Southeast Asia is an attractive region of the world to spend several weeks — or, if you have it, several months–of your time. Its nations comprise a huge variety of landscapes, from the jungle-covered hills of Northern Laos to the mysterious sands dunes along the south Vietnamese coast to active volcanoes in Indonesia. The area is also cultural heterogeneous, from the Buddhist peoples of Cambodia and Myanmar to Islamic Malaysia and the predominately Catholic Philippines, who islands are dotted with indigenous animists. Although these diverse countries are well-connected by rail, bus and several award-winning low costs carriers, you should familiarize yourself with the entry requirements of each before you start hopping around.
CAMBODIA
Your perception of the immigration situation in Cambodia will likely vary depending on how you enter. Hopping one of the daily non-stop flights from Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap or Phnom Penh will expose you to a relatively efficient immigration process, with tourist visas issued quickly, without hassle and for the $20 that’s officially quoted as of February 2011. It’s also expensive an expensive option, with one-way tickets for less than an hour in the air running over $100 at their cheapest.
If, on the other hand, you come from Bangkok by bus or train — as a sizable number of Western tourists do, either on “non-stop” Bangkok-Siem Reap or Bangkok-Phnom Penh (scam) buses or on one of the double-daily slow trains from Hua Lamphong Railway Station to the Thai fronteir town of Aranyaprathet — you must cross the border in a town called Poipet, known by Khmers (as Cambodians are called), Thais and foreigners alike as an absolute toilet of a place.
Visa officers here are notorious for using currency-switching to trick tourists out of money, denying entry altogether if it’s the request fee, however high, isn’t paid — and that’s if you can even find the official border checkpoint, which is hidden among a sea of impostor scam booths that all-but-camouflage it. Regardless of whether you arrive by air or by land, the government of Cambodia issues tourist visas with 30-day validity, which you can allegedly renew once by mail before having to leave the country and re-enter, although I haven’t tried myself.
LAOS
Like Cambodia, Laos is a country whose two major cities — Luang Prabang and capital Vientiane — are relatively well-served by air from hubs like Hanoi and Bangkok. Another similarity between both air services is how expensive they tend to be, with Hanoi-Luang Prabang fares sometimes edging over $200 for a 45-minute flight.
Unlike Thailand’s, however, Vietnam’s railway system doesn’t extend anywhere near its next-door neighbor, which means that whether you enter from the north, near the north Vietnamese rice-producing area of Sapa, or by passing through the country’s southern paddies at Dalat, you will enter Laos from Vietnam by land using a “public bus” than’s in many cases little more than a minivan packed too full. The views are scenic and beautiful, but can become tiresome after even the first of two 12-hour days.
Certain Lao-Vietnamese borders — as well as the “Friendship Bridge” junction between Vientiane and Nong Khai, Thailand — issue visas on arrival, but since you don’t, in many cases, know where you’ll enter if you’re being taken by a private driver, it’s a good idea to get one in advance, at the Lao Embassies in either Hanoi or Bangkok.
Prices vary by nationality — as an example, my one-month, single-entry visa cost $45 (I’m American) in August 2010 — and visas are available in several durations and categories. Check with the Lao Embassy — or, if you’re lucky enough to arrive at one that lets you cross, a friendly border guard – for all your options, as they can change. If your single-entry visa runs out and you want to keep traveling in Laos, you must leave the country and re-apply outside. Keeping this in mind, you should try and get a multiple-entry one if you think you might fall in love with the country.
MALAYSIA
Alongside Thailand, Malaysia is known as one of the more Western-leaning, developed countries in Southeast Asia, so it’s not surprising that its visa issuance process is also modern by comparison. Upon arrival at an international airport in the country — usually Kuala Lumpur — citizens of several countries (including the U.S., U.K. and Australia) receive complimentary 90-day tourist visas, which is also the case if you enter the country via its northern land border with Thailand.
If you want to extend your stay in Malaysia past the 90-day mark–and you haven’t gotten a job, started school and engaged in any other kind of activity that might qualify you for a different visa type — you’ll need to leave the country to do so, going on what many ex-pats and long-term travelers refer to as a “visa run” to a nearby country. Thankfully, Malaysia is probably the easiest place in Southeast Asia from which to do this — the country is the birthplace of AirAsia, which flies nonstop from Kuala Lumpur to dozens of destinations around Asia.
