Poipet to be avoided at all costs?

[lazygourmet]

They are not friendly at all, at Poipet border, even when leaving.

Last week, the officer at counter was not able to find my entry stamp and she pretended that I did an illegal entry.

I knew exactly where it was, squeezed somewhere in the middle of my 64 pages passport, but she did not want to handle it back to me just to show her where it was.

Instead, I was brought to her supervisor, at the overstay back office, where they made me wait for more than one hour without saying anything.

Then suddenly, the lady in charge called me : "Belgian, come here!" ; and throw it back to me my passport with their exit stamp right in the middle of a new blank page.

No explanation and certainly no apologize.

[youbuyshirt]

Everyone says avoid Poipet but the problem is, Aranyaprathet has the best travel options to Bangkok. The train is available right there at the border if what I read is correct (you used to have to go several km to the Aranyaprathet train station to get the train, now it's right there at the border market)

 

The other options, like the two border crossings near Battambang, don’t have a train and I think only have dangerous minibuses to Bangkok, is that correct?

I have a lot of luggage and it would be a problem to try to cram it into the back of a minibus.

 

10-15 years ago, I was living in Thailand most of the year and had a lot of visa exempt entries and tourist visas (in old passports), but now, I have not entered Thailand in over 3 years and I think there's only one visa exempt entry in my current passport that is over 3 years old. I want to get a 30 day visa exempt entry at Poipet. Do you think I’ll have a problem?

 

Thanks for any replies.

[youbuyshirt]

Oh, I forgot to mention, I also have a lot of vitamins and supplements for personal use and I read in another post that they were "cracking down" on that kind of heinous criminality. Is that going to be a problem?

 

Also, am I going to have to show them an "onward travel" ticket out of Thailand?  I only travel by land and when I exit Thailand it will be by train back to Aranyaprathet, or maybe by a full size bus, then walk to Cambodia. I don't know what day I will exit and I don't think it's possible to get a return train ticket far in advance on the Aranyaprathet line, especially from outside the country.

 

Other than that, I will have enough cash to show them if they ask to see it.

Edited November 8, 2019 by youbuyshirt