fauxie

The Cambodian border hop I did today felt like getting a collaborative rogering from both sides, but it's done now. The CW part is more familiar and should be a doddle if only I can somehow suppress my apparently inherent swaggering and arrive as a normal person.

Thanks for the info. I remember I always paid more than 30 USD, not least because I always paid in THB. I'll go with an expectation of paying a bit over the odds then.

Excellent. Thank you. And that was recently? I've not been to Cambodia for a border hop in about 10 years.

Surely you can turn up at the border and enter Cambodia in a traditional fashion, right? Right??

Ah, I didn't know that. Thanks. I had a look online and it says it takes 3 working days, but we're leaving in a van on Tuesday. I wonder if it can be done using the app there and then or whether there is still a traditional non-digital way but perhaps for an additional fee? 🤔

Cheers for the suggestion. However, I don't think I want to go back to the 1-year multi-entries. I got a bunch of those back in the 00s and 10s and back then we were cool with doing trips every 3 months, but now tend to travel a lot at certain times of the year and hardly at all at others (well, rainy season, basically). We have no issues with the extension, and have much of the stuff like photos ready from when we just went there. We just messed up with the money in the bank this time so were scrambling a bit and hoping for a convenient solution. Never had a home visit, incidentally. Noted about the visa start date. At this rate I guess it'll be starting March or April by the time we're doing the extension part again.

Thanks. It was probably Baan Pakkard I used to go to, only the stamps always said Pong Nam Ron on them just the same due to the area.

Thanks for the link and for all your help. We have all the stuff from when we were going to apply for the 1-year extension, so it will be easy to update what needs to be updated (like TM.30, for example) and go within a week of doing the border run. We won't need to use the photos, right? Can hold onto those for the 1-year extension. :)

I see. Thank you. So in effect once I get the 1-year extension I will have a 60-day one sort of in my pocket, so to speak, in case I need it? That's reassuring. We wouldn't expect any issues with getting the non O and the 1-year extension if not for the money cock-up, but I just didn't know I could be visa exempt on the 30 days as a tourist and rock up at CW and apply for the single entry non O there. That's cool. We're in Talingchan, almost in Nonthaburi. Poipet is one I went to years ago and I recall it being extremely busy and a bit hectic. Much preferred Pong Nam Ron, but I'm open to any suggestions. Any decent non-Cambodia options?

Yes, and that's what prevented me getting more time to season the money, right? I don't quite get it because of course I've had a couple of 1-year extensions on this same visa so what's different with 60 days? I.e. why not 60 days, 1 year, 1 year, 60 days, 1 year for example? But that's the rules, it seems, and why I have to leave the country at this point, correct?

So I typically get a 1-year extension of my non-O based on marriage to a Thai. However, a cock-up means with a couple of weeks left on my current extension we had not had the required 400k in a Thai bank account for 2 months. I put the money in there and we were told over the phone to prepare all the docs as per usual and go to immigration at CW and see if they would be able to extend to give us more time to season the money. However, once there we were told this was not possible and that I would have to leave the country, the two options being apply for a new non-O outside of the country, wait the required time, then come back to CW and get the 1-year extension, OR do a border hop and come back in 30 days visa-exempt, go to CW and apply for the single entry non-O, then once the money has been in my account for the necessary time come back again and apply for the 1-year extension. Now, I think I prefer the second option, but I wasn't aware that you could actually apply within Thailand for a non-O visa in this way. My question is, is that definitely correct? My wife and I asked a couple more times to be sure I hadn't misunderstood and the lady insisted. Has anyone here done such a thing? Forgive my ignorance if this is totally commonplace. While I'm here, it's been so many years since I did a Cambodia border hop. Is there anything I should know? Anywhere I shouldn't go? A particular crossing that's good? I'm thinking we'll go to Pong Nam Ron, but is that still a good option from Bangkok? I recall the last place I went was small and quiet and I rather liked it, but I can't remember now which particular crossing it was. All my old stamps in old passports (last went in the mid-10s) seem to say Pong Nam Ron but I distinctively remember going to a different place the last time. Thank you very much in advance for any info and/or advice anyone has. 🙏