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Another popular option is a so-called visa run - either to the nearby Cambodian border, where you may get another 15-days entry stamp (new rule effective from December 2008), or a trip to one of the neighbouring countries, where you may apply for a regular tourist visa or (if you should qualify for one) a so-called Non-Immigrant visa of either type.

Otherwise, if you exit and re-enter Thailand via an international airport (without applying for a visa at a Thai embassy), you will still obtain a 30-days entry stamp upon arrival in Thailand.

One-day "visa runs" to the Cambodian border (usually to Aranyaprathet or Chantaburi) have been popular with foreign residents of Pattaya for many years.

Border runs can be booked at dozens of tour agencies all over Pattaya at rates between roughly 1,700 and 2,500 Baht.

These prices include visa fees for Cambodia, visa assistance at the border, and transportation by minibus from Pattaya or Jomtien to the Cambodian border and back. (Depending on the package you choose, breakfast and/or lunch may be included, too.)

The total duration of such organized "visa runs" to the border is roughly between 8 and 10 hours - depending on traffic, weather and how busy it is at the border.

Most tour operators leave from Pattaya at around 6.00 or 7.00h and will be back in Pattaya early in the afternoon. Some may pick you up at your hotel or condominium, while others have central meeting points from where they depart.

However, the enforcement of the new 15-days rule (when arriving via land border checkpoints) and the restriction to a maximum of four consecutive border runs since June 2009, make the formerly popular "border runs" little less than inefficient drudgeries.

If you travel with a multiple-entry tourist or Non-Immigrant visa, these new regulations won't affect you, of course, and you will be granted an extra 60-days respectively 90-days permission of stay at the border, provided your visa is still valid and has not been fully used.