Anonymous participant I've witnessed that, at the Phu Nam Ron checkpoint in Kanchanaburi at 6am when they first open (before Covid, as they've been closed ever since due to instability on the Burmese side). Crossed over at the same time as 4 or 5 visa run vans carrying mainly Lao and Vietnamese nationals, some of whom could speak surprisingly good Thai (the Vietnamese in particular) but all of whom had only 30 day stamps they were renewing. Not a single Thai or Burmese national was crossing the border. Only these border runners, myself and my Chinese colleagues.

Anonymous participant 632 Firstly, the Cambodian borders are closed. No one's crossing them now and they might never be reopened.

Secondly "a foreigners employer pays these fees?" No they don't. What are you smoking?

Any corruption fees are always paid by the foreigner themselves, period.

Foreign companies based in Thailand would fire their foreign staff if they knew they paid a bribe.

I got in trouble back in 2008 when I paid a tout to process my exit and re-entry into Thailand at the Cambodian border, which at the time I had NEVER crossed before by land and paid twice what I would have, had I done it on my own. It also took a hell of a long time, well over an hour.

What I did at the time is highly illegal now and can no longer be done at any border. You have to appear in person.

Anyway, I am never hit up for money anywhere in Thailand but then again I don't cross illegally, I don't overstay, I don't work illegally or run an illegal business, nor do I do border runs.

Pure corruption. Why didn't you just make a trip out of it? For that money, you could have caught the ferry from the nearby pier to Langkawi spent a lovely night there and come back to Thailand.

Anonymous participant There is no way any checkpoint could handle "hundreds of visa run vans per day" not to mention there was never that kind of demand.

Maybe 2 or 3 vans a day, something like that, was the actual number.

At some checkpoints that number might have increased to 5-10 carrying Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian citizens working illegally in Thailand through specific checkpoints to extend their stays, no westerners on board those vans....but still only a handful a day.

@Wannikea ********

Yes, that's what I said too. The Thai-Lao agreement covers only cars though large bikes might be able to cross too.

@James *******

You can certainly use a DTV for a land border crossing but it is recommended that you spend a little time outside the country before coming back.

Anonymous participant To me, the idea of driving to a border is to cross it with my own vehicle (my car) and that's what I always do...it's part of the excitement, even if I've crossed into neighboring countries (all 4 of them) with my car a total of almost 100 times...I still like doing it.

However, I do realize that many if not most people like you are simply looking to do a border run, not a tour of [in this case] Laos.

@Toni ******

The Thai side will definitely need to see the stamps so what you were told is nonsense...the Lao side checks Thai stamps too...without them, they'll send you back.

Your scooter probably won't be allowed across. Even if you did manage to drive it across the bridge then obviously you'd want to explore Laos because literally no one goes to the trouble of 1 hour of shuffling paperwork and filling out at least 6 pieces of paper (just on the Thai side alone) only to ride 1km then come straight back.

@Andi **********

You could just make something up. It's remote employment, they can't verify anything from abroad.