TheSiemReaper

Yes, if you change jobs you need a new work permit and yes, you will probably pay for it with most employers in Cambodia...

Having said that - ignore the <deleted> about police forcing work permits on people - I haven't spoken to a single copper trying to make me buy one... in 3 years.

And if you need to buy one without a company - there are agents (charging approx. $50 on top of the official cost) who can sort one out for you.

No, your work permit covers one job and one employer only.

HI,

Please advice - 7 pax all Poi pet to Siam Rep....a van or 2 taxis - at $25 each x 2 = $50 all?\

Van is ok - if the price is right. and please advice for a nice backpackers room in seam rep. or a 3 starhotel for an overnight stay-

I have 2 sisters - 1 brother in law and 3 teenagers....first time travel to seam rep.- I work in Chonburi - the plan is to get there and go home as soon as possible -

perhaps 2 days will do no problem travelling back to Chonburi - have my car in the boarder - as long as the immigration is open - even evening travel home ok.

khunjoel

appreciate your help. khap khun khap

As I said before; I've never seen any vans there but yes - two taxis will set you back $50 in total. Catch them about 100 meters from the exit from the border by the little roundabout - don't get on the bus to the "taxi station" because you will be ripped off if you do.

If you need a taxi for the way back... ask the drivers that took you there and book them. They're happy to pick up in Siem Reap for the same money. My guy normally picks me up at 5 a.m. but any time of day will be fine.

You might want more than 2 days in Siem Reap though... there's a lot to see here. Safe trip.

Are 3 month business visas available?

Yes, but they're terrible value for money and only single entry (so if you want to leave Cambodia at any point - you will have to start with a brand new visa all over again).

A very, very long day. Given the endless attempts to rip you off and force you to buy from cafes etc. It can take 10-12 hours (much longer than advertised) from Bangkok to Siem Reap. Throw in another 8-10 hours (again much longer than advertised) to Phnom Penh and it's nearly a whole day on a bus.

I wouldn't want to do Pattaya to Phnom Penh in a single bus journey that would be awful... better to break the trip in Siem Reap. :-)

You can get a taxi to the Poipet border easily from Pattaya but as Rich says above - public transport normally means a trip back to Bangkok first. Though I did hear a rumour of a bus service that runs direct now... imagine it will be about as awful as those coming from Bangkok too... make sure you do NOT buy your Khmer visa until you leave Thailand and enter the immigration hut on the right just after the Friendship Bridge in no-man's-land. Do NOT give your passport to anyone who isn't immigration. Tell them you already have a long-term visa and that you will tell all their customers about their scamming ways unless they leave you alone (but for God's sake - don't actually tell anyone - that will get you beaten up). Have the right money for your visa ready IN USD not Thai Baht or you will be ripped off on exchange rate. Take a photo too - or pay $1 extra for them to scan the one in your passport.

I'd be in support of this - where else in the world is it acceptable for charitable bodies from overseas to try and influence the outcome of an election? The Cambodian people will know when they're ready for change; it's not for the NGOs to dictate that pace of change.

You don't have to fix a poker table to make it unprofitable for a professional gambler - it all depends on the rake. My experience of Cambodian casinos is that the rake is usually set way too high. Having said that... the number of desperate fish at any game does offset that sometimes...

You will bet better odds in most Poipet Casinos on most games than you will in most western Casinos. It is a very competitive environment and with low overheads they can afford to offer alot more. It's one of the best places to gamble in the world.

Many experienced gamblers go there for the benifits.

Poker is a fixed odds game. The only thing that affects profitability is the rake. I don't play roulette or blackjack or any other suckers' game... and it's worth noting that the only game in which the odds favour the punter anywhere in a casino is Craps (the dice game) and that's Las Vegas's biggest money earner. Fools and their money are soon parted.

Wrong

There's always one person whose beliefs fly in the face of evidence - in this case that's you. Check out the World Poker Series website where they explain the cost of the rake in Cambodia and why no professional poker play would take up their living here. That might help you get it through your head... the house always wins. (Not some of the time - always - you can win a little, you can win a lot but overall the house wins every single time).

The only reason people come to Cambodia to gamble is because gambling's illegal in Thailand, Vietnam, China, etc. and those folks either can't afford to go to the Australia, the US or Macau or can't get visas for them or can't spare the time to travel that far.

I travel this route all the time. Poipet to Siem Reap (and vice-versa) - private taxi - no other passengers (or as many friends as you can fit in - either is fine) is $25. Not $50, unless you're a sucker. DO NOT get on the bus to the taxi station/bus station. Walk to the right hand side of the roundabout after the bus stop (approx 100m max from the border) and hire a cab there.

TheSiemReaper,

Thanks for the advice - are there vans as well as taxis available ? 4 x adults a bit of a squeeze.

