Poipet / Casino Hotels For Visa-run

[welo]

I'm going for a visa-run to Poipet and will have to stay 2 nights there awaiting my visa. I just learnt that my (Thai) wife will not require a Cambodian visa if we stay within the Casino zone. Can anybody recommend a hotel there at 500 THB or less room rate? I'm not interested in any package offers (room and chips) since I will probably not gamble at all.

I found older posts that Grand Diamond has decent rooms for 500 Baht.

Orkiday Angkor Hotel has room rates between 400-600, but is just outside the casino zone - I guess she cannot stay there without a visa, right?

Any advice/hints welcome! Thx!

welo

[PoeDogg]

I prefer Holiday Palace, but it is above the price range that you are looking for.

Diamond would not even let me look at a room unless I paid first....they said it was their policy....I showed them my policy which consisted of walking out the door.

P.S., food sucks everywhere on the Cambodian side, and there is not much to do but gamble.....take a book or two.

Good luck!

[tigerfish]

i stay at poipet resort. which is the sister casino to grand diamond. for 2 reasons really

1. the rooms are cleaner, and dont seem to have any mosquitos. unlike grand diamond.

2 its quieter and more laid back.

the price is the same, although over the weekends whislt you pay 1,000 baht for the room and 1,000 for the deposit which you get back when your stay is complete, you effectivly pay 600 baht on fridays and saturdays get 400 baht promotion chips. sunday to thursday 500-500.

yes your partner does not need a visa, but cannot leave what i call (no-mans land) the part of land in between the two borders, which is where all the casino are situated.

another place you may like to try is star vegas! very popular with thais, and has a swimming pool.

are you going alone or with a company?

advice... if you are doing it alone once through the thai exit border, fill out your own cambodian visa application, otherwise you will probably end up paying a bribe to the cambodian police. just becuase the filled the documentation out for you.

are you going by coach? i alway go with a company called heng-heng. there is usually enough seats to go around, which counts for alot. you dont want some thai reclining their seat all the way back in your lap for 2 and 3/4 hours 200 baht. if your up early enough on the return day it helps . no long waits at immigration and the tour company will drop their price to get bums on seats.

have a good trip. anything else you want to know just ask.

[bjhabal]

Yes, Grand Diamond has a separate hotel (Inn) located in the small soi behind the hotel (Between the hotel and the check in immigration office). I have forgot it's name but I stayed there once when all the hotels were fully booked for a holiday season; it was B.400, with clean medium size room furnished with fridge, cable TV and hot shower. You have to check in at the main reception in the Grand Diamond hotel. Check it out if you want and just ask for the "Inn".

Bishop

[Lammbock]

I not understand at all why you stay there 2 nights? I went to Poipet only 2 times in my live. Why? Cause its the Gate to hel_l.

I always bribe the Police there and give a High tip to the Thai Guy who drive me there by Motorbike from a nearby place. I wait 20 min and go back to Thailand. Thats it.

Poipet is the worse Border i ever seen in my live.

The Thai site of the border is not much better.

I hate it ther and i hope i will never have to go there again.

Dont be a cheap Charley at the border. Bribe as much as you can and get out there as fast as you can.

Hel_l would be a Holiday trip.....

[welo]

Thanks for the hints!

We stayed at the Star Vegas. The offer 'standard' rooms for 800 THB incl. 500 Baht promotion chips.

Those rooms are not in the main building but in a rather functional looking building on the backside of the main building only separated by the (big) pool/garden. The rooms (size, interior) seem to be the same as for the 1500 THB rooms (incl. 1000 THB promotion chips). Rooms have air-con, hot shower, fridge, TV with TRUE cable with HBO and CNN, and hardwood floor (nice, so much better than worn-out carpeted floors).

The pool is pretty large (though not very deep - enough for swimming though), water is clean enough, and during our 2.5 day stay we've only seen 2 other people hanging out there.

Breakfast is not included, buffet (actually available all day) is 100 THB pp, you get a free voucher when you change 5000 THB to chips I've been told. The location is close to the 'market' area with small shops, stands, and restaurants - rather 'local' of course (and so are the prices!) though I've seen one selling Pizza

We played the promotion chips conservatively and were lucky enough to 'win back' the 2x500 THB and even a bit more, so eventually the rooms costed us less than 300 THB per night. Doing that and drinking the free beer in the casino I felt a bit 'cheap', but seeing all those people losing thousands of Baht in a couple of minutes my bad conscious for exploiting the casino was very limited.

I was pleasently surprised by our hotel and the area surrounding it. It was a bit off the stressful main road, and with the 'market' area close there was actually an opportunity to stroll around. I felt pretty safe even after nightfall since lighting was good and the area was busy enough with people. I guess the Casino area should be pretty safe anyway, since the casinos are definitely not interested in bad publicity that might scare off customers.

Free shuttle cars will take you to other casinos, and even though to me they all looked the same it was something to kill time (other than playing the casino and possibly losing a lot of money )

Only downside was the rather long waiting times at the immigration counters, maybe there's a peak now with tourists arriving in December extending their 30-day stay permit adding to the tourists coming from/going to Angkor Wat.

welo

[mangomango]

I am planning to stay at casino hotel and find an agent to make thai tourist visa at PP for me. Is it easy to spot an agent in border, can they make double tourist visa now?

[thaiphoon]

Single entry tourist visa only at PP. For double entry tourist visa in the region go to Vientiane. That said, there was a member report last week indicating he only got single entry tourist visa at Vientiane, so maybe the consulate is holding back on issuing double entry tourist visas until after the "free visa" period ends on 4th March 2010.