Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Visa Running into a War Zone. For those who are unaware, there has been a lot of talk - I've done some videos on this - I kind of think it may be a storm in a teacup a little bit. I'm not trying to diminish things or underplay what's going on, but there is kind of a dispute going on at the Thai Cambodian borders right now and there is a lot of talk about the International Court coming in; there is a lot of talk about bilateral mediation. I think for the most part things have kind of quieted down, although it seems social media then causes things to kind of flare back up and then these rumours circulate and there is all kinds of consternation at the border and I was reading a recent article in the Bangkok Post where the author was talking about his own experiences some years ago at the same border that were quite different than even now. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: The 1970 Visa Run into a war zone. Quoting directly: "The Thai/Cambodian border has been in the news lately and let's hope everything is sorted out quickly and amicably. It sparked memories of the first time I crossed into Cambodia from Thailand back in October 1970. Now that's a long time ago." Yeah wow. Every time I start thinking, when I meet the old hands if you will out here, it always humbles me, because I have been here about 17 years, going on two decades and sometimes, many times, I'm not going to obfuscate here, I can be like anybody else, I can get a big head from time to time, I start thinking I know something about Thailand. Then you talk to a guy that does a Visa Run in 1970 and it's like well, maybe you don't know every little thing about how it works out here. So it's a good thing to remember. That said, quoting further: "The Border had only just reopened after being closed for many years. The crossing point was at Aranyaprathet from where you had to walk to the Cambodian Town of Poipet. I was with Bangkok Post colleague Tony Waltham and for both of us the trip served as a Visa Run and the opportunity to experience a new country. It also had its dangers as Cambodia was an active war zone being very much caught up in the Vietnam conflict which would not end for another five years." Quoting further: "Poipet was not a particularly inviting place in those days and was very much a bustling frontier town with a bit of a "wild west" flavour." I would like to say, I have been up in Aranyaprathet; we were doing some footage, I'm going