How to go to Siem Reap from the Poipet Border?

Once you have successfully crossed the immigration office at Poipet, your next challenge is to find a good transportation from Poipet to Seam Reap.

We were offered 2 options. One is by bus, which will cost us Baht 300.00 each. Bus trips are scheduled so we had to wait until the bus will leave at 2pm. You will see some guys in uniform who are the authorized bus barkers. They should issue corresponding tickets when you pay for your bus. A coaster would bring you to the bus station, which is about 10 minutes drive from the Poipet immigration office.

Don't forget to eat lunch first, as there are no decent meals that you can buy at the bus station.

Though the Poipet border was filled with Thai people queueing to go to the casino, the bus station was empty when we arrived. Maybe because it's Songkran holiday today.

Luckily, 2 Danish guys were on the way to Seam Reap as well, and they're taking the 'TAXI'. It's really a private car that'd cost each passenger Baht500.00. They needed 2 more people so the taxi could leave. Apparently, it's faster than the bus by 1-2 hours, so we decided to take the taxi with them. We added 200.00 more to the bus ticket which we already paid. You don't pay the taxi driver. All transactions goes through the person who issues bus ticket, a man in uniform.

We left Poipet at 12:30 pm and arrived Siem Reap at 4:00pm.

As we already had a prior booking to our guest house, we asked our taxi driver to drop us at the guethouse.

Where to get Visa on arrival at the Poipet border?

Once your vehicle arrives the Poipet border, you need to disembark for the immigration office.

In our case, since we took the van from AIT (Pathum Thani, Bangkok) to Poipet, we had to disembark at the Poipet border approximately 4 hours after our departure from Bangkok.

I hold a Philippine passport, so I do not need any visa to visit Cambodia. My travel mate who's from Indonesia had to get her visa on arrival at the border which cost her Baht1,100.00 (Baht100.00 more expensive than the fee from the Cambodian embassy in BKK).

If you can speak a little Thai, it would be better to ask for directions to ask where the office for Visa application is located. Otherwise, you need to speak with anyone in uniform as it is more likely that they can speak a little English.

As of this writing, the Visa office is located beside the Kasikorn bank ATMs. It's quite a big and old building with sniffing dogs and guards around.

How to get a van to the Poipet border from Bangkok?

I asked my Cambodian friends to help me arrange transportation to the Poipet border, which will be my route to Siem Reap, the city where Angkor Wat sits in Cambodia.

You can get there by bus or van. Bus would be a longer trip than if you take the van. Van will get you there in 4 hours or less.

Thanks to Darith and Ratana, they gave me phone numbers which are some of the van companies that will get you to Aranyaprathet (Poipet) border. They all speak Thai, and can hardly understand English, so better find a Thai who can translate for you before you call these numbers:

+66812863911
+66864045049
+66804532629

Experience tells me that the drivers have their own mobile phones, and when you start calling, you will be faced with a situation of having to negotiate with the driver. They keep saying "YES" and you will be disappointed to know that they did not understand your instructions at all.

To avoid confusion, make sure you jot down important things to ask the driver:

• rate per seat;
• day and date of departure;
  
• expected time of departure from Bangkok;
• expected time of arrival in Poipet;
• location where you would like to be picked up.

The van who promised to pick us up at 2AM arrived at 430AM, so better calculate these delays as part of the contingencies of your trip to the Poipet border from Bangkok.

***If you're a foreigner and staying in Thailand for long, you need re-entry permit. Click here to know more about getting re-entry permit to Thailand.

If link does not work, paste this on your browser:
http://pinaythai.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-much-is-re-entry-permit-from.html

How much is Re-entry permit from Cambodia to Thailand?

Need a re-entry permit to Thailand?

I have an ED Visa in Thailand that expires this Aug 2009. I need to leave for Cambodia in a few days and I was initially planning to get my Re-entry permit to Thailand processed at the Poipet border immigration office.

Things changed when I was told that it's quite difficult to get at the Poipet border. I decided to go to Bangkok to get it there, but I am just too lucky that the Guest Relations officers in my school processed my Visa at Ayutthaya immigration office. I still had to go there for appearance, but I saved myself from getting too stressed going to Bangkok and having to queue for a long time.

I paid Baht1,000.00 for my re-entry permit to Thaialnd, sat at the benches of the Ayutthaya immigration office, and got my permit in less than an hour of waiting.

No need for me to get a Cambodian Visa...thanks to this ASEAN agreement thing.

My friend from Indonesia needs to get hers, but can't be done in Ayutthaya and rather get it from Poipet border.

2 days to roll, and we are conquering the Angkor Wat.

Click here to know how to get a van to Poipet Border from Bangkok.

If link does not work, copy and paste this URL to your browser:
http://pinaythai.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-get-van-to-poipet-border-from.html