Crossing the Cambodia-Laos Border

For the Indochina region of Southeast Asia, I wanted to find a way to begin in northern Vietnam, travel all the way to south Vietnam, enter Cambodia, go to Siem Reap in western Cambodia, and then go up through Laos from south to north. I needed to find a way to get to Don Det, Laos, from Siem Reap and the only way to do this is by van.

Luckily, the only company that makes this journey is a decent one: Asia Van Transfer.  You can follow the link to book your trip. They also do the reverse trip that begins in Pakse, Laos. The trip certainly isn’t as easy as most bus trips or border crossings. The nine hour trip consists of three different vehicles, one boat driver and walking a couple thousand meters with your bags. To give you a perspective of the journey, I have outlined the details below.

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA, TO DON DET, LAOS

7:30AM Pickup at hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia (included in rate)

8:00aAM Departure in a large van from Asia Van Transfer office in Siem Reap (luckily we only had four total passengers out of a max 12 passengers so we could spread out during our ride)

Paved but bumpy road conditions (don’t be hungover or get car sick), many cows on the road, and drivers make many passes (don’t watch and wear your seatbelt)

The air conditioning worked fairly well.

10:30AM Bio break in Preah Vihear, Cambodia

1:00PM Arrived at the Asia Van Transfer office in Strung Treng, Cambodia.  We took all of our bags off the van since we would be taking a different van to the border.

Lunch in Strung Treng, Cambodia.  The Asia Van Transfer office has decent food.

2:00PM Boarded new van (same size van as the previous van) to Cambodia-Laos border (other passengers may join this part of the trip)

Road from Strung Treng to the border is mostly paved but does have spots where it is dirt/gravel on the way to the border since it isn’t a well-traveled road.

3:30PM Arrived at remote the border crossing to depart Cambodia.  The driver drops you off and you walk to the Cambodia exit building (which is very large for such a remote crossing).

3:50PM After confusion about where to go since no one was around and after almost walking into Laos without stamping out from Cambodia, another passenger and I finally found the exit point in this huge building. We were the only two people around.

After getting our Cambodia exit stamps (and paying a $2 fee to get our stamps which was a scam, but you have no choice), we walked about 1000 meters in the heat to cross the border into Laos. We obtained our Laos visa on arrival (cost varies by country but was $35 for US + $2 (scam)ping fee) and got into a car with aircon to take us to Nakasang, Laos. The person at the Asia Van Transfer office in Siem Reap said we would take an open air tuk tuk because there were only two of us but we lucked out and had a car. If you have a small group they will have a van waiting for you at the Laos border.

4:15PM Arrived in Nakasang, walked about 500 meters to the boat ticket office and exchanged our tickets for a boat ticket.

4:20PM Took a small, narrow boat across the Mekong River.

4:40PM Arrived in Don Det.

5:00PM Happy Hour!