I don't realize at first that in Bangkok, there are various transport modes, from BTS, MRT, Train, Bus, Van, Taxi, River Boat, and ... motorbike taxi! :). Yes indeed, I was born in Bangkok, but I lived there when I was a kid, when I grew up headings to teenagery, I was not in Bangkok.

As I wrote, and you all guys perhaps read them, we, my parents and I arrived (perhaps to be exact it is a return) in Bangkok in December 2018. According to Thai Immigration Law, we must extend our visa before the validity of our 90-day visa was expired, and we must also do a ninety-day report as well. How complicated it is to me.

While I was studying at school, my parents went to Thai Immigration Department in Chaeng Wattana, with a distance of about 10 km from our residence. I forgot to tell you guys, before that my parents went to Indonesian Embassy and Thai Consular Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs several times to attest their Certificate of Marriage as one of the requirements to get their visa extended.

I have no idea to get there. On the 7 March when in Indonesia it was a holiday of Hari Raya Nyepi and also at my school as the school is following holidays in Indonesia and Thailand (yoohoo), in Thailand, the day was not an off-day. So we, the three musketeers (dad, mom and I) went to Immigration Office. The visa of my parents was extended already few days before 7 March. We took bus no. 29 to go from home to Laksi (IT Square). The first bus arrived at the bus stop was an 'open-air' bus. So we can freely exhaust the air for free including air pollution of Bangkok ... hehe. The fare was quite cheap, 6.5 Thai Baht. There are actually several types of bus we can ride. But we took this open-air bus because it was the first one as well as cheap.

Not lots of passengers at that time, because it was not the peak-hour since the time showed 6:45 am Bangkok Time. The peak-hour and rush-hour in Bangkok is around 7-7:30 am. The bus headed to the north towards Rangsit. After around 30 minutes we arrived at a junction at Laksi or IT Square. I still have no idea, what next. Riding taxi? or another bus? Riding a taxi in Bangkok is quite a tricky business, as most taxi drivers would not take you for short distance, jammed roads or a flat-rate. A flat-rate means non-negotiable rate determined by the taxi driver without involving metered travel distance. A-take-it-or-leave-it business.

Walking for a few meters across the junction by small joggings, we arrived at a group of motorcycle taxi. My dad told one of them ... "pai imigresyen sam khun khap" (what does it mean, I have no idea. Later, I knew that it means we would like to go to immigration, three people mean we will hire three motorbike taxis). We got three taxis. My dad was riding the first taxi, I was the second, and my mom was the last.

The motorbike taxi runs very fast among the crowded traffic. I did not even wear a helmet. What if a traffic police stop us, and order us to go to jail? Oh no! The dodging motorbike avoiding crowded traffic made me want to vomit. This happened for about 15 minutes. Thank God, only 15 minutes. Can you imagine if I ride this motorbike for an hour? I perhaps got headache, stomach ache and vomit. Hmm ... but I would not regret, however, to ride this motorbike.

Arriving at the Thai Immigration office, at the gate we must show our passport and scan our bags. It was still 7:15 am, but my God, many people were there already, so surprised. I thought we would be the first. My dad got the queue number of 254! What time was the first person coming? Fortunately, we prepared our Immigration form at home, so we could overtake the people in front of us who did not prepare the form beforehand.

Waiting ... again for 3 hours! when we got the number of queue at counter N1, the serving number is 1, 2, 3, and 4, while our queu number at this N1 counter was 119. After three and half an hours my number was called 119. We approached immigration officers and after few minutes of checking the documents we brought, and finished step ONE. Do not be happy ... there were still step TWO. But the waiting time was not so long, only about five minutes I was called by another immigration officier. Only about three minutes and my visa to stay in Thailand was extended up until 01 January 2020. Thank you Immigration Officers for your excellent services.