Land border options? Need to border run to Cambodia

[BritTim]

1 hour ago, edwardandtubs said:

The all-in fee for such fixers used to be 1700 baht but now the reports are 2700 which apparently people are willing to pay so don't expect it to go down.

People who are capable in dealing with the officials (understand their mindset, and can resist unreasonable demands while remaining friendly and polite) should not use the fixers. Those who are inexperienced, and/or hate being hassled, might be better off using a visa run company that builds all the fees into their price. In that case, someone who understands the system has already negotiated reasonable deals with the Cambodian officials and (while you are paying a service fee) you avoid the effort and aggravation (and some uncertainty) involved in negotiating everything yourself.

[edwardandtubs]

26 minutes ago, BritTim said:

People who are capable in dealing with the officials (understand their mindset, and can resist unreasonable demands while remaining friendly and polite) should not use the fixers. Those who are inexperienced, and/or hate being hassled, might be better off using a visa run company that builds all the fees into their price. In that case, someone who understands the system has already negotiated reasonable deals with the Cambodian officials and (while you are paying a service fee) you avoid the effort and aggravation (and some uncertainty) involved in negotiating everything yourself.

The one visa run company from Bangkok has put up it price from 2500 before covid to 3500 baht now, presumably because they have to pay more to immigration. It makes me think the days of the 300 baht in-out are long gone.

[BritTim]

57 minutes ago, edwardandtubs said:

The one visa run company from Bangkok has put up it price from 2500 before covid to 3500 baht now, presumably because they have to pay more to immigration. It makes me think the days of the 300 baht in-out are long gone.

That is a reasonable hypothesis. Also possible are (i) increased costs for fuel and driver; and (ii) fewer companies providing border bounces meaning less competition to keep prices down. (EDIT: I would also expect some impact from the deterioration of the dollar to baht exchange rate.)

 

I have not seen reports from experienced border runners to Cambodia recently. That may be because they are choosing to go to Laos instead. Anyway, it would be really useful if a couple of people would do it independently and report back.

Edited January 31, 2023 by BritTim