MYANMAR
Myanmar is unique within Southeast Asia because, as of February 2011, it is not possible to cross any of the country’s land borders with Thailand. As a result, you must enter by air, often on one of the many daily flights from Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore that airlines like Air Asia and Myanmar International Airways fly.
Infrastructure in the country formerly known as Burma is generally poor — and its immigration system is no exception. As a result, you must obtain a visa in advance, from the prison-looking Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok’s Sathorn District. The visa, which costs about 800 Thai baht as of late 2010, is officially only good for 30 days, although the officer who stamped mine in early December validated it until February. If your visa runs out, you must leave Myanmar, no questions asked.
As a side tip, it’s important to remember that the currency situation in Myanmar is extremely bizarre. There are no ATMs throughout the country–and only a few hotels in Yangon, its capital, accept credit cards. To get around this, you must bring clean, crisp US dollar bills — preferably 100s. The second money issue in Myanmar that the kyat, its official currency, is controlled entirely by the black market. Avoid the “officially” airport exchange counter (which exchanges dollars for kyat at a rate of 40:1) and ask your hotel staff if they can exchange money for you, which will be at a rate of around 900:1 if you have large bills.
INDONESIA
If you are traveling to Indonesia as an American tourist, you can purchase a visa-on-arrival, good for 30 days, at either Jakarta or Bali International Airports, for $25. These and other visas may be had at Indonesian Embassies throughout Southeast Asia, starting at $45 for a one-month, single-entry document.
THE PHILIPPINES
The Philippines issues tourists from most Western countries complimentary 21-day landing visas arrivals at Manila International Airport, which is by far the most common way foreigners enter the islands. As evident by its robust and growing expatriate community, visa renewal policies in the Philippines are liberal, and it’s possible to extend your tourist visa for more than a year by applying for renewal at one of the country’s immigration offices.
Where the Philippine government gets you, however, is leaving the country: its aptly-named “Exit Tax” — P750, or about $14, per passenger as of December 2010 — is mandatory and often surprising.
SINGAPORE
Famous perhaps more for its international image as an authoritarian police state, the Republic of Singapore’s entry policies are refreshingly laid back. Immigration officers at Changi Airport will stamp your passport — if you’re American, British or Australian–with a 90-day visitor visa free of charge. As is the case in Malaysia, you’ll need to leave the country and get a new visa in order to extent your stay beyond the initial 90 days, made easier by frequent flights on Tiger Airways, Singapore’s answer to AirAsia. Taking a train from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore’s central station will also get you a 90-day stamp.
THAILAND
If you enter Thailand by plane, via either Bangkok’s massive Suvarnabhumi International Airport or smaller gateways in Phuket and Chiang Mai, you’ll get a 30-day visa stamped in your passport automatically. Not surprisingly since it’s a freebie, you must leave the country before it has expired to avoid paying penalties. You should consider your probable means of leaving carefully before you invest any time or money in doing so, however, as there is a slight schism in Thailand’s visa issuance policy.
If you enter by land — from Laos at Nong Khai or Cambodia at Aranyaprathet, for example — you will get only a 15-day visa. Although trains to either border — for which seats run 270 and 80 Thai baht one-way, respectively, as of August 2010 — are measurably cheaper than all but the best deals you’ll find on outbound AirAsia or Tiger flights, the extra 15 days exiting and re-entering via air might be worth the additional cash.
VIETNAM
As is the case with its neighbor Laos, Vietnam does not issue visas on arrival — well, not in the traditional sense. Perhaps strangely, the country honors outsourced visa on-arrival applications, for which you must pay in advance and then, once you arrive by air in Hanoi, Da Nang or Saigon, present the document you received in exchange for your payment, which is little more than a paid-for “invitation” letter.
If you don’t exercise this option — which is actually cheaper than the old-fashioned alternative, at $20 for the invitation letter plus $25 for the airport stamp if you get a one-month, single-entry visa — you’ll need to apply in advance at a Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok, Vientiane or elsewhere, which can cost you in excess of $85 at the very least. It’s important to apply for a multiple-entry visa if you play to re-enter Vietnam — you might want, for example, to start in Saigon, head west into Laos, north through its mountains, and enter northern Vietnam coming back east — as you’ll find yourself stuck if you arrive at a land or air border without the proper documentation.
Robert Schrader is a travel writer and photographer who’s been roaming the world independently since 2005, writing for publications such as “CNNGo” and “Shanghaiist” along the way. His blog, Leave Your Daily Hell, provides a mix of travel advice, destination guides and personal essays covering the more esoteric aspects of life as a traveler.
