Staying in Thailand with a multiple entry ED visa I have been doing visa runs to the Thai/Cambodian border at Had Lek which is at the end of that narrow stretch of Thai territory along the Thai gulf. Of course this always worked out for me and I intend to keep doing it. The procedure is pretty straight forward and as such I never needed to book an organised tour if they even exist at this part of the country.

The one little drawback of the border crossing at Had Lek is that the Cambodian side is not the most official one. They charge whatever they want which is for instance 1200 baht for an official 20 USD visa plus a 200 baht fine if you leave the country on the same day. A fine which of course ends up in the officials' pockets. And then there is the swine flu test which costs another 20 baht. Don't bother to bring the 20 USD for the visa because they don't accept it. Now this never really bothered me since it is still relatively cheap and other border crossings are way further for me. Had Lek is only one hour from Trat by minivan.

Some time ago someone asked me if you could prevent to even enter Cambodia and this question kept chasing me ever since. At Had Lek when leaving Thailand you still have to walk more than 100 meters before reaching Cambodian territory, a no man's area in which really not a single official is even paying the slightest attention. Only beggars and kids are to be found there. After leaving Thailand one could turn straight back after walking say 10 meters and simply reenter the country at the entry office on the other side of the road. The question here of course is if immigration actually checks if you're coming from Cambodia or if they simply focus on their own stamps and put a new stamp saying you can stay for another 90 days. Has someone actually tried this already? I would even tend to think there's nothing illegal about this because one would have actually left the country...

Is this worth a try? Or would I risk too much here? I can always play the confused tourist if necessary and enter Cambodia if someone on the Thai side tells me to. If it does work it would save a lot of time and hassle. More importantly, the chance that I could have the same taxi back not having to wait for another one would increase significantly, in some cases saving me one or two hours. To do or not to do?

Edited September 9, 201015 yr by AgentSmith

Yes people have tried and most have failed. You are required to enter another country on a land border crossing and they do look for that stamp.

Yes don't try to bypass entry into Cambodia it will not work.

There are 2 crossings north of trat at ban laem and ban pakard, they are close together but the closest is ban pakard.

I went there on my last visa run, having used poi pet previously, it was so relaxed at ban pakard, Poi Pet is a mad house, you will need some photos i think it was 3, together with copies of passport id page, (ALL OF WHICH CAN BE DONE THERE} walk up some steps to immigration, exit is on the left, entry directly opposite. after exiting Thailand walk towards Cambodia, there is a covered area on the left, where some Cambodians sit and 'tout' for business. It had been fine all day, but as i parked in the car park the heavens opened, so i took the help offered by the last group of 'touts' and they did everything for me, without me leaving my seat. Five minutes later minus 1,300 baht i was back in Thailand the whole trip took 10 minutes or less.It was in the afternoon,so that may of helped. the girl's phone number is 0899825567 (pisey). You could do it yourself there, not sure what it would cost

Ok well, it was a nice idea. End of story.

Steve187, the border crossing at Ban Pakard seems closer to Trat than the one at Had Lek. However since I don't have a car I need to arrange transport and until now it has been a minivan from Trat busstation to Had Lek. This is quite a distance but the road is good and it only takes an hour, sometimes a little more. Would Ban Pakard be better timewise? The whole procedure at the border sounds a bit more efficient because it always takes me at least 20 minutes to go through the whole process. Again it's all pretty straightforward at Had Lek but missing the ride back to Trat every time is annoying and of course they don't wait for you even if you ask them.

I can probably arrange a cheap rental car for my visa run so no annoying taxi's this time. Off course I checked the route to Ban Pakard from Trat straight away but it is quite a bit further than Had Lek, 131 km versus only 89 km. So it will be Had Lek again, unless I decide to also visit Chanthaburi since I have a car anyway.