Field Report: Crossing Over into Poipet (Cambodia)

[Analyst]

If you've watched Disney's Pinocchio, you'll remember Pleasure Island as a place where wayward boys go to enjoy unlimited freedom to drink, smoke, gamble and vandalize at their whim before ultimately morphing into donkeys. While one trip to Poipet didn't quite turn me into an ass (yet), I could definitely imagine this happening after several repeated visits.

Cambodia is one of those frontier countries that seem to be outside the influence of law, regulation and media and that still feels like the "wild, wild west" of Southeast Asia. For the last few years, I've heard and read stories from backpackers and travelers and bloggers about various small Cambodian towns situated along on the Thai border that have not yet caught up with the rest of the world. There's Pailin, which is considered to be the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge, who are responsible for the genocide of over 2 million Cambodians in 1979-1980. Also Sihanoukville is supposed to be one of those undiscovered beach towns. Battambang gets mentioned a lot. Lastly, Poipet also gets the nod as a casino town favored by the Thai mafia for laundering money and catering to Thais who want to gamble (casinos are illegal in Thailand) and party at a level beyond even the loose constraints of Thai culture and society.

During a recent long weekend, a friend and I decided at the last minute to venture out to Poipet and see for ourselves if hype reconciled with reality. Poipet consists of a 4 km stretch of no-man's land nestled between the Thai and Cambodian borders. At Aranyaprathet on the Thai border, you officially exit Thailand through immigration but you don't officially enter Cambodia. Sandwiched between these two borders is a small enclave of casinos and hotels that seems to exist outside the jurisdiction of any sovereign law. I assumed that Thai organized crime must be silently enforcing the peace in town as we felt quite safe in all hours of the day and night, despite the absence of any visible police or military presence.

Once I exited Thailand at Aranyaprathet and entered Poipet, the scenery drastically changes. Trash litters the street and dust seems to be rising from everywhere. Dirty street kids approach in droves begging for money as various touts compete for your attention to take you to one of the 7-8 casinos located off the main street.

On a friend's recommendation, we stayed at the Star Vegas, a hotel/casino that seems to be part of a larger group of businesses all consolidated under the same "Star" moniker. To the right of the Star Vegas and past the latest construction project, there is the Star Venus, a massage parlor, and the Star Max, a trance/house club open until 8-9am.

Every hotel has its own casino and often will have a bar/lounge featuring dancers. At the Grand Diamond City Hotel, on the third floor, the bar area features a Thai band performing mainly Thai Carabao-style rock music. During band breaks, "coyote" dancers perform. All are freelance dancers from Bangkok and come here for several weeks at a time. They are working to "sell drinks" to bar/lounge patrons and stated that they could earn a lot more in Poipet than in Bangkok, due to less competition and more blatant cash flow around the town.

At the Holiday Palace Hotel, on the sixth floor, the bar/karaoke also features two girl show that was interesting. Probably actually rated about a PG-13, rather than the NC-17 that it was sold under. I really liked the Holiday Palace Hotel and wished that we had decided to stay there instead. There's also the Tropicana and the Golden Crown Hotel, but I didn't see anything that stood out from the rest of the casinos.

In terms of places to see and things to do, there isn't much in terms of temples or photo opportunities or sight seeing. In lieu of such landmarks, I spent my 24 hrs in Poipet gambling and exploring the night life. With most casinos in Asia, baccarat is the main game in town. Blackjack tables aren't packed at all, even with the 100baht a hand minimum. Roulette and a variation of Sic Bo is also very popular. I noticed only one craps table but don't remember exactly where it was located.

For me, the main draw of Poipet is the town's randomness and the thin line between order and lawlessness. While the border opens at 7am and closes at 8pm, motorcycle touts will happily take you into Cambodia after-hours with a 100baht "tip" to the border guards and a promise of waiting for you at the border to make sure you get back into town. One motorcycle taxi guy said that it was really "safe" across the border, but advised against taking a mobile phone or very much cash. Hmm. Again, you can imagine the consequences of getting mugged or getting stuck behind the line without the proper visa stamps, etc.

On a final note, Poipet is the place to go for a trip with your guy friends. As they say, there's no need to take sandwiches to a picnic. There's not much there that would hold the cultural tourist's interest for longer than 15 minutes, but there is something to be said about being a geographic "grey area" where most laws also seem a little vague. It would also be extremely helpful to be able to speak Thai. Everyone in Poipet speaks Thai, including the Cambodian staff and the Vietnamese workers that you meet in town.

Anyway, I'm making plans on returning very soon for round 2. Two nights would be perfect. Any more time spent in Poipet over 48 hrs might accelerate that permanent transformation to a donkey, so do so at your own risk Nite.

[poly800rock]

how this thread went unnoticed is beyond me. I completely forgot about this aspect/no man's land....wish i spent more time there.

thanks analyst! now write about your tokyo trip!

