Travelling around Europe in the pre-EU days was a real test of nerve. Crossing any land border required a passport and gained you a stamp; a month’s worth of Inter-rail and the passport looked pretty cool.
But the real thrill came when crossing the Iron Curtain; and no-one was more suspicious about your motives for entering their country than the East Germans. I remember having to tip the entire contents of my back-pack out for inspection, having to explain what the headache and diarrhoea tablets I was carrying were for, and the Olympic shot-putter/ female officer almost had an apoplectic seizure when she studied my address book and found some Polish addresses in there. “Who are these people? How do you know them? What do they do? When did you last meet them?”
The irony is that I was only transiting East Germany (between Denmark and West Berlin) and the train did not make any scheduled stops in East Germany! It was a strange place in 1987.
Now, Europe’s more interesting land borders have moved east. Getting into Belarus requires patience and jumping through some bureaucratic hoops, although the border staff were disappointingly polite; Ukraine even more so.
The most exciting crossing that I have made recently was the Jordan-Syrian border. Maybe the Syrians take extra measures on this entry point due the Jordanians lax view of travellers who have dared to visit Isreal. Certainly their border with Lebanon is far less arduous. Nevertheless, the westerners we queued with at the border on the road between Amman and Damascus did not have it easy. Passports taken away from us on the bus and returned a few moments later, being put in several lines only to be told when we get to the front that we are in the wrong line or that the line is now closed. Little tricks to let you know that your getting into the country is at their mercy, and they hold the aces.
I haven’t yet done the SE Asian land crossings; that will come later this year, so any advice is welcome. But I do like the excitement and the mild uncertainty that I feel every time we reach a border crossing. It’s not something that happens quite the same at airports, and is for me another reason why I fly between points only when there is no other option.
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Oh yes, border crossings are very interesting!
Frustrating! But different countries…different cultures! 
Sometimes they can take ages for a simple stamp & like 8 people working for that one. That happened to us at the border Thailand/Cambodia. The work could have be done by a single person in 5 minutes easily. But it took us about 2 hours & around 8 persons.
Just keep cool & hang loose at the borders. Hopefully that helps.
Greetings
Melvin
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Thanks for the comment Melvin. Like you say, it's easy to get wound up by the bureaucracy but it's important to remember that these guys have a lot of power over your next steps. So you have to sometimes take a deep breath and show respect to get you through. One of these days we might get unmanned borders where you just swipe your passport and you're on your way again… I'll dream on…
Hi Andy, like Melvin above I too have crossed from Thailand to Cambodia on the way to Siem Reap. Later, in the same trip, I crossed from Cambodia into Vietnam on the way to Saigon.
Neither crossing was especially tricky, though on the first crossing the Cambodian military guys tried to shake me down for an extra $20 before handing over my stamped passport, as they did to everybody else. If you plan to cross from Thailand to Cambodia, be careful with the famous minibus scam from the border to Siem Reap. I recommend instead that you find three other travelers and rent a car. The cost/person is definitely more–two years ago, when I made the crossing, it was something like $10-12 each instead of the $2-3 we paid for bus tickets–but you'll get there a LOT faster.*
The ride between Phnom Phenh, Cambodia and HCM City, Vietnam was easier, as were the crossings from Thailand into Laos and back that I made in a later trip–some bureacratic holdups but nothing really burdensome. As with battling most other challenges you come across while traveling, patience is your best ally (something I'm sure you know quite well).
Like you, I was in the Levant recently and made the border crossing from Lebanon to Syria and back before flying back home out of Beirut. But I found it more difficult than you! Having made the mistake of admitting I was a journalist on the Syria visa application, I didn't want to lie at the crossing. In hindsight perhaps I should have. The Syrian customs agents gave me quite a bit of static and held me up for about thirty minutes until I persuaded them that I was just on vacation and a harmless finance writer (which is true), not a political muckraker or whatever they were worried about.
Have fun in Southeast Asia later this year! I very much enjoy following your blog, and feel free to email me if you have any questions about the region: cardiffgarcia [at] gmail [dot] com. It's been two years since I spent time there, but I remember it fairly well and would be happy to help however I can.
* The bus scam consists of first boarding a lavish A/C bus after you cross the border, which you think will get you to Siem Reap comfortably, but which then drives about twenty minutes to a remote outpost, dropping you off and making you wait hours for the actual bus that will take you to Siem Reap. When it shows up, it's a tiny dilapidated minibus that's so crowded you'll have to carry some of your stuff on your knees. Meanwhile, the bus company has deals to provide customers for some of the restaurants along the way to Siem Reap, so you'll have to stop several times. It will therefore be very late, probably 6-7 hours later than you expected, when you arrive–but rather than dropping you off somewhere convenient in town, the bus will instead drop you off at a hostel that sits on the outskirts. And, of course, the bus company has a deal with that hostel as well, but you'll be so tired by the time you get there that you won't care, and will pay up. And that's the scam. Cheers,
Cardiff
Thanks for your comments Cardiff – appreciate the advice and kind offer of further help, and will keep an eye out for that scam. I'm really looking forward to getting to SE Asia, and reading others' experiences just makes me impatient to get going (still work to be done and money earned before then, sadly).
