things is rather good.

We have options, that's the main thing.