Originally Posted by
kevino
Any page with more than six stamps on it is a blessing for those trying to conserve pages.
I think agents are taught to not stamp over other stamps, but I don't see why a little overlap should be a problem so long as the dates are readable, esp. since they often stamp the exit stamp partially over the entry to show the connection between the two.
Old Thai agents may have learned to be haphazard when they had to also stamp the no longer used TM6 cards, which was literally twice the work.
I was old enough to have experienced having to fill up a physical arrival card in BKK (nowadays, DMK). On arrival, they staple the departure card on your passport. When you receive your passport, the card is haphazardly stapled so that corner or edges are sticking out in multiple edges of your own passport after you close that page. On departure, they use the old style staple removers at the end of the stapler to yank out the staple wire, sometimes leaving a hole on your passport page, not to mention an indent on the adjacent pages. Sometimes, they just pluck the card out without any care for what might happen to the passport page. You have got to admire the passion that these Thai agents have for stamping passports and plucking out the stapled cards.
When I was still in HS and one time I was traveling with my dad, he almost got scolded for having a small hole on a passport page at some immigration (can't remember which country), and the agent almost wanted to say his passport was "defaced." My dad then pointed out the Thai stamp on the same page. The agent then waved him away. So yes, I guess those Thai agents are also known as passport butchers.