kartoshka Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 From Cambodia to Thailand by bus. Is Poi Pet still a bad place to enter Thailand in terms of scrutiny? What are better ones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 Yes Poipet remains the worst. Any other is better. Ban Pakkard (Pailin/Prum) is popular with visa runnrrs. But coming from within Cambodia I don't think you can get a bus all the way there. Likely have to get a moto taxi on Pailin. Other issue is scarcity of transport on the Thai side if you arrive late in the day. Where in Thailand are you headed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJack54 Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 Sheryl is correct. Aside from that If your coming on bus with agent. Meaning agent taking care of a group of you then should be fine. If coming unassisted avoid Poi Pet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kartoshka Posted December 29, 2019 Author Share Posted December 29, 2019 53 minutes ago, DrJack54 said: Sheryl is correct. Aside from that If your coming on bus with agent. Meaning agent taking care of a group of you then should be fine. If coming unassisted avoid Poi Pet. Can you recommend a good agent? Those that have buses, not mini-buses. How much will an agent change me on average? Or perphaps all in all it'll be better to take a flight? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJack54 Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 22 minutes ago, kartoshka said: Can you recommend a good agent? Those that have buses, not mini-buses. How much will an agent change me on average? Or perphaps all in all it'll be better to take a flight? Sorry cannot. Never done that trip. More experienced members along soon. All I know it's possible. Entering alone is just GRIEF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BritTim Posted December 29, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted December 29, 2019 I think all the agents now give Poipet a miss. If you ask around on the Cambodian side, there are fixers with connections that can get you through Thai immigration, but their services are expensive. Once in Thailand, you get get a casino bus (mainly used by Thai gamblers, but comfortable) to Bangkok or Pattaya. Really, just avoid Poipet. It is all much too stressful. If coming from Siem Reap, make for Pailin via Battambang. Enter Thailand at Ban Pakard. Go early in the day, certainly no later than mid afternoon. After entering Thailand, ask about transport to Pattaya. This has been available irregularly in the past. You may need to get a songtaew to Chanthaburi, and a comfortable bus from there. If coming from Phnom Penh, go to Koh Kong, entering Thailand at Hat Lek (Khlong Yai district, Trad province). There are comfortable minibuses to Trad itself, and from there buses to Bangkok. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 1 hour ago, kartoshka said: Can you recommend a good agent? Those that have buses, not mini-buses. How much will an agent change me on average? Or perphaps all in all it'll be better to take a flight? It would help to know your visa situation / history. I assume there is a reason why you are concerned. .and this would affect whether flying in is wise. I have actually just come from the Poipet crossing. I do it often as it is convenient to where I live, using any other crosssing would add hours to what is already a long trip. But I'm entering on a re-entry permit on a one year extension of stay for retirememt and even at Poipet/Aran no issue doing that. Even without any possible visa issue or fear of same it is indeed a stressful crossing that always leaves me feeeling like I've been through a wringer. I wouldn't use it if I were headed to Bangkok or Pattaya or pretty much anywhere other than where I live. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisE Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 (edited) Poi Pet used to be a great place but I’ve heard NOT ANYMORE. In late 2015 after the Bangkok bomber had apparently used Poi Pet as his point of entry into the country and apparently bribed his way over the border because he had an obvious fake Turkish passport and then he tried to escape using the SAME BORDER CROSSING in Poi Pet go figure that smart evasion plan he got caught. And ever since then they really started cracking down on Poi Pet. All that happened just before my first year here in Thailand in late 2015 and I remember because I used to use Poi Pet when I used to do my border runs during my first year here on a marriage visa until I got my first extension. But I remember when all that was going on I was actually doing like my last border run across Poi Pet in late 2015. I still have pictures but I remember they had wanted posters of the bomber all over Poi Pet and they caught him there around the same time I remember I think that was like the day after my last border run in 2015. Then they shutdown the Poi Pet border for a while and conducted some personal changes within the immigration officers there and started transferring them around because I guess the bomber bribed an IO to get in the country there at Poi Pet. I remember prior to that Poi Pet used to be a damn good place to do border runs every time I crossed