Visa Run

This is late but better late than never. In Thailand you must leave every 90 days to get another Visa unless you have a work permit (which takes 90 days to get). There are many ways of doing this. Flying to any country or crossing any border and coming back through immigration. Several companies in Bangkok provide Visa Runs to Cambodia for 2000 Bhat ($50). My Visa was to run out on the 24th of August so I called up the company and made a reservation for Sunday the 21st.

We left Bangkok about 10 am Sunday morning. There were 10 of us all together in the van. Eight people were making the run, a driver and our Visa Run hostess. Lunch (delicious fried rice) was procurred on the way with one stop for a break). The drive from Bangkok to the Cambodian border is about three and half hours. The border is out in the middle of nowhere and as desolute a spot as I have ever seen. Our hostess takes all of the passports in to immigration and we get out Visa stamps. We then cross the border and the Cambodian side is even worse. The only thing I can compare it to was when I vfisted Berlin in 1973 when the wall was still up. West Berlin was a modern European city. East Berlin looked like a European city of the 1940's.

In Cambodia people were begging, little kids were begging, handicap were people begging. It was really sad. And on the Cambodian side is a rundown (at least from the outside) casino (gambling is illegal in Thailand).

We spent about 15 minutes in Cambodia getting out stamps and looking at the "merchandise" for sale. Not anything I would want to bring back that I couldn't get in Thailand. We went back across the border and waited another 15 minutes to get the immagration stamp from Thailand. We all boarded the van and came back to Bangkok by 6 pm. the whole trip took about 8 hours.