Visa run to Cambodia from bkk

[tilac]

Hi,

 

I planning a visa run to Cambodia next week and might want to combine that with a short visit to Siem Reap (Ankor Wat).

Am staying in bkk now and plan to take a (public) bus from there (Morchit).

Anybody can give info on this regarding bus schedule, price, duration of trip etc.

I found some good info on the web already but maybe somebody has recent experiences:

http://www.thaivisa.com/386.0.html

 

Accomodation tips on Siem Reap also welcomed !

 

Regards

 

Tilac

[..]

Here is a several month old report from me. I redid this trip about a month ago. The only difference now is:

a) a full sized coach instead of the mini-bus

they do everything for you now: no need to stand in line at ANY immigration checkpoint

c) different casino where you have lunch.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Cheers,

SD

[tilac]

Hi suadum,

 

Thanks for the info, great report !

I will go with them next week, I see they got daily service !

Will make a report of my experiences also.

 

Regards

 

Tilac

[tilac]

Hi,

 

I went to Poi Pet this week on a visa run.

A fairytail that turned into a nightmare !

 

- 7H00 AM, left Sukhumvit with the bus from Jacks Golf

 

- 10H30AM, arrived at the border

Procedures change all of the time depending on the powers in charge, now the new Thai Police chief wants everybody to personally stamp for exit and entry

* NO waiting line at Thai Immigration (outbound)

* people from Jacks Golf took care of entry and exit stamp for Cambodia, we could go have lunch in Golden Palace hotel.

 

- 11H30, qeueded up fo Thai Immigration entry stamp (inbound) and hhhhaaaaa, very slow there !

Waited outside for 2 hrs to get the stamp, very irritating, looked like obstruction from Thai immigration.

The ppl from Jacks provided bottles of water while waiting, thanks guys!

Finally arrived at the counter I had my stamp within 2 minutes !

 

- 13H30, back in the bus and left for bkk around 14H00

 

- 17H30, arrival in bkk Sukhumvit Asoke

 

So a bad experience this time, ppl from Jacks Golf told me that in the weekends the goto another border (30 min more travel) due to the high number of visitors in Poi Pet (mosty Thai gambles on a weekend trip).

Also very inconvenient this time were the children beggers while waiting at thai immigration, i pity those kids too but its organized crime. 1 guy gave some money to the kids and could get rid of them for another hour, so be aware !

1 kid was even sitting under the counter of the Thai Immigration, maybe the next time they will even sit on the counter !

 

Total cost with Jacks Golf is 2000 Baht including lunch and Cambodian visa fee.

 

I think its not likely they close this border because most (if not all) casinos there a build with Thai money so there is a lot at stake !

 

This is bad publicity for Thailand, everybody was affected not only people on a visarun but in the waiting line there were also a lot of backpackers en Japanese tourists !

 

Cheers

 

Tilac

[Palatkik]

I went there last Tuesday for a visa run. Arrived at 8am and saw absolutely ridiculous immigration queues getting out of Thailand and some fairly horrendous looking ones getting back in. About 30 or more tour buses all parked up in the area waiting. I estimated a 5 hour wait so turned around and left without doing the visa.

 

Wonder if Thai Immigration will one day pull their finger out again? Until they do, I won't go back.

[Guest]

This is a deliberate action on behalf of the Thais to discourage people doing this type of visa run and more importantly to discourage Thais from going gambling in Poipet. One more example of Toxification. It will only change if Tailand gets deToxified.

 

So save you baht and hope that AirAsia gets flying soon, making visa runs reasonable again.

[dddave]

I did a visa run last week, going thru Trat, crossing the border at Had Lek and overnighting in Koh Kong.

 

The bus from Ekkamai to Trat (Bt.210) took 5 hours, then a minibus (Bt.100) to Had Lek an additional 2 hours.

 

No problems crossing the border (closes: 8pm) except the Cambodian imigration cops demand Bt.1000, rather than US$20; no amount of stone walling changed that.

 

I overpaid a motodop Bt. 100 (unlike other cities in Cambodia, the Baht is the preferred form of exchange in Koh Kong) but I knew I wanted to ride around and check out several hotels.

The ride to Koh Kong village is about 10 minutes, crossing a long bridge (toll, Bt.12) The town is not highly developed, mostly single level and 2 story shophouses. The main streets are paved, side streets are dirt; potholed and muddy.

 

Koh Kong only has about 5 "Hotels", including a large casino-hotel complex at the border, the rest are "Guest houses" ranging from pretty rough to some fairly decent looking ones.

I settled on the RAKSMY MAKARA HOTEL on the road to the "Chicken Farm", a decent looking, colonial style building with about 20 rooms. My "VIP" room (a/c, bathtub) was clean and comfortable, with several armchairs, 13"tv w/cable and a refrigerator. The water supply was off and on; barely adaquate. I paid Bt500.

Many girls, brought by other guests run around the hall, visiting each other and sometimes knocking on my door to see if I am "taken care of" and offering to get a friend for me.

 

The "Chicken Farm", or brothel village, is a click up the road, with about a dozen houses employing about 10 or 15 girls each. It seemed a 50/50 mixture; Vietnamese and Khmer, ages 18 to 30 or so, no underaged anywhere in sight. Prices ranged Bt. 400 and up, in house (ugh) or take-away. The hotels didn't bat an eye.

 

Not a whole lot of action in the village. There are several farang run restaraunt/bar/gh's: MOTO BAR (has a pool), JR's (or maybe that was JC's) and OTTO'S; down a muddy lane, but good food and a mixed punter/tourist/backpacker clientel.

 

The boat for Sihanoukville leaves from the pier at 8am and everybody and their brother will try to sell you a ticket.

Motodops are everywhere and will follow you if you try to walk around on your own.

 

There is nothing particularly scenic about the place, but it is friendly and a good time can be had for a few days.

[Palatkik]

LaoHuLi said:

This is a deliberate action on behalf of the Thais to discourage people doing this type of visa run and more importantly to discourage Thais from going gambling in Poipet. One more example of Toxification. It will only change if Tailand gets deToxified.

 

So save you baht and hope that AirAsia gets flying soon, making visa runs reasonable again.

 

Thanks for response - though I don't understand:-)

 

AirAsia are always flying aren't they, so why hope they start flying soon!?

 

I am not convinced "the Thais to discourage people doing this type of visa run" as I made a trip to another border crossing further south and things were very pleasant indeed. Methinks the Thai Immigration is just overwhelmed with the number of travellers at Aranyapratet and they need to upgrade the facilities to deal with the larger numbers.

[Guest]

No, Air Asia is not flying here yet, but are planned to in the next 2 months. As soon as they do, the airfares will drop dramatically.

 

Of the almmost 1 million tourists that visited cambo last year, almost 600,000 were on visa runs from LOS. Under the new social order, LOS want not only to discourage Thais from border shopping/gambling, but also discourage low end tourists, teachers without work permits, etc from continuing their illegal living status in LOS.

 

The obvious place to start this campaign is the busiest crossing . Poipet. Other crossings remain, so far, unaffected. Expect more of the same on the future.

[elef]

Thai government is still considering the same visa rule as Schengen countries = you must stay outside Thailand the same time as you've stayed inside before you return. So 14 days inside = 14 days outside, 6 months inside = 6 months outside.