Entering Cambodia with a foreign registered motorbike

KTMphil

Senior member
Joined
Jan 11, 2011
Location
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Bikes
2007 KTM 990 Adventure Suzuki DRZ 400
Entering Cambodia with a foreign registered motorbike


1. Tourist visa on arrival at the border is normally 30 days, depending on your nationality, the tourist visa fee is usually around 1,000 Thai Bht


2. Cambodian Customs - This is a personal choice.

You will find that most motorcyclist that have entered Cambodia on foreign registered motorbikes several times before, DO NOT stop at Cambodian Customs at the border. This all sounds very strange, but if you do visit Cambodian Customs at the border on entering Cambodia, it often turns into a "tea money" mess & you don't really get any legal benefit from it. The Thai Aranyaprathet/ Cambodia Poi Pet border is the busiest motorcycle border entry point, I have not heard of anyone having a problem in Cambodia from not processing through Cambodian Customs at the border entry.
 
LR emailed me this map of International border crossings for Cambodia that will be very useful


cambo bdr crossings.jpg
 
Harrythefinn and myself enter Cambodia through the Pailin Border and tried to get the Temporary Import paper but could not. Finally we had the Customs Officer write a phone number and his name on the back of our Thai Export forms.
Never had a problem in Cambodia except for a Tourist Cop at Preah Vihear that wanted our Cambodian Drivers License. A very rehearsed scam that got him no tea money.
Upon exiting through Anlong Veng the Immigration Officer kept insisting we go to Customs. After telling Customs that in Pailin they did not give us any papers and getting Immigration to stamp us out we high tailed it over to Thailand before they noticed my bike was not Thai Plated.
 
KTMphil said:
Entering Cambodia with a foreign registered motorbike
1. Tourist visa on arrival at the border is normally 30 days, depending on your nationality, the tourist visa fee is usually around 1,000 Thai Bht
2. Cambodian Customs - This is a personal choice.

You will find that most motorcyclist that have entered Cambodia on foreign registered motorbikes several times before, DO NOT stop at Cambodian Customs at the border. This all sounds very strange, but if you do visit Cambodian Customs at the border on entering Cambodia, it often turns into a "tea money" mess & you don't really get any legal benefit from it. The Thai Aranyaprathet/ Cambodia Poi Pet border is the busiest motorcycle border entry point, I have not heard of anyone having a problem in Cambodia from not processing through Cambodian Customs at the border entry.

Can non Asian Tourist riders riding 125cc bikes rented in Thailand cross into Cambodia ?
Do they issue an import permit for the bike?

Anyone here actually done this in the last year on a rented bike?
Caveat's? Limitations?

:DD
 
It's possible if you have all the ownership papers and a declaration by the person who legally owns it to say so with a signed ID card copy.

Most rental companies on 125 machines will not give this tho. Needs to be a special arrangement.
 
so basically,i can go into cambodia, with a visa for myself at immigration, but then just ride past customs so the bike is not officially in the country....and at the other end again just ride past customs?!!
 
so basically,i can go into cambodia, with a visa for myself at immigration, but then just ride past customs so the bike is not officially in the country....and at the other end again just ride past customs?!!

If at all possible yes..

Customs was asleep in a hammock in Stung Treng.
 
leaving/entering thai - i get the T2,3,4 papers and get the documents thai side customs so the scooter is legally allowed out AND back in to thailand....i dont hand these papers over to anyone except thai border official??

entering/leaving cambodia
in@poipet out@stung treng - get myself a visa and pretend im not on the bike and ride on thru with no paperwork for the bike (if stopped @ border or anywhere in cambo i pay a few $ bribes? dont crash the bike in cambo..!)

entering/leaving loas in@dong kralar out@savannakhet - when entering get import papers?? and need to get insurance for loas which i can do at the border...costs?

thanks!!

all seems a bit hit or miss !!
 
Yes thats about how I would tackle it..

Entering Poipet I dont know if you get the 'cant leave the province' bullshit, tho if you can duck customs then thats a non issue.. I have only exited poipet a few times now but I scoped the border and think customs will be a doodle, they have never stopped me outbound and I can see an entry point to the first roundabout I believe where I will get the vehicle before backtracking for immigration, its a chaotic place I actually drove right past the Thai customs point without doing any papers to test if they would jump on me, just so I know if in the future I ever need to, before parking up and walking back to clear a car less than a month back. I will be back inbound through there in the next 2 weeks.

Laos has a proper system of temp import, I exited the Stun Treng one one time and it is just a hut on the Laos side.. A very rheumy eyed fella who seemed to think my green book was a carnet !! He went to stamp the pages of my green book over my name until I had to grab his hand. Very friendly and easy going, maybe not so well informed. Your supposed to get insurance in Laos, I dont think this is going to be possible at that entry point. I dont bother if not enforced and self insure, I assume I will be paying out big time if I have any kind of accident.

The only minor reservation I would have will be the 125cc aspect.. I suspect you will be ok, and just keep smiling, dont give up if they say no at first, and keep assuring them its fine, you have done it before at other borders, etc..
 
leaving/entering thai - i get the T2,3,4 papers and get the documents thai side customs so the scooter is legally allowed out AND back in to thailand....i dont hand these papers over to anyone except thai border official??

entering/leaving cambodia
in@poipet out@stung treng - get myself a visa and pretend im not on the bike and ride on thru with no paperwork for the bike (if stopped @ border or anywhere in cambo i pay a few $ bribes? dont crash the bike in cambo..!)

entering/leaving loas in@dong kralar out@savannakhet - when entering get import papers?? and need to get insurance for loas which i can do at the border...costs?

thanks!!

all seems a bit hit or miss !!

