Visa run to Cambodia

Gonzo · April 1, 2015

The visa run to Ban Pakkad Immigration last week was different from previous visa runs. There is a new Immigration building under construction on the Thai side and until that will be finished Thai Immigration consists of a small building on the right side before the border.

Cambodian civilians are processing the paper work there as well. Behind the tables with the Cambodians filling in the forms and the new Arrival/Departure cards, there is a shop where they sell cigarettes, pills and beer. There is also a toilet where one can have a piss for 5 baht.

After getting stamped out by Thai Immigration Departures, the Cambodians paper shufflers will take your passport and then give it a courier on a motor bike (scooter), who takes it across the border to Cambodian immigration to affix their green visa stamp to your passport, which takes up a whole page in the passport. When your passport arrives back with the Cambodian paper shufflers, they call your name and then get you to sign the new Arrival/Departure card. You then get your passport back from them, which you take back to Thai Immigration Arrivals, about 20 metres away in the same building to get stamped back in into Thailand.

This was the first time I did a visa run to the Cambodian border without actually crossing the Thai/Cambodian border. My passport was taken into Cambodia and I was left standing there drinking a can of Leo, the only beer available in that little shop behind the paper shufflers. I will drive in my own car when the next visa run is due in June. The border at Baan Pakkad opens at 6Am and closes at 10PM. The roads are in fairly good condition from 36 to Hwy 3 and then left on 317 (North) to Pong Nam Ron and from there right on Soi Ban Pakkad to the border. N12degrees55.580’E102degrees29.595’

There is also a Thai car passport office on the border, which allows one to drive your own car into Cambodia, if one wishes to do so and is in possession of a Thai car passport, which can be obtained at the same place where one gets a Thai driving licence on Hwy 36 near the Regents school.