[cyberPUNK]

that was definitely informative and a great read. enjoy your travels!

[lenn]

great thread, i never heard about such a place... i'll keep it in mind when planning my next journey to asia

+rep

[englandmj7]

Great read. More pics please. I need to get to Cambodia.........

At least crossing the border was fairly simple. I spent close to 6 hours (4 hours coming in, 2 hours leaving) getting a group of us + 2 Thai-registered trucks into Laos from Thailand a few weeks ago...........

Speaking of which, I should follow your lead and write up a little summary of that trip. Wish I had time for a couple days in BK; would have been great to grab a beer.

[corporategrunt]

Great stuff, this is what I really want from SuFu, people travelling to unique destinations and sharing it with others.

Analyst, gotta + rep you when the thing allows me to...

muchas gracias.

[mike lowrey]

great write up, never knew much about cambodia and never heard of Poipet before.

[Analyst]

Great read. More pics please. I need to get to Cambodia.........

At least crossing the border was fairly simple. I spent close to 6 hours (4 hours coming in, 2 hours leaving) getting a group of us + 2 Thai-registered trucks into Laos from Thailand a few weeks ago...........

Speaking of which, I should follow your lead and write up a little summary of that trip. Wish I had time for a couple days in BK; would have been great to grab a beer.

England,

I would love to hear about your trip. It's definitely much more interesting travelling by land to these places.

An interesting and possibly hairy trip would be Poipet-Siem Reap-Phnom Penh by motorcycle.

One of these day, we'll have to meet up in some far-flung place somewhere in SE Asia.

Additional Notes:

Travel from Bangkok

I was surprised how difficult it was to find directions for driving independently from Bangkok. There are a ton of bus companies and services that will pick you up around Lumpini at 5am and drop you off that afternoon at Aranyaprathet, the last Thai city before crossing into Poipet. While I received several versions of how to get to Poipet from Bangkok from friends, we basically just winged it and printed some maps from Mapquest.

If you are driving from Bangkok, the easiest way is to take the motorway/expressway towards Suvarnabhumi Airport and Srinakarin and stay on the 314. When you see signs for Chaosongsao 304, make sure that you don't miss it, or risk being spit off into going towards Chonburi or Pattaya. Staying on the 304 towards Panom Sarakham and Suram Buri will then take you to the 33 towards Se Keaw and eventually to Aranyaprathet. While there is a 10km stretch of construction and crummy road conditions on the 33, as soon as you hit Suram Buri, most of the roads are newly paved with two lanes divided by a wide median. The total trip should not take more than 3.0-3.5 hours from Bangkok.

I highly recommend taking the same way back. We stupidly followed the 359? I think to Bangkok instead and encountered some pretty crazy driving for about 60km. On a two lane road, you're pretty much playing leapfrog passing all the heavy trucks, at the same time as playing chicken with the asshole driving coming at you in the other direction....

[Charlie Delta]

This is what Superjetset is about!

[Cue]

me three!

I recommend the hair-raising trip from Kampong Cham to Kratie and then on speddboats into Laos as well - not a crossing too many people do - but travelling in hollowed out logs with a Camry engine on that back is a cheap thrill.

[Analyst]

I forgot to mention that one of my distant cousins, a banker from Hong Kong, made friends with one of the sons of an owner of one of the casinos. I really wanted to try and track him down so I could see what he did for fun.

I would be interested in any intel gleaned from these guys on how this place is operated.

What fascinates me about this place is how much it pushes various legal boundaries:

The border between Cambodia and Thailand is completely porous. Basically these motorcycle touts are bringing Vietnamese girls back and forth through immigration with just a wave of the hand and probably some extra cash. Plus, the fact that they will pretty much take anyone visiting through a closed border after hours for $2.50 without any need for visas/passports amazes me. If anyone wanted to disappear from the world, this would be one of the places to do it. You get your passport stamped out of Thailand and enter Poipet and then illegally enter Cambodia, and then poof.

You basically don't exist anymore as your entrance into the country is never officially documented, as entry into Poipet doesn't require any passport checks.

The clubs are basically open air drug markets where you can procure most anything possibly imagined. Everything is done in the open and so obviously, hence the pleasure island analogies.

I won't go into detail about the local "water" trade, which possibly also pushes the legal envelope as well.

[AstroWolf]

I won't go into detail about the local "water" trade, which possibly also pushes the legal envelope as well.

Please explain this one a little. is this some mad code for something else? or are people really slinging water?

[Analyst]

Please explain this one a little. is this some mad code for something else? or are people really slinging water?

A-Wolf,

The "water trade" is just a Japanese term for the sex industry.

Poipet is such a grey area, that the local "water trade" definitely skirts various legal boundaries. You can imagine what happens when you combine the lack of law enforcement, lots of cash flow and lots of Thai mobsters.