Life as we know it.

Welcome to RideAsia and glad you have had confirmed what you possibly already knew. Life is hit & miss, Asia is a bit like that.

Ally
 
well worst case is i cant get in anywhere so i leave the bike at Mukdahan and go over to savannakhet and get my thai visa and then head back to phuket and spend more time stopping at places between...
 
entering/leaving loas in@dong kralar out@savannakhet - when entering get import papers?? and need to get insurance for loas which i can do at the border...costs?
!

At the Dong Kralor (Cambodia) / Veunkham/Nong Nokhien (Laos) border crossing there was last year an Insurance booth where you can buy insurance for a week or two (a few hundred Baht only)
 
On the Laos side ?? Must have missed that..

The Cambodian side has this huge new border gate almost done.. But still operating from some cabins just back from it in Oct or so.
 
Hi

I will be entering Cambodia through Dong Kralo in a week or so

Can anyone confirm the following

I get my visa at the border and just don't bother with the bike at all? Seems scary to me, I noticed in one post above they said don't even try to get paperwork at customs, why is this?

If there are any changes maybe I will find out, but I sure would like to get some insurance if it is needed down there
 
You can get immigration visa-on-arrival.


Recent reports have been that it has been hard to get into Cambodia here without visiting Cambodian customs, your experience will be interesting Richard.
 
You can get immigration visa-on-arrival.


Recent reports have been that it has been hard to get into Cambodia here without visiting Cambodian customs, your experience will be interesting Richard.

You know, the word "interesting" is not one which I actually like when talking about border crossings ;)

I will do some more research on the HUBB
 
Research is pointless... There is no system.

Every border point I have crossed have done this differently.. Some easy, some hard, some I just flew through and thought fuck em, thats my policy now if at all possible. There is no proper functioning system to track your entry / exit / arrival / departure / importation or export.. As far as I can tell it simply does not exist. Multiple crossings in the last year at 3 points.

Koh Kong was the biggest hassle, in the car. Stung Treng the easiest, and they wrote out 'motorcycle' on the 'anything to declare' customs form.. Thats the best anyones done for me. Poipet I have worked out how to park up first, clear passport control / immigration, skip back into no mans land and just scoot through with the vehicle once passport is done. Its pretty sloppy on the Cambo side there, they sort of expect you to come to them.

Make sure you have an international drivers license.. Without it you will be having lots of fun discussions with cops.
 
Well I have two international DL but both out of date. I also have two current DL which have different addresses. I guess I will just follow Central America procedure and try and tick all the boxes
 
Unless the date is super obvious I doubt they will see it or make a problem.. I used an out of date one simply as I didnt want to keep my current one under the bike seat.

But without an IDP they do make a problem.. Sihanouk they stand there by the 3 lion roundabout just collecting fines.. Of course to make the money higher they rant and scream, tell you your going to be arrested, lose the bike, etc.. Sometimes you can give them a buck or two, other times they can be a pain.. I had a full on row with one in PP, he had my Thai DL and in the end I legged it, figured was easier to let him keep the fucking license and hightail it outta there than deal with the rapidly escalating problem. Only a couple of blocks from my house too, made for a nervous week !!
 
Make up a professionally looking sticker " Extended to 31st December 2015. AUS$ 35.00" and stick it on the DL.


Well I have two international DL but both out of date. I also have two current DL which have different addresses. I guess I will just follow Central America procedure and try and tick all the boxes
 
The thai IDPs are great.. They have an issued from, but not an until date on them..

If you really really look, on the very back in small text it does say valid for one year, but its the smallest least noticeable expiry I have ever seen.

Also, as we are in the land of mickey mouse cops. I have purchased from these people a couple of times. International drivers license. $20 up to 10 Years. Booklet and plastic card. International drivers licenses apply on-line now! note these are IDLs and not IDPs, these are not properly 'legal' and are a borderline scam that confuses a lot of people who buy them thinking its legit. However, these are dirt cheap, look official, have multiple cards and a book, and I have never had a 3rd world cop know the subtle legal difference between an IDL and an IDP. So you can hand this card out knowing that if you have to cut and run, the 'security' of the card hes holding, is a few bucks of nothing. I always buy the book and 2 cards and its perfect to keep with you, under the seat, in a touring wallet.. all the ways you dont want to treat a real, hard to replace, license.
 
Hey guys,

Just as an update on the ever-changing border conditions. I had heard that the Laos-Cambodia border at Stung Treng could be problematic, buy I crossed without issue on Jan 23 on my Canadian- registered bike into Cambodia. The new buildings are complete, but empty, everyone is still working out of their shacks and hammocks.

However, the visa was mysteriously increased to 1000 baht, and they made me fill out a simple customs form and write my VIN on it. I intend to store the bike in Cambodia for a very long time, so I don't know if that will cause me problems if it gets entered in a computer somewhere.

Also, I had heard the issues were with Thai registered bikes, so I don't know if there still could be issues with those.
 
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