Laos: Trapeang Kriel > Cambodia: Nong Nok Khiene

Dec 2022 |

This crossing was done in 2022, but I am updating it in 2025. At this time, in retrospect, I think my approach taken was a bit reckless, and I am lucky I didn't have any issues and get stuck in no mans land, or have to pay a big fee on either side.

Here is a slightly revised 2022 version:

After five days at Don Det Island and 3.5 weeks in Laos (longer than planned, but shorter than desired), Cambodia was next on the horizon.

While the border is only 17km from Nakasong (across the river from Don Det) to Cambodia, the general sentiment and experience for riders is to not attempt to cross at this point, due to severe corruption, or entry blockage, or some combination of both. Indeed, there are myriad stories of riders suffering major challenges, including having their bikes stuck in no man's land between the borders, not able to enter Cambodia or return to Laos.

But there are two examples of Singapore-plated bikes making it through, once being sgbikerboy, a great source of info and inspiration for me (though he crossed in 2016, and things have obviously changed).

The alternative to this border was to backtrack north, then cross back into Thailand from Laos and use the Thai-Cambodia border at O'Smach, which is known to be hassle-free for riders. But that option requires about seven hours of additional riding!

I considered my options and the risks and decided to ride the short 17km to the risky border and scope it out. If crossing wasn't going to be possible, or if it looked like too much hassle/corruption, then I would turn around and ride back and take the safer, longer border further north..

So I set off, starting with the boat crossing and a fast ride on a great road. Got to the Laos immigration and asked the officer if I could bring my bike into Cambodia. He told me to ride through no-man's land to the Cambodia side and ask them myself. So I did, riding under a couple of lowered gates, without yet getting an exit stamp from the Lao immigration.

On the Cambodia side, I rode up to the immigration booth and asked the Cambodian about bike entry. The official made a phone call and replied back "$40". This was much better than $200 another rider had been quoted in July, I had read online. So I rode back to the Laos side, got stamped out, and exited Laos. I then rode back to the Cambodia side. While I was expecting some trickery once I got back to the Cambodia immigration, like the price going from $40 to $200, it didn't happen. I did have an issue in that my passport was full, with no completely empty page. A senior immigration officer said he did not want to break any rules on this matter, and he wrote up a special hand-written "contract" describing why they stamped over prior Cambodia visa stickers.

This was another thing that Cambodian immigration could have hammered me with - but they did not. Overall Cambodian immigration and customs were very kind and decent to me. Maybe I got lucky.

For customs, I showed all the necessary registration, DL, IDP, filled in a temporary importation form, and was given 30-day entry for my bike. One nit in the process was that I needed to give customs a departure crossing, and I had to depart from that location. I chose Poipet to Thailand.

So, voila, I made it through and was in Cambodia.

Update 2025: I just briefly looked at some of the Google Reviews for this border crossing, and they are bad, with people tryig to bring bike in getting scammed for large amounts of money.

Why did it work for me? Maybe because I was on a Singapore-registered bike, and Singapore is part of ASEAN? Maybe I just caught the right staff on a good day? I don't know.... But I don't think I would do the same thing today I did then.

In closing, I did a visa run from Koh Chang to Cambodia in 2024. In no man's land, there was a big Honda, NX700 or something, covered in weeds, paint faded and chipping off. Not a good place to be.