Cheers,

BB

Not really but 3 in the back of a Camry is not the end of the world - it is only a 2- 2.5 hour journey most of the time.

You don't have to fix a poker table to make it unprofitable for a professional gambler - it all depends on the rake. My experience of Cambodian casinos is that the rake is usually set way too high. Having said that... the number of desperate fish at any game does offset that sometimes...

You will bet better odds in most Poipet Casinos on most games than you will in most western Casinos. It is a very competitive environment and with low overheads they can afford to offer alot more. It's one of the best places to gamble in the world.

Many experienced gamblers go there for the benifits.

Poker is a fixed odds game. The only thing that affects profitability is the rake. I don't play roulette or blackjack or any other suckers' game... and it's worth noting that the only game in which the odds favour the punter anywhere in a casino is Craps (the dice game) and that's Las Vegas's biggest money earner. Fools and their money are soon parted.

You can upgrade visas anytime in the last month of that visa. Your new visa won't start until the old one expires... so don't leave the country in that first month. Or you'll still need another one. $285 is the going rate. $280 is very reasonable. You can do it yourself cheaper but it'll take days of begging and bribery to get it done and it's not worth the hassle.

I travel this route all the time. Poipet to Siem Reap (and vice-versa) - private taxi - no other passengers (or as many friends as you can fit in - either is fine) is $25. Not $50, unless you're a sucker. DO NOT get on the bus to the taxi station/bus station. Walk to the right hand side of the roundabout after the bus stop (approx 100m max from the border) and hire a cab there.

Since you're not sure I'll help you along a bit.

The reason is its part of a pattern, not an isolated incident, just another one. Mainland Chinese tourists are seen and reported behaving poorly, far more so than any other nationality I am aware of, even factoring in the population size.

From stealing life vests and crockery on planes, to screaming and shouting and fighting, we hear the stories all the time. But even if there isn't a "scene", on every flight I've been on they tend to ruin the trip for other travelers because of talking and shouting extremely loudly and moving about the plane. Off the plane their behavior is often equally disgusting and inconsiderate and ill mannered, including spitting, shouting and causing disturbance of the peace wherever they go, to public defecation, to throwing tantrums, to pushing and shoving and cutting into queues.

And it doesn't stop there. They have a reputation for greed and dishonesty in business, those that are wealthy often display their wealth in the most vulgar fashion and we frequently learn that they have gained that wealth through either corruption or cheating.

Yes, yawn yawn yawn, I already know what your going to say...don't generalize...it's not all...well, we know not all, we know there are probably many who are decent and considerate, but the frequency of terrible behavior is prevalent enough that their image is now deservedly bad. If they want to improve their image, and I doubt they really care, then relying on idiot apologists won't get them far, because the only thing that will help is to start behaving decently and respectfully towards other nationalities and in other peoples countries.

Hope you get it now.

Thank you, I always enjoy being patronized by a racist ignoramus for breakfast. It's good to see the world through your own prejudiced lenses just so I can be thankful that no matter how much of a git I am today; I will still fall short of your own dramatic standards.

You may "hear stories all the time" but whilst there's no doubt that the Chinese are a bit rude by a Western yardstick; they are not particularly given to violent outbursts on planes any certainly not more so than any other nationality. You may be laying in wait to blame everything on Chinese people; the more rational of us tend to ask sensible questions like; "Which total plonker judges 1.3 billion people by the behaviour of 4 members of that group?" Sadly, I actually got an answer to that question. My condolences to you - life must be a wonderful place when you can see in ignorant black and white based on the occasional newspaper article.

I'll say it one more time as you are clearly very slow and require remedial tutoring. I said the incident was part of a pattern. Nobody is judging an entire nation based on 4 people, but they are judging based on a pattern....a very clear one, if you are too stupid to see the pattern then too bad. If you object to judgement based on a pattern then you are just blinding yourself to the facts. The facts are very clear but it needs a certain level of intelligence to see them. As for your comment about being a bit ruder than Westerners...LOL...they aren't a bit ruder, their rudeness is totally off the charts. As for your comment about racism, you just expose your own stupidity and bigotry there again, relaying in worn out platitudes to attack with. I said mainland Chinese, I didn't actually paint all Chinese with the same brush at all, so no racism there matey. And I know quite a few non mainland Chinese who find the behavior of the mainland Chinese even more disgusting than I do. Now go and put your dunce hat on.

