CROSSING BORDERS : Cambodia to Thailand

Overland travel from Cambodia to Thailand took us a total of 8 hours by car including the processing of our documents while crossing borders. We initially planned to get to Thailand via Nattakan bus for 28USD per person but we failed to advise our hotel to reserve us seats earlier and because the bus line going that route was fully booked, we have no choice but try other options.

By CAR

Our hotel (Motherhome Guesthouse) assisted us to look for other options going to Thailand. They sent us to Easy Travel agency to check our options. The choices include riding a van, another less known bus line or by car. Considering the differences in price, length of travel, comfort and customer service, we all agreed to hire a car. We paid a total of 128 USD or 32 USD per person. The advantages include, faster travel time, more comfortable trip and the best part is someone will assist us once we get to Cambodia's Poipet border and will walk us through the immigration until we crossed and reached the border of Aranyaprathet, Thailand. 

If you haven't heard of it yet crossing these two borders in South East Asia is really challenging and if you are not well-informed you'll most likely be one of the many preys falling for those scam artists that ply this area while crossing that 50 meter distance apart. Just remember, once you arrived at the Cambodian immigration at the Poipet border and secured an exit stamp, just walk straight, you can already see the Thailand border from afar and then cross the street because the Thailand immigration is on your left and then walk straight until you see the sign that will guide you to the Thailand immigration.

Also read - Crossing Borders : Vietnam to Cambodia

Travel from Siem Reap, Cambodia to the Poipet Border took us 2 hrs. I'm not sure if there's a speed limit but our driver is really very conscious to keep our speed at 40kph while traversing the highway. The traffic scene in that part of Cambodia is boring compared here but I'm not complaining because it's not stressful and polluted.

TOYOTA CAMRY, our service going to Poipet Border

Our service picking us up at our hotel at around 9am then proceeded to POIPET border.

POIPET Border

SECURING EXIT AND ENTRY STAMPS

We stopped at this spot of POIPET and someone from the travel agency welcomed us and walked us through the Cambodia immigration which is just 10 meters away on our right. The smell of this place is so unpleasantly strong that reminds me of a fish port back home, you wouldn't miss it for sure.

This is it!

Well, that one level establishment with several windows is the place to have your passports stamped. 

Be sure to have filled out that embarkation card you got when you entered Cambodia before lining up on that window to have your biometrics taken and your passport stamped.

Afterwards, just walk straight, our guide was in front leading us.

You'll passed through this Cambodia Arch and then cross the street to the left to get to the side of Thailand's immigration building.

Once you cross the street, you'll enter that grilled entrance and just walk straight then follow the signs.

That's it the Kingdom of Thailand! Turn left to enter the building and then access the stairs. An embarkation card will be given right there before going up.

You can fill up the embarkation card while lining up. 

 The lines can get long as was our case.

But once done, just head straight to the exit. It took us a total of one hour to complete the process and cross the border.

Our guide was just waiting for us at the exit to accompany us to our new vehicle going to Thailand. We left the border at 1 PM.

We arrived in Bangkok, Thailand around 5:30pm. Photo above is our nice driver with his ride who drives like crazy but glad he got us to our destination safely in Pratunam. Traffic situation in Thailand is very similar to Manila and you know what that means and they are right-handed which made it more difficult for me to relax and doze off while our driver was speeding away.

To complete our Indochina experience, watch out for my Thailand posts soon.

Now up : Thailand : 2 Nights in Bangkok