back and forth at Poi Pet I’d always be standing in line with hundreds of back packers from mostly all over Europe and it was super easy back then I would just cross the border and then walk back across and get another 90 day stamp. Then I got my first extension just after that whole thing happened on the Poi Pet border crossing with the Bangkok bomber. I remember because that whole incident almost effected my plans back then. I have a few pictures of stuff that was going on at Poi Pet at the time back then. But the reason why Poi Pet is like that today was because of what happened there I believe it was November of 2015 I remember it was in late 2015. Edited December 30, 2019 by DennisE 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawadeeken Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 (edited) JUST CURIOUS.......... Is it Passport and too frequent visits issue. Or are you trying to smuggle something in without being caught.... ???? EDITED to add.... see my other post just below as a warning to others about a friend of mine taking a high risk coming into Thailand with 'Counterfeit $100s' with innocent intent..... Edited December 30, 2019 by sawadeeken add a line Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisE Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 This topic made me think back to late 2015 when all of that stuff first started at Poi Pet and I remember now I still have pictures and my old passport stamps tell me it was between August and November of 2015 when all that stuff happened which was the last two times I crossed back and fourth via Poi Pet border crossing. I never did hear if they ever had a trial for that guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisE Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 At the time I took those pictures in August 2015 Poi Pet was still a good place to do that but not anymore apparently. But I’ve never been there since November 2015. I’ve been doing extensions since then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burma Bill Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 (edited) 17 hours ago, kartoshka said: Can you recommend a good agent? Those that have buses, not mini-buses. How much will an agent change me on average? Or perphaps all in all it'll be better to take a flight? From my experience, if you travel by bus or mini-bus from Cambodia through to Thailand (via Poipet), the driver or a local agent associated with the company will give you FREE instructions on passing through both Cambodian and Thai Immigration and Customs. You may get a sticker to put on your shirt/jacket. Your "through" bus will wait in a car park on the Thai side, however with mini-buses, you may have to change from a Cambodian one to a Thai one - they tend not to drive the complete journey eg. Phnom Penh to Bangkok as buses do. Whatever, Thai Immigration can be very slow and unfriendly. The longest I stood in the queue to enter Thailand was 4 hours. My recent visit was quicker at one hour. Even though I have a valid Non O retirement visa and a multiple re-entry permit, the female IO kept me waiting and waiting whilst scrutinizing my passport before returning it to me without any comment. Edited December 30, 2019 by Burma Bill additional information Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawadeeken Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 I will never forget that a friend of mine who is retired living in Pattaya... He flys to Canbodia once/twice a year. A couple/three years ago he saw a vendor in PP selling bundles of US$100 bills that looked quite real.. so he bought a pack and brought the bundle back to Pattaya and to pass around to his MANY lady friends... When he showed them to me as a novelty........ I scared the hell out of him by asking IF THAI CUSTOMS AT THE AIRPORT. inspected his bags????.... He replied NO... That is when I scared the hell out of him by enlightening him as to what Thai Police would have done to him for smuggling 'COUNTERFEIT CURRENCY'........ He hadn't given a thought to that.......... OTHER TRAVELLERS CAN LEARN FROM THIS....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisE Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 4 minutes ago, sawadeeken said: I will never forget that a friend of mine who is retired living in Pattaya... He flys to Canbodia once/twice a year. A couple/three years ago he saw a vendor in PP selling bundles of US$100 bills that looked quite real.. so he bought a pack and brought the bundle back to Pattaya and to pass around to his MANY lady friends... When he showed them to me as a novelty........ I scared the hell out of him by asking IF THAI CUSTOMS AT THE AIRPORT. inspected his bags????.... He replied NO... That is when I scared the hell out of him by enlightening him as to what Thai Police would have done to him for smuggling 'COUNTERFEIT CURRENCY'........ He hadn't given a thought to that.......... OTHER TRAVELLERS CAN LEARN FROM THIS....... Wow that’s not normally something you see in the open in broad daylight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisE Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 I heard that today if you do a border run in Poi Pet that they make you spend at least one night in Cambodia now. But I’ve also heard that it’s still business as usual at other crossings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisE Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 15 hours ago, Sheryl said: It would help to know your visa situation / history. I assume there is a reason why you are concerned. .and this would affect whether flying in is wise. I have actually just come from the Poipet crossing. I do it often as it is convenient to where I live, using any other crosssing would add hours to what is already a long trip. But I'm entering on a re-entry permit on a one year extension of stay for retirememt and even at Poipet/Aran no issue doing that. Even without any possible visa issue or fear of same it is indeed a stressful crossing that always leaves me feeeling like I've been through a wringer. I wouldn't use it if I were headed to Bangkok or Pattaya or pretty much anywhere other than where I live. Oh yeah you’d definitely need to know his visa situation to accurately tell him. But the answer to his question is probably yes it probably still isn’t a good place to cross but I haven’t been to Poi Pet since November 2015. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawadeeken Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 3 minutes ago, DennisE said: Wow that’s not normally something you see in the open in broad daylight. My friend, between 1-2 years ago told me that in PP they were right out in the open, on the street.... He only considered the novelty... He didn't consider getting caught with them or the thought about them 'really' being counterfeit money.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisE Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 35 minutes ago, sawadeeken said: JUST CURIOUS.......... Is it Passport and too frequent visits issue. Or are you trying to smuggle something in without being caught.... ???? EDITED to add.... see my other post just below as a warning to others about a friend of mine taking a high risk coming into Thailand with 'Counterfeit $100s' with innocent intent..... He’s probably on a tourist visa and worried about being questioned about too many entries or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my friend I Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 17 hours ago, BritTim said: coming from Phnom Penh, go to Koh Kong, entering Thailand at Hat Lek (Khlong Yai district, Trad province). There are comfortable minibuses to Trad itself, and from there buses to Bangkok 3 people were refused entry into Thailand here yesterday. Don't know anything about why. There are different staff in that office now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritTim Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 On 12/30/2019 at 12:05 PM, my friend I said: 3 people were refused entry into Thailand here yesterday. Don't know anything about why. There are different staff in that office now. Given the fact that it is the tail end of the calendar year, it may just have been as simple as them trying for a third visa exempt entry by land in 2019. In spite of the fact that the rule is fairly well publicised, plenty of people seem to still get tripped up by this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phuketrichard Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 (edited) On 12/30/2019 at 10:44 AM, sawadeeken said: I will never forget that a friend of mine who is retired living in Pattaya... He flys to Canbodia once/twice a year. A couple/three years ago he saw a vendor in PP selling bundles of US$100 bills that looked quite real.. so he bought a pack and brought the bundle back to Pattaya and to pass around to his MANY lady friends... When he showed them to me as a novelty........ I scared the hell out of him by asking IF THAI CUSTOMS AT THE AIRPORT. inspected his bags????.... He replied NO... That is when I scared the hell out of him by enlightening him as to what Thai Police would have done to him for smuggling 'COUNTERFEIT CURRENCY'........ He hadn't given a thought to that.......... OTHER TRAVELLERS CAN LEARN FROM THIS....... when it says COPY in big letters on it,cant be called Counterfeit!!! Quote I heard that today if you do a border run in Poi Pet that they make you spend at least one night in Cambodia now. But I’ve also heard that it’s still business as usual at other crossings. I've never had any trouble crossing at Poi Pet an SOMETIMES Cambodia will charge you 300 baht if ur only doing a turn around for Thailand. Other borders zero trouble...an usually few if any tourists Edited January 1, 2020 by phuketrichard 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapamita Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 (edited) short answer!! horrible the waiting time , and even me, with non o multi , passed the first landboarder after many years !!!! get a nice passport screening , and 3 people in front was rehjected entry , and me give a warning not to come back here, even was 5 days in cambodia total time used nov 18 : waiting for check 3 hr + 1hr waiting for questening to the poster before : yes looooong time ago, it was very convinient ( over 10yr ago) Edited January 2, 2020 by lapamita Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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