Phnom Penh from trat

[weecree]

Doing visa run for 60 day visa, first time so looking for any info and warnings. Off in a few hours. Have until Sunday so hopefully enough time with bribe to touts for processing. Options are to get one of the dudes at Cham yeam to run it, or go to Phnom Penh myself and get tout there to process it, but need bus and cheap but safe hotel infos if you have any. Finally sounds an odd question, but what currency is easier, real or dollar?

[lopburi3]

Doubt that you will get by Sunday in Cambodia but if you do please advise. Things can change there but have not seen many reports of any reliable pay for fast service options. Sorry can not answer other questions but believe dollars are best

[Gone]

Usually takes 2 business days so even if you went to PP and did it yourself or use a tout, chances are if you are leaving today and can be at the consulate by 11:00 am Thursday, you would not get it until Monday but also don't forget that it is Thai holiday on the 22nd and 23rd (I believe) so they will be closed Monday and Tuesday so you probably will be stuck in PP until minimum next Wednesday. Tons of hotels there that are as safe as any other really. Just head down river rd and turn up any soi.

[phuketrichard]

visa take 3 Business days min using an agent in Phnom Penh ( $40)

or 2 days and $45

I am in PP now and stay at the Hometown hotel ( $15/night) on street 172, 1 1/2 blocks to riversside, plenty of restuarnts nearby

bar streets are 104, 108, 130, 136 and than the wlakabout is over on street 178 an street 51

Trat to border about 2 hours cross over but buses only leave Koh Kong in the morning to Phnom Penh, so u will need overnight or take a taxi ( $50 or so) 5 hours or so

Cambodia visa will cost ya 1,000 baht or more even thou its really only $20.

lots pf people try to scam you at that order, ( u do NOT ned a medical check) or someone to help u fil out the form

Edited July 17, 2013 by phuketrichard

[Tomtomtom69]

Nobody uses Riel in Cambodia except for small change. Stick with dollars, or Baht near the Thai border.

[weecree]

Mission Accomplished.

Arrived Cham Yeam around 12.30pm Wednesday. Absolutely no time to make it through immigration and off to the bus. Worse still, the one dude i actually like (and was hoping to go through) at the border wasnt there... Fortunately was circled by the mafia all trying to 'help' me for a bus ticket i didnt want. I said something about all i needed was a courier and voila a dude popped out from the circle to say "ah, you remember what i said last time!"

Sure enough i didnt. But i wasnt going to argue. Offered me three prices, 2250 for 4 day, 2500 for 3 day, 3000 for 2 day. Went with the two day because it was the only way in hell id get it before the weekend and the holiday (the two day means 2 days at phnom penh - your passport still has to shufty its way back to Cham Yeam).

Anyways, told to come back 12 or 1pm saturday and itd be all done with the 60 day visa.

Figured i didnt have much of an alternative anyways, so off my passport went into a car FILLED with people and pots and pans and... are they moving house?

Prayed a silent prayer to St Christopher to bring my passport back safely and spent three days in Koh Kong. Not awful, but didnt really fancy dropping even more cash. Got a nice hotel and waited out the next three days.

Turned up saturday, got a message saying its on its way and itll be here at 2pm.

At around 3 it arrived! Yay! All done, no problems. Paid a wee tip and off home i returned.

ETA: Dollars/Baht/Riel issue.

Its a weird one. Prices in the shops were mainly in baht, but at checkout they switch it to Riel. Almost everything in Koh Kong was paid for in Riel.

Edited July 21, 2013 by weecree

[phuketrichard]

wait, u paid $100 for a thai tourist visa!!!!

double the price if u had travelled urself to Phnom Penh

[weecree]

double the price maybe. But what with two days off this weekend, it would have meant at least a week, probably a week and a couple of days in fact since its a 4 business day turnover. At best i would have arrived there thursday morning - but possibly not since the buses to phnom penh stop running after 1pm i heard. So lets say night in koh kong, then travel on thursday, then miss the visa shop opening times (as well as getting around phnom penh), so thats another night in phnom penh and still havent even started the process...

Friday morning, pop to the visa shop. Four working days puts it at Friday, Wednesday, Thursday, and the visa late on friday evening.