While I don't want to get involved in this "cyberfight" I should let you know that over on the Cambodia section of the forum TheSiemReaper openly said that "China was the worst place he ever lived, the people are rude etc." whereas I defended the place saying it's actually not bad, but you do have to know the language etc. but he ignorantly rebutted and said "I don't have time to waste learning the language of every place I live in, when I might not live there forever". Strangely on this thread he's defending the place to the core, even accusing others of racism as if he were some sort of spokesperson for the Chinese. The fact is, political correctness and racism do not translate well into Chinese. The Chinese themselves don't care for these "western" concepts and won't hesitate to call something what it is, so no matter which way this argument goes, nobody will care. But without going too much off topic, I think paddyjenkins has made some good points.

I think I was pretty clear in this thread that China's not my favorite place on earth. But neither you nor Paddyjenkins actually have a point; except the racist agenda you both seem to delight in pursuing. There are 1.3 billion people in China and 4 of them behaved badly on a plane. If you got all the internet videos of bad Chinese behaviour together... you might find 1,000 miscreants. These people no more represent China than a British football hooligan represents the people of the UK.

Yes, the Chinese are rude but by and large their rudeness does not endanger people's safety. Sometimes you have to wonder why people can't manage to understand the point being made and then you remember - it's because they're not having a conversation but would rather say; "Look at me! I am so clever that statistics, fairness, etc. does not matter." and "I am so special because I learned Chinese!" neither of which are in fact true. 1. Statistics and fairness matter in order to stop people drawing conclusions from spurious and minimal data. 2. 1.3 billion Chinese managed that too - it's not special but in fact decidedly ordinary. Get over yourself now.

dude get a life. Again nobody is impressed by what you're trying to say.

And I've already seen that you are own, and only, cheering section. Congratulations you learned a worthless language; to complement your own insubstantial existence. You win the Internet.

Only a complete wombat would invest in Phnom Penh's property market or indeed Thailand's at the moment. The chances of civil war come the next election are increasing by the day and should His Majesty cease breathing in Thailand that country will also likely descend into civil war. Given that Malaysia or even Vietnam look like better bets (and Vietnam has just made buying property a shedload easier for foreigners too).

You don't have to fix a poker table to make it unprofitable for a professional gambler - it all depends on the rake. My experience of Cambodian casinos is that the rake is usually set way too high. Having said that... the number of desperate fish at any game does offset that sometimes...

Sopheak Na is the agent of choice; find them opposite the LG store in the center of town.

I'm not sure that there is one. I know several Vietnamese who visit Cambodia on the weekends to buy clothes from PP's markets as they are much, much cheaper than Vietnam's wholesalers... they then stock their stores with what they buy in PP back in Vietnam.

A market only works if it is actually free. The reason that regulators interfere is that most markets are not free they are effectively monopolies with a few fronts... when prices of oil go down; the savings should be passed on to consumers. But why bother? They're used to paying higher prices - so milk them a bit more. It's not like they have an alternative supply line is it?

People who believe in the fairness of markets must believe in the tooth fairy and Father Christmas as they are both as likely to exist as a fair market in this world.

I've just returned from a side trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. For me, Cambodia is a non starter. It's not Thai lifestyle on the cheap. Cross the border into Poipet and you'll soon appreciate what Thailand has to offer. I travelled overland across Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) in Vietnam with a few stops on the way.

I did like Vietnam and will return to venture more. The people are very friendly and helpful, English is freely spoken and decent bread available everywhere. Vietnam just seemed to be more welcoming and switched on to Westerners than Thailand. Maybe that's only HCMC?

I think Vietnam's an awesome place and much, much more welcoming than Thailand (except right up in the North where they go all... for want of a better word... Chinese). There's also a bit of an (underserved) superiority complex in Hanoi but for the most part Vietnam is great.

Cambodia is not Poipet (which is a toilet of epic proportions). Nor is it Thailand (thankfully to those of who live the Cambodian side of the border). If you want Thailand, stay in Thailand. If you want a great place to live and a more affordable lifestyle with far less crocodile smiles - Cambodia's great. It takes more than a naive coach trip to Ho Chi Minh to discover Cambodia properly.

The application of this rule has been terrible. It's definitely necessary but springing it on students during their exams is beyond harsh - it also means that this year; universities in the country have waived the need for a pass in many cases - so nothing has really changed. They'll also be able to cheat their way through uni once they're in... that's not changed in the slightest.

Much of the Phnom Penh bar scene has cheap drinks (50 cents for a beer is not uncommon in Happy Hours). Late night, yes - until dawn. Ladies? They're there and they're friendly as long as you have money. All told it's cheaper and later than Thailand.

I wouldn't hold your breath. The dual tourist visa - good luck with getting that. The straight through the border bus? Same same. These are things that were agreed years ago... even if the agreement happened this year; implementation probably wouldn't follow for another decade or more... the border crossings here are ridiculous and so are the times taken to implement anything. Too many personal fiefdoms on the borders where big bucks are made by those on both sides restricting everything...