Visas and border crossings forum

Query on Laos to Cambodia border crossing

phili

backpacker
Posts: 15

The advice for here at Travelfish for the crossing between Laos and Cambodia is that the traveller should use a travel agent.

Is this still correct?

If it is still correct, can anyone advise on good travel agents, the price they charge, and anything else I might need to know.

I would really appreciate any advice.....!!

thanks x

#1 Posted: 11/6/2009 - 03:06
smkuchta

hippy
Posts: 72

We crossed from Cambodia to Laos at the beginning of May and booked a through ticket to Don Khon through a travel agent in Stung Treng for about $13.

I would recommend booking a through ticket as transport at the border is non-existent. You can do a search and find my post on this border crossing from about a month ago.

We took a minibus to the border, went thru the border formalities, waited about an hour for the lao minibus coming the other way, took that up to a boat over to Don Khon all very organized.

There was one woman in our Cambodian minibus who had paid just to get to the border. Well as I said when we arrived at the border there was no one transport there so she had no choice but to pay for the same minibus we were on to go any further and my guess is she probably paid more than if she had booked all the way through.

So yes it is possible to do this trip without booking a through trip but probably not worth the hassle as you won't save much and may be waiting a long time for transport at the border. Apart from our minibus and the minibus coming from the lao side we only saw one other person cross the border in the hour we were there.

#2 Posted: 11/6/2009 - 10:03

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Travels Down the Mekong
phili

backpacker
Posts: 15

do you think it will be as simple to cross the border going from loas to cambodia? the towns where the mini buses picked you up and droped you of, where they busy towns i.e. was there much transport to more popular places like siem reap and vientiane?

cheers for your help x

#3 Posted: 12/6/2009 - 03:52
smkuchta

hippy
Posts: 72

No I don't think it would be any easier coming from Laos. It is easy enough to get transport to the border from either side but there was no transport on either side for the hour we were there except for the respective Cambodian & Laos minivan that people switched to when they arrived.

This is a very remote border only one other person (monk on the back of a bike) crossed while we were there.

The through ticket from 4000 islands to Stung Treng should only be $12-15 so not really sure what the advantage of working out your own transport would be. You wont' save much but will spend a lot of time sitting around.

#4 Posted: 12/6/2009 - 07:10

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Travels Down the Mekong