Border Entry
Passport control: No visas required for NZ and German passport holders. Passports are stamped as you enter. No Entry Card needs to be filled out.
Vehicle entry was straight forward. Immediately after having our passports stamped at a cubicle, which are located adjacent to each of the exit lanes, the official instructed us to park the vehicle and walk over to a nearby cubicle to buy a “Touch n’ Go” Toll Card at a cost of about NZ$6. We spent a further about NZ$70 of top-ups to get across Malaysia. We where then directed to the customs office nearby. They seemed to have no idea what to do with the Carnet. Three officials discussed it at length and after 15 minutes I ventured to suggest to them that they simply stamp and sign the document using the Singapore page as an example. It is absolutely vital that we get an entry and exit stamp in our Carnet for each country, failing which we are likely to run into very serious problems when we get back to NZ and it can end up costing us a packet. After more discussion they ultimately followed the Singapore example, then a quick one minute check of our goods and we were on our way.
Border Exit
We chose to cross into Thailand at the quieter and more remote Bukit Berapit, Pengkalan Hulu (Malaysia) – Betong (Thailand) border checkpoint. Our main motivation for choosing this border crossing was our concerns relating to the apparent “new laws” governing the temporary import of, and driving foreign vehicles in Thailand. Our logic was that officials at a quieter border check point may be more friendly and happy to see foreigners from distant lands. The Malaysian officials were very friendly and stamped our passports without a fuss. The Carnet was a different matter however. I told the official I need a stamp in the Carnet similar to the one I got at the port of entry to Malaysia. We got the idea that it was all new to him. He asked us to park up and took me off to see the chief in a nearby office. There was a lot of discussion going on in Malay between three officials. After some 10 minutes, the chief dug around on his desk and pulled out the tear-off piece of three other carnets, so clearly they have seen all this before. From there on things progressed quickly with the officials copying what was done on the other carnets. No check was made of our vehicle and we drove across no-man’s land to the Thai checkpoint, holding our breath for what was to come.
