Cambodia and Laos happy as Thailand reopens 37 border checkpoints

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, drbeach said:

As I said in my post, the Phu Nam Ron border doesn't require foreigners to leave Thai soil to do a border run. You hand your passport over to an agent to run it across for you.

 

So then has that border crossing, now and in recent times, been a viable exit-entry point for those in Thailand who merely need to do a border hop to extend their Thailand stays?

 

The general guidance here, I thought, has been that all the border crossings had been closed for that purpose, and border hops simply weren't available to those within Thailand.

 

[drbeach]

39 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

 

It would need formal opening of the border, yes, but the 14 day entry Cambodians get is entirely separate from the visa exempt entries offered to many Westerners, it comes under an altogether different category of entry under a specific bilateral agreement.

So they definitely could open the borders to 2 way travel by Thais and Khmers if they chose. And since there has been no community transmission of COVID in Cambodia now for several months, hard to see any reason  not to.

They could re-open the bilateral visa exemption for Cambodians and Thais, sure, but if they did that, they'd surely also do so for Laotians, Vietnamese and several other nationalities at the same time. There's nothing particularly special about Cambodians compared to any surrounding country. I know you have a special relationship with Cambodia but that in itself doesn't grant them privileges over their other neighbors.

 

I have been reading about several proposed travel bubbles. One of them involves Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Therefore, IF a travel bubble was established, this could potentially include the reinstatement of the bilateral visa waiver, but for all 4 countries at once.

 

In my opinion an established travel bubble would still entail several restrictions and wouldn't be in place for longer than about a month before more countries are added/further easing of restrictions.

 

I don't see such bubbles being in place for months and months, without others joining in the meantime.

[drbeach]

14 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

So then has that border crossing, now and in recent times, been a viable exit-entry point for those in Thailand who merely need to do a border hop to extend their Thailand stays?

 

The general guidance here, I thought, has been that all the border crossings had been closed for that purpose, and border hops simply weren't available to those within Thailand.

 

It has. For multi entry visa holders in particular and anyone needing to cross quickly and come back to extend their stay (assuming they haven't done more than 2 visa exempt land based entries in the same year).