It’s no secret that Malaysians love to travel to Thailand, as can be seen by how tourists from our country make up the largest number of foreign travellers to the Kingdom, with a whopping 4,626,422 visitors last year. Furthermore, Thailand’s popularity among Malaysians is not waning anytime soon, as recently, 100,000 Malaysians passed through the land border to Thailand during the Hari Malaysia weekend.
Unfortunately, some Malaysian tourists weren’t exactly on their best behaviour while in the Land of Smiles, most notably the various traffic offences committed by Malaysia-registered vehicles while in Thailand that went viral in the country. Now, another Malaysia-registered vehicle in Thailand has also been put under the spotlight, this time due to its driver openly and casually ‘gifting’ cash to a Thai customs officer at the Sadao border checkpoint bordering Bukit Kayu Hitam, Kedah.
Malaysian man openly and casually ‘gifts’ cash to Thai customs officer at Sadao border checkpoint
Shared to WORLD OF BUZZ by one of our readers, known as James (pseudonym), he witnessed the incident while going through the Sadao border checkpoint on the evening of 9 October.
In a dashcam footage shared by James, a Perak-registered white Hyundai Starex can be seen stopping at the Sadao border checkpoint’s customs booth, where foreign travellers who drive foreign vehicles into Thailand are meant to return the customs form that they filled out when entering the country.
However, rather than returning the customs form, the driver of the minivan instead openly gives Thai Baht cash to the customs officer before returning his vehicle and driving toward the Bukit Kayu Hitam border checkpoint.
James noted that the driver was a Malaysian, as he had noticed that the driver had a Malaysian passport when the same vehicle stopped at the immigration booth at the Sadao border checkpoint.
Moreover, James said that the minivan was carrying passengers of other nationalities besides Malaysia based on the passports each passenger held when they disembarked at the Sadao border’s immigration booth.
Watch the dashcam footage here:
For context, not returning the customs form would incur a THB1,000 fine per day and a maximum of THB10,000 fine by the Thailand Customs Department. Hence, if you’ve lost your customs form, you’ll be fined the maximum amount the next time you enter the country.
Moreover, unlike the immigration booth, there are no overtime fees at the customs booth, as the latter is only meant for travellers to return the customs form.
Apparently, the incident is something ‘normal’
When contacted by WORLD OF BUZZ, a representative of a popular Malaysian company offering vehicle insurance services to Thailand, who requested anonymity, claimed that ‘gifting’ cash to Thai officers when you’ve lost your necessary forms is actually something ‘normal’ and done by many Malaysians travelling to Thailand by land.
However, unlike this incident, he said that people don’t usually do it as openly as the minivan driver did. Regardless, we do not condone such acts and hope that Malaysians will adhere to the laws and regulations wherever they are.
So, what do you guys think of the incident? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
