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If he thought that was "a nightmare", he should try Koh Kong. He'll have a nervous breakdown !

wackyjacky wrote:If he thought that was "a nightmare", he should try Koh Kong. He'll have a nervous breakdown !

I thought it didn't sound overly bad either. But, his point was that this can be a very off-putting experience for tourists, and may be one of the reasons for the drop in visitors to Vietnam. Since most tourists will only visit once, I don't really agree. There is probably a more negative attitude toward individual travellers also, so this would not affect the tour groups.

However, that's no reason not to improve the border crossings. Most of them are a painful process. The immigration officials in the region have made scowling a work of art.
Anyone want to nominate a "good" land border crossing ?

Walking or driving into Tijuana.

He should try to bring some goods from Vietnam into Cambodia or from Cambodia into Vietnam. Even with the help of a customs broker it will take a full day, not to mention a minimum of $100 as tea money.

I think a lot of tourists will admit they like Vietnam and want to come back because there's a lot more to see or to just enjoy the likes of Saigon and, well, everywhere. In the next sentence they vow not to come back because of the miserable visa situation: dealing with a third party, waiting for email, waiting and waiting and waiting at SGN VoA window with no discernible queue or organization.

Many people cross the land borders too. I spent a lot of time on the Phnom Penh-Chau Doc boat and in An Giang province. Lots of foreigners find the boat service appealing and cheaper. But I always heard the complaining about dealing with Viet officials. There was always a long wait even though there were only 8-10 non-ASEAN people. Anyway, since I crossed on land a lot, I was informed by a Viet that if I drop 50,000 in the passport, things would move swiftly and without trouble. It was true. Those dong turned those frowns upside down. Every time.

ExPenhMan wrote:I think a lot of tourists will admit they like Vietnam and want to come back because there's a lot more to see or to just enjoy the likes of Saigon and, well, everywhere. In the next sentence they vow not to come back because of the miserable visa situation: dealing with a third party, waiting for email, waiting and waiting and waiting at SGN VoA window with no discernible queue or organization.

Many people cross the land borders too. I spent a lot of time on the Phnom Penh-Chau Doc boat and in An Giang province. Lots of foreigners find the boat service appealing and cheaper. But I always heard the complaining about dealing with Viet officials. There was always a long wait even though there were only 8-10 non-ASEAN people. Anyway, since I crossed on land a lot, I was informed by a Viet that if I drop 50,000 in the passport, things would move swiftly and without trouble. It was true. Those dong turned those frowns upside down. Every time.

Do they take $US ? We don't all have dong.

Yeah I thought he should try Koh kong for his next article..

justincase wrote:Yeah I thought he should try Koh kong for his next article..

Laos is not bad either.

tbh i used the koh kong border, i found it a breeze tbh, although i have done cambodian border runs millions of times so know the crack, i didnt like the countless different journeys to get across though getting from koh kong and Trat then onto my destination, i much prefer the border of doom (PoiPet) i get through in about 20minutes even in high season either direction, its handy knowing the khmer people working there also, come in handy sometimes when its busy