I found BobS description of crossing from Thailand to Laos (
Link removed ) quite helpful so here is a similar guide for the less organized border from Voen Kham, Laos to Koh Cheuteal Thom, Cambodia.
The first thing you will meet on route 13 south is the first Laos custom gate. I arrived Sunday lunchtime and they let me thru as soon as they finished lunch without any money to pay. Note the nice two lane European style road.
After a short while the road will abruptly stop and there will be a dirtroad to the right and a mudroad in the forest straight ahead. The mudroad straight ahead is highway 13 to Cambodia.
After a few kilometers passing thru mudpools you reach the real Laos border. Dont go straight thru the pools cause some of them are deep but if you stay on the edges and have some speed then it is no problems. At the border they charged me $1 plus another $1 because it was Sunday. The locals behind me paid with some cabbage
After another hundred meters you reach the Cambodian border. Here they now offer visa on arrival which was new to me. Unfortunately they also wanted a special letter for the bike that they said I could go to Vientiane or Bangkok to get in order to bring my bike. Then they realized that it wasnt realistic so they said that I could get the letter from the customs office in Stung Treng. Then they realized that there is no way for me to get there and back without the bike since there is almost no one living on the 60 km to Stung Treng and even less taxis. So they let me thru in exchange for promising to go to the customs office in Stung Treng or otherwise I would come back to the border (Oh, sure I would...). They wanted $3 and I quickly gave them that before they could change their mind about the bike. It is probably negotiable if you have all the required papers.
I was easily fooled by the ease to get gas in Laos so I assumed that there would be one place to get gas in Cambodia. When my reserved kicked in I realized I could be in trouble. My reserve is only 2l which is less than I needed to go the 60 km dirt road to Stung Treng and it didnt look like there were any gas stations coming up.
Luckily there was one guy selling gas along the way and I bought his six 500ml bottles of gas for $5 which felt like a bargain.
Then you simply do about 50 km more of dirtroad until you see the river and think that you just have to cross the bridge. Then you realize that the bridge is not even finished halfway and there is no people around to help you there.
The solution is to go back a few hundred meter to where you see a giant Angkor beer ad. There you see a road leading up to you right (if you are coming from the border). Take the dirt road a few hundred meters down to the local small port. There they will take you on a boat across the river for 10000 riel ($2.5). They were almost ashamed when they mentioned the amount in public and looking at the faces of the people around me they probably thought they ripped me off big time. They didnt know that I would probably pay them $100 if they demanded it cause where else could I go?
At arrival in Stung Treng the first thing you see is a big roundabout. In order to go to the customs office you take a right and continue 800 meter until you cross a wooden bridge and after that another 200 meter will get you to the customs office on your right. The first two times I came here the customs officer was at the market so I only spoke with his wife briefly. The third time I came here, 6pm on a Sunday, he was at home and had a nice bike parked outside. He seemed to be a biker himself and was very very friendly. He spoke good english and I filled out two copies of a customs declaration form stating that I was taking the bike into Cambodia and then he stamped and signed the forms and gave one copy to me. I didnt have to pay anything.
Conclusion 1: Get the letter to allow you to take the bike into Cambodia from the Cambodian embassy in advance.
Conclusion 2: Dont be a dummy and get fooled by the modern southern Laos because northern Cambodia is not the same. That also means to get enough gas to take you the 60km to Stung Treng after crossing the border.
Hope Im not taking the fun out of crossing the border now
Great thanks also to Joyce (joycekuipers) for giving me a new exhaust pipe bolt since I lost it while crossing the border! It was a great night with you guys in Stung Treng.
Link removed ) quite helpful so here is a similar guide for the less organized border from Voen Kham, Laos to Koh Cheuteal Thom, Cambodia.
The first thing you will meet on route 13 south is the first Laos custom gate. I arrived Sunday lunchtime and they let me thru as soon as they finished lunch without any money to pay. Note the nice two lane European style road.
After a short while the road will abruptly stop and there will be a dirtroad to the right and a mudroad in the forest straight ahead. The mudroad straight ahead is highway 13 to Cambodia.
After a few kilometers passing thru mudpools you reach the real Laos border. Dont go straight thru the pools cause some of them are deep but if you stay on the edges and have some speed then it is no problems. At the border they charged me $1 plus another $1 because it was Sunday. The locals behind me paid with some cabbage
After another hundred meters you reach the Cambodian border. Here they now offer visa on arrival which was new to me. Unfortunately they also wanted a special letter for the bike that they said I could go to Vientiane or Bangkok to get in order to bring my bike. Then they realized that it wasnt realistic so they said that I could get the letter from the customs office in Stung Treng. Then they realized that there is no way for me to get there and back without the bike since there is almost no one living on the 60 km to Stung Treng and even less taxis. So they let me thru in exchange for promising to go to the customs office in Stung Treng or otherwise I would come back to the border (Oh, sure I would...). They wanted $3 and I quickly gave them that before they could change their mind about the bike. It is probably negotiable if you have all the required papers.
I was easily fooled by the ease to get gas in Laos so I assumed that there would be one place to get gas in Cambodia. When my reserved kicked in I realized I could be in trouble. My reserve is only 2l which is less than I needed to go the 60 km dirt road to Stung Treng and it didnt look like there were any gas stations coming up.
Luckily there was one guy selling gas along the way and I bought his six 500ml bottles of gas for $5 which felt like a bargain.
Then you simply do about 50 km more of dirtroad until you see the river and think that you just have to cross the bridge. Then you realize that the bridge is not even finished halfway and there is no people around to help you there.
The solution is to go back a few hundred meter to where you see a giant Angkor beer ad. There you see a road leading up to you right (if you are coming from the border). Take the dirt road a few hundred meters down to the local small port. There they will take you on a boat across the river for 10000 riel ($2.5). They were almost ashamed when they mentioned the amount in public and looking at the faces of the people around me they probably thought they ripped me off big time. They didnt know that I would probably pay them $100 if they demanded it cause where else could I go?
At arrival in Stung Treng the first thing you see is a big roundabout. In order to go to the customs office you take a right and continue 800 meter until you cross a wooden bridge and after that another 200 meter will get you to the customs office on your right. The first two times I came here the customs officer was at the market so I only spoke with his wife briefly. The third time I came here, 6pm on a Sunday, he was at home and had a nice bike parked outside. He seemed to be a biker himself and was very very friendly. He spoke good english and I filled out two copies of a customs declaration form stating that I was taking the bike into Cambodia and then he stamped and signed the forms and gave one copy to me. I didnt have to pay anything.
Conclusion 1: Get the letter to allow you to take the bike into Cambodia from the Cambodian embassy in advance.
Conclusion 2: Dont be a dummy and get fooled by the modern southern Laos because northern Cambodia is not the same. That also means to get enough gas to take you the 60km to Stung Treng after crossing the border.
Hope Im not taking the fun out of crossing the border now
Great thanks also to Joyce (joycekuipers) for giving me a new exhaust pipe bolt since I lost it while crossing the border! It was a great night with you guys in Stung Treng.