Funny about you mentioning the thought of lying on the Syrian visa form. Many people I'm sure overlook their previous visit to "occupied Palestine" as listed on their form (no doubt other questions too). As you allude to, it's really about being consistent between what you say to the border guys and what you put on the form.
Happy travels!
crossed border from India to Nepal last year. Oh my, talk about interesting. This year, we crossed from Thailand to Burma (and I'm Burmese). We've crossed a dozen times from Texas to Mexico during our Mexico Medical Missions. Quite the adventure!
@gotpassport yup Aye, it certainly sounds an adventure. Glad to hear these crossings are not putting you off! We will do Thailand-Laos, Laos- Cambodia and Cambodia-Thailand later this year and are preparing ourselves for anything.
Interesting topic! I recently crossed from Syria to Jordan by shared taxi – we had to take everything out of the trunk, and after the car was inspected, one of the border guards lay on the ground, and the car drove slowly over him so he could inspect underneath as well.
The only time I’ve had to bribe border guards was crossing through Transnistria between Ukraine and Moldova, but I expected that. My longest crossing so far was Russia to Mongolia by train – three hours to get out of Russia and another three to get into Mongolia, with the toilets unlocked just for a few minutes for the actual border crossing.
I haven’t had any problems in SEA – on the KSR to Cambodia scam (plus lots of other info on Cambodia) take a look at talesofasia.com.
Andy,
you wrote this is in aug., have you gone yet? I did the Thai/Cambodia crossing via Poipet on Friday. It was full of scammers and poipet is generally not some place to hang around. We did take the easy way out and booked a mini bus from Bangkok, and a car to Siem Reap. It took 2 hours to cross, was hot and dirty. Patience is the #1 thing to pack here. I’m sure we overpaid, they took us to their hotel, not ours, but it’s easy to get where you are staying by being persistant with the driver, or simply hopping in a tuk tuk.
Keep in mind that in poipet, after crossing they will make you wait for the bus to the bus/taxi station. If you have a guide, insist to get on the next bus, and skip the exchange counter. The Reil is essentially monopoly money and ATM kick out US$… Oh, get $40, 60, or 80… If you get $100, it’ll give 2 $50s, which are hard to change.
… Writing this I just realized you have already gone, you’re the reason we’re hitting 100 waterfalls in a few weeks! BTW that hike was written about in a few weeks…
Cheers!
Ryan
Perhaps I should finish my thought before hitting send….
100 waterfalls was written about in backpacker. A magazine I found in out hostel in bkk.
Www. Southeastasiabackpacker.com
I have found land border crossings to be very intimidating but not had any problems. Vietnam to China was tricky because a border guard took our passports, asked us something we didn’t understand and then just stood there waiting for what seemed like ages as he fiddled with his machine gun. In the end he shrugged and gave the passports back. In hindsight it is possible he might have been asking for a bribe, but if so then feigning ignorance must have been a good strategy… We have also had trouble carrying souvenirs. We were held up for a couple of hours on the trans-mongolian as we entered Russia due to some paintings we had bought in Vietnam. A long conversation ensued in broken English as to the artistic merits of the paintings, there value and how to describe them on the official form. Lesson learnt, sometimes it is easier to send souvenirs home rather than lug them with you across land borders.
Kathy – those ex-USSR crossing are riddled with corruption. I’ve heard countless stories of people need to find bribe money for visa that were ‘wrong’ or stamps that were in the wrong place. DId the Mongolian border too – we had to get off the train and wait a couple of hours in the station. It was the dead of night and bitingly cold. And not enough access to vodka to warm us up!
Ryan – yup, we ended up flying from Siem Reap to BKK. More expensive but oh so simple. (We did have some fun at the Lao-Cambodian border, but nothing too serious; just every guy at the border wanting his US$1. Glad to hear you’re doing the 100 waterfalls. It’s a great hike. Thanks also for pointing out the story in the magazine. I enjoyed reading it; sums up the highlights of the day very well, and give Nong Khiaw a bit of time too, it’s quiet but a cool place to spend a day or two.
Ben- good advice re: the gifts. It’s easy (and cheap) to post many things by land, and like you describe it avoids those awkward moments where the border guys see the chance to rip you off a few dollars.
The trouble with Transnistria is that only Russia recognizes it (it broke away from Moldova), so you can’t buy a visa. I looked on that bribe as an informal visa.
I was lucky on the Mongolian border – we all got to stay on the train – my compartment had a group playing card games.
It’s a lot less hassle going SR to BKK rather than the other way round. I took a car and driver to the border, walked across, tuk-tuk to the bus station, and then a bus on to BKK. Just have to keep a sharp eye on your stuff at the border.
There is really no other option but to arm yourself with patience and a good sense of humour when crossing borders. But the experience does tell you a lot about the country you’re crossing into. In some countries, especially in the Balkans, the border regime is incredibly lax, while in others, like Israel, the control is incredibly tight. I’m from Croatia, and have been living with the Schengen Border regime for the past couple of years. It really isn’t so bad, it just means that occasionally, when crossing the border into Slovenia, I have to wait a half hour-45 minutes instead of just a few minutes, and sometimes the documents pertaining to my car are also checked. And generally, I really don’t mind, I feel better knowing there is some control over who and what gets in and out of a country, rather than having a border so lax that drugs, weapons and people get smuggled over it on a regular basis.