Out of the several border openings between Thailand and Cambodia, Poipet border is quite popular amongst the tourists. We took this route to go Siem Reap from Bangkok. We traveled from Bangkok to Poipet border (Aranyaprathet station) in a train, which is also the cheapest way to reach Poipet. From there we crossed the Poipet border. I am sharing this report to inform that crossing Poipet border in evening is not very common. There is a lot of information on how to cross the border, but I didn’t see anything which mentions the closing time of the gates.
So after this trip, I can say that the crossing Poipet border in evening in possible till 10 pm. Poipet border is open from 7am to 10 pm daily. Though you should avoid crossing the border very late unless you are staying on the border. You may not be able to get any vehicle to reach your destination. This is what I faced after crossing the border after 7:30 pm. The international bus terminal was closed by the time we reached there. Also, after this, I faced my worst nightmare of Cambodia trip.
How to reach Poipet from Aranyaprathet train station
After getting down at Aranyaprathet station at 6:30 pm, I took a tuk-tuk with some other tourists. We were 4 people and paid 20 Bahts per person. It took 10 minutes to reach the border. Be careful from the touts who may approach you when you are nearing the border. Instead of taking us to the border gate, our tuk-tuk driver took us to a shop by saying that it was the visa office, but we had already been warned by tourists about them. Remember this is one of the biggest tourist trap around Poipet border. Read about the useful travel applications before traveling Thailand and Cambodia to avoid getting ripped off by touts.
Getting a Cambodian Visa
We asked the tuk-tuk driver to take us directly to the immigration office. After reaching there the Thailand immigration office and departure gate are on the left. It took us 10 minutes to complete the immigration formalities on the Thailand side. After crossing the gate keep walking and you’ll see the Cambodian visa office on the right side of the road. Cambodian authorities took another 20 minutes to process the visa. They charge 30 USD as the visa fees. US Dollars are happily acceptable everywhere in Cambodia, even by government authorities. So don’t waste your time and resources in getting the Cambodian Riel. At 7:30 we were done with all the visa and immigration formalities and ready to do the next lap of our journey. Watch this video to know the whole process.
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