So thats 1 week 2 days of accommodation. Dunno man, sure, you can probably get cheap digs, but i want something nice to sleep in. I was paying 500 for my hotel in koh kong/night so thats 9 nights... 4500 baht. Transport = whatevers, and then basic getting around the city, throwing cash around... oh and the visa itself. Its all looking a hell of a lot more expensive. I paid 4500 total plus about another 2000 just milling about eating and things. Plus i got back in time on saturday to chill back at home and enjoy my 4 day weekend.

Best case scenario was really night in koh kong, then thursday travel, then pay the oft recommended security guy for 2 day turnover in the afternoon, That would still mean visa wouldnt be available until the wednesday evening. So no matter what, id have been stuck there a week. Only way i would have got it sooner would have been to leave about 2 hours earlier than i did. Then, and possibly only then would i have gotten the same turnaround time (assuming the security dude could have done it in one day no aggro - not always guaranteed by reports), It still would have cost me around 70USD on it.

Basically, not only was this the fastest way to do it, it was also the cheapest (all things considered).

[phuketrichard]

or u could have done it the week before an planned better.

taxi to PP from kk is $40-50

[Nana Cowboy]

good one. paying $100 is well worth it to not travel that nightmare to PP

[ATMdernlen]

how much did you pay for your cambodian visa?

last i went through there they hit me 1500 baht for a buisness visa which i was planning on extending, so i only stayed 3 weeks and went to vietnam.

time after that i was in trat but after talking to the minibus scammers at the bus station jumped on a bus to chantaburi then to arunyapratet and did the extension there. all cambodian border crossings leave a bad taste in the mouth but that one to kk is the worst. main reason i dont visit there so often is the bad news borders. costs them much tourists i imagine. do the malaysia train instead at more expense and time in preference.

Edited July 23, 2013 by ATMdernlen

[weecree]

or u could have done it the week before an planned better.

taxi to PP from kk is $40-50

My my...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwk38srACrA

You assume far too much about my situation. Im leaving thailand for Korea after my tefl finishes at the end of august. The reason i chose to do it this week is because id just done a border hop for the 15 day visa 2 weeks prior. I actually wanted to delay it as long as practicably possible to not only finish the tefl without a visa run, but also give me a buffer in case i dont have a job lined up in korea after it finishes. Now i COULD have done the PP run then, but that would have put me to a very early september visa run which is a bit close to the end of my course. I figured that it would be far simpler to do one extra 15 day hop, then the two month visa hop. This way id have until mid september without needing to extend my visa at all to find a job (and get my visa processed) for a position in Korea. Its a buffer. Its not necessary, but its practical and gives me significant peace of mind.

As for the taxi, possibly. I dont know. But since i managed to get scammed twice before setting foot in koh kong town center (first time was a switcheroo on the motorbike taxi - i fell for it. Im a mug. Second one was the "money exchange" place), cambodians never really endeared me with their kind and generous natures to be honest. Youd probably need a bit more wiles about you to get that taxi fare. I dont have it. I was getting offered buses for 800 baht to sokhanville or whatever its called.

Its all worked out well. Add the cost of getting the visa, the misery of running around like a headless chicken in a country and city ive never been in and trying to rush about and do it all so i can save costs on accommodation and well, you know... better my way i reckons.

Edited July 24, 2013 by weecree

[weecree]

Cambodian visa is 1200 baht. Or its cheaper (and soooo much better) if you do it evisa style (25$).

They hit you with a BS 300 baht charge if you "leave cambodia within 24 hours of receiving the visa".

If its your first time you get scammed by 1. The quarantine/medical check. 2. The swarms of vultures trying to get 100 baht out of you for "helping you" do your paperwork.

Two scams to be mindful of should you venture into cambodia itself that i personally succumbed to (because im an idiot).

1. Taxi driver is taking you to cambodia, gets you on the bike, you drive about twenty yards, he wants paid upfront (yeah, i know, but honestly the whole experience is so deliberately flustering that you lose a bit of your common sense - you have to remember that the touts there are deliberately flustering you and harassing you from the second you cross that border). He starts chatting to someone. This guy is introduced as his brother and now he'll take you instead. Scam 2 happens half way at the toll. You dont have riel, he says you need riel, he pays the toll now, and you can pay him back when you hit koh kong.

Upon (sort of) arrival in Koh Kong (scam 2) he immediately pulls into a shop for money exchange. He gets a bit grumpy and kinda fakes a lack of understanding when you want a real bank (no banks!) that youre not going to pay him for the toll. So youre kinda pressured into it. You KNOW that hes bullshitting you, but its only a few baht... you hand over your smallest decent sized note (in my case 500 baht) despite both the driver and the dude in the shop trying to convince you that this is the only place to exchange cash. Youre then handed a bunch of cash. No exhange rates posted. Apparently 500 baht = 45,000 riel... (its more like 70,000 which you find out by going into one of the three banks at Koh kong and asking them).

But back to scam 1. At this point you hand over the 1400 riel for the toll and suddenly "thats for the toll, but what about the ride here?"

"i paid your brother"

"hes not my brother, why did you pay him? He didnt drive you, i drove you! He wont give me any of that money!"

And then it gets kinda ugly. He wants his 100 baht. He isnt going to compromise. So you pay it because youd rather just hand over the 100 baht than get in a shit storm or worse have the people with your passport (since they all seem to be somewhat organised) upset at you.

Of course, you never use another taxi in all your time in the town until you have to leave, because f*** those dudes

In truth, i get flustered easily, so im a pretty easy target for bs easy mark scams like this. Its why i hate travel to be honest. Some people love the cut and thrust of it. I just lose my brain. Hope it helps someone out there though

Edited July 24, 2013 by weecree

[ATMdernlen]

Cambodian visa is 1200 baht. Or its cheaper (and soooo much better) if you do it evisa style (25$).

They hit you with a BS 300 baht charge if you "leave cambodia within 24 hours of receiving the visa".

If its your first time you get scammed by 1. The quarantine/medical check. 2. The swarms of vultures trying to get 100 baht out of you for "helping you" do your paperwork.

Two scams to be mindful of should you venture into cambodia itself that i personally succumbed to (because im an idiot).

1. Taxi driver is taking you to cambodia, gets you on the bike, you drive about twenty yards, he wants paid upfront (yeah, i know, but honestly the whole experience is so deliberately flustering that you lose a bit of your common sense - you have to remember that the touts there are deliberately flustering you and harassing you from the second you cross that border). He starts chatting to someone. This guy is introduced as his brother and now he'll take you instead. Scam 2 happens half way at the toll. You dont have riel, he says you need riel, he pays the toll now, and you can pay him back when you hit koh kong.

Upon (sort of) arrival in Koh Kong (scam 2) he immediately pulls into a shop for money exchange. He gets a bit grumpy and kinda fakes a lack of understanding when you want a real bank (no banks!) that youre not going to pay him for the toll. So youre kinda pressured into it. You KNOW that hes bullshitting you, but its only a few baht... you hand over your smallest decent sized note (in my case 500 baht) despite both the driver and the dude in the shop trying to convince you that this is the only place to exchange cash. Youre then handed a bunch of cash. No exhange rates posted. Apparently 500 baht = 45,000 riel... (its more like 70,000 which you find out by going into one of the three banks at Koh kong and asking them).

But back to scam 1. At this point you hand over the 1400 riel for the toll and suddenly "thats for the toll, but what about the ride here?"

"i paid your brother"

"hes not my brother, why did you pay him? He didnt drive you, i drove you! He wont give me any of that money!"

And then it gets kinda ugly. He wants his 100 baht. He isnt going to compromise. So you pay it because youd rather just hand over the 100 baht than get in a shit storm or worse have the people with your passport (since they all seem to be somewhat organised) upset at you.

Of course, you never use another taxi in all your time in the town until you have to leave, because f*** those dudes

In truth, i get flustered easily, so im a pretty easy target for bs easy mark scams like this. Its why i hate travel to be honest. Some people love the cut and thrust of it. I just lose my brain. Hope it helps someone out there though

thanks for that. yes thats the worse i heard, seems its getting worse and worse all the time.

there is another crossing about an hour north of chantaburi maybe ok for border runs. havent had any reports good or bad about it though. on asking about it in chantaburi GH they didnt give any warnings about it. seems a lot of people use it. else there is the burriram bus from chantaburi which will get you to aranyaprathet for about 150 baht in about 3 hrs. for a 800 baht tourist visa at arranyaprathet.

Edited July 24, 2013 by ATMdernlen