I left Don Det at 8 am this morning: first by boat & then by minivan. The ride to the border was only 20 km and didn’t take us long. There were about 3 minivans filled with backpackers. It was fun 
First we got the exit stamp ($1) at the Lao border (Veun Kham), then we drove a little further to the Cambodian border (Dom Kralor) to get the Cambodian visa ($21) as well as the entry stamp ($1). The border was a little hut and there was nothing else there. Then we drove in a different minivan to Stung Treng, changed into another minivan (too many eople in one minivan, so we tried to convince the boss to get us another one but unfortunatley after about 45 minutes we lost this battle and in each row 4 people shared 3 seats). So after a long day in various crowded minivans I arrived in Kratie, a small town in the Northeast of Cambodia, at 4:30 pm. I found a decent guesthouse, met Fabian and Marco again, the two Swiss guys from Don Det, and then spent some time walking around this small town and also bought my busticket for the next day.
Posts Tagged ‘border
Arriving in CAMBODIA
Sitting in an internet cafe in Chiang Khong, I’m about to cross the border into Laos. I haven’t booked anything in advance but have spoken to other travelers about how it works to cross the border here and get the visa, so everything should be fine. Apparently you just show up, leave Thailand (get an exit stamp!), take the ferry (40 baht) across the Mekong River, and then get your Lao visa for 30 days upon arrival in Laos, if you have a picture and pay the fee. I’ll see…
It’s been 4 weeks since I left Austria to start my trip around the world and I must say I’m getting more and more into this “travel feeling” Things have been going really well so far: the traveling has been easy and enjoyable, the people friendly, the food good, the weather pretty good (more or less), and I have met many nice travelers along the way. Let’s hope, it stays that way. I’m excited about what Laos brings…
By the way, I did not intend to stay in Thailand for this long, it just happened, and this is the nice thing about traveling for an extended period of time – the freedom to change your plans as you go.
Fairly regularly I’m thinking about my friends back in NYC and Austria and other places of the world and hope you are all fine whereever you are!!! And I’m always happy to hear from you – whether it’s an email, a message on facebook, or a comment on this blog
Thunderstorms and visas
I slept really well But when I woke up this morning, I decided to find myself a nicer and friendlier guesthouse. I started off with having breakfast at a small place at the corner of Soi Rambuttri and Soi Chana Songkhram: fruitsalad with muesli & yoghurt and thai tea. Only after I ordered I remembered that it might have been better not to eat fruits right away, but too late. And I had also brushed my teeth with tap water this morning. I just keep forgetting to use bottled water all the time… Anyways, the breakfast was delicious, altough I didn’t know all the fruits that were in my fruit salad 
The tea had an interesting reddish color and with milk it turned orange. But it was good. While I’m sitting there enjoying my first breakfast on my trip around the world watching people, I hear a voice: “Bettina, Bettina”. Who on earth is calling me on my second day in Bangkok? I haven’t met that many people yet. Turns out that it’s Sylvester, Sepp & Peter in a taxi on the way to the airport. How nice I sort of feel at home here already.
Checking out more rooms in the Khao San neighborhood wasn’t worth it! Same problems as yesterday – see entry there. I guess the Rambuttri Village Inn isn’t that bad after all – for Bangkok standards. So, I’ll stay here and the only thing that really bothers me is that there is no common area to meet people. It turns out, though, that meeting people isn’t a problem at all:
After deciding not to look at any more guesthouses I eat at Prakorb’s restaurant on Khao San Road. Not before long the couple on the table next to me starts talking to me: Emanuela (the woman) and Simone (the guy). They are from Italy and very nice. It’s the last day of their vacation, they show me pictures and recommend an island all the way in the South (West Coast) of Thailand. After they leave I stay to write in my journal. Around 3:40 pm we hear thunder and it becomes windy. All of a sudden Thai people start running around like crazy – covering their stalls (selling food, clothes, etc.) with big plastic covers. 3 minutes later it rains, no, sorry, it POURS!!! For about 30 minutes the thunderstorm with heavy rain, lightning and thunder continues and then it’s over – just as suddenly as it started. I wonder if this happens every day around this time?
It’s time to get some information about visas to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. It turns out that the information I get is a little inconsistent. I know at this point for sure that I need a visa for all three countries and that the visas are issued for 30 days.
1) LAOS: It seems that you can get a visa for Laos at the border at arrival. One travel agent said they only issue 15-day-visas there, the next one said, no, the issue regular 30-day-visas, the next one said, she is not sure and to get it in Bangkok to be on the safe side. Well, I also checked the internet and I’m pretty confident that I’ll get a 30-day-visa at the border (Chiang Khong – Huay Xai). I’ll try
2) CAMBODIA: You get the 30-day-visa at the border, but not all borders it seems. The border I want to use between Laos and Cambodia (the only one between these two countries: Voen Kham – Dom Kralor ) seems to be closed sometimes, or an unofficial border, and I am not sure at this point whether I can obtain my visa at this particular border. I could get it in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, I think. Here in Bangkok it would take a few days and I’m not really keen on staying here that long.
3) VIETNAM: For this country you definitely cannot obtain a visa at the border! You must get it in advance. The problem is that you need to give the exact dates! So what I’ll probably do is to get it once I’m in Phnom Penh. Once I’m there, I should have a pretty good idea about the dates I’ll be in Vietnam.
Visas to these countries can be processed in Bangkok within 1 – 5 days; the faster you want it, the more it costs ;-) Furthermore, there are slight varations between travel agencies.
And last but not least: I got myself a Thai sim card for my cell phone today (the instructions where mainly in Thai, but the last page had a brief English information) – mainly to make calls in Thailand. But in case any of my friends want to call me, I’ll email you my phone number It works; I texted with Veronika in NY The only problem is that my battery is pretty old and only last for 1 day…
I’m still in Austria getting ready to start my trip around the world on Monday. My first stop will be Bangkok and I plan to travel in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam for 3.5 months. Staying informed and avoiding certain parts on my trip seems to be a good idea while traveling in this region: Today I read on the ORF website that there are – again – fights at the border of Thailand and Cambodia in the area of the Preah Vihear temple.
The New York Times reports today, 10/15/08:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/world/asia/16cambo.html?ref=world
and about three months ago, 7/21/08:
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