Procedure at border Aranyaprathet/Poipet

helenk

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Mar 26, 2005
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It was pretty confusing as unlike at the Friendship Bridge into Laos, noone seems interested in telling you where to go.

1. As you approach the border you need to continue straight on towards the Thai flag and NOT turn left into the market and carpark area. You will go to the left of the first set of buildings at the border and stop here at a Customs booth on the right to receive the temporary export document. The man in the booth will complete this for you. Takes 5 minutes.
2. You then ride on to the more chaotic Emigration area. Here you park up the bike and queue on the left under the tree next to the shrine where there are metal barriers to assist queueing. Thais queue to the left and Farang to the right. You may have to wait quite a while here before the gate is opened to allow you into Passport Control. It's pretty hot so take some water and a hat!
3. Once in Passport Control queue in lanes 1 or 2 Marked for Foreign Passport Holders to be stamped out of Thailand.
4. You now have to go across to the right to have the bike docs copied and receive a form called Information of Conveyance. A guy should approach you and help you with this - pay 30 baht for copies. You are now free to leave Thailand with the bike.
5. The Cambodian side is much easier. You ride until you see the offices on the right labelled Visa Service with chairs outside. Here you will be given a form to complete and hand over together with passport 20 US dollars and a passport photo. The visa only takes 5 minutes to be issued and you wait in a nice shady area with seats. There is a money exchange place here but rate is not good.
6. You then ride on a little further until you come to passport control on the right. Here you park up and take a form with Arrival and Departure Card. Complete this and hand this and passport to the man in booth for stamping in to Cambodia.
7. If you have a Thai bike and no carnet you are free to go ( althought the guy in customs did try to tell Dave that he needed a carnet for a Thai bike and we had to promise to go no further than Siem Reap - see Dave's earlier post). If you have a carnet to be stamped you have to drive over the traffic island (ride on the right!) and look for the Customs and Excise building on the left. Park in the carpark and into the upstairs office for stamp in carnet - very quick.

It took us a good 3 hours to get through and most of this was queueing on the Thai side.

Look at our photos:
Link removed
 

daewoo

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Dec 6, 2005
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The main reason for the long delays getting out of Thailand immigration is all the Thai's queuing to go to the Casinos in the No-Mans-Land between the the borders.

If you waited 3 hours I am guessing you went on a Saturday or Sunday like I did [:(] . Apparently they recently sacked the head of immigration at the border because he had been unable to stem the flow of Thai's crossing the border to gamble, but I too experienced them letting through 2 'turns' of the Thai queue for one of the Farrang queue, so it doesn't seem like the replacement is doing any better.

It took me 3 hours in the queue, but some Expats I met doing a Visa run on a weekday had only waited 30 mins...

Advice: If you can cross on a weekday you will save yourself a lot of time standing in the sun.
 

helenk

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Mar 26, 2005
69
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We went on a Thursday but were only in the queue on the Thai side for 30 mins - it took 3 hours to get through the whole border procedure. Sorry if that wasn't clear from my report.
Helen

Look at our photos:
Link removed
 

daewoo

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Dec 6, 2005
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I guess that taking a bike out slows everything down a lot... I arrived at the border for the opening at 8am... I stood in the sun for almost 3 hours to get into Thai exit immigration... once through it was only about 15mins to get through Cambodian immigration and customs...

I had stupidly not bought any passport photos with me. Luckily I realised the night before in Aranyaprathet. I had earlier colour scanned my passport and emailed it to myself in case I get into trouble.

I went to an Internet Cafe, printed the passport scan in colour, and actually tore the photo out because I didn't have any scissors or a knife.

I knew that you can usually get around the passport photo requirement for 100THB, but having heard bad reports about the border guards didn't want to give them any reason to make my life difficult. Despite the photo being printed on paper, 8 years old, and exactly the same as the photo in my passport, I had no trouble on the Cambodian side at all...

Cheers,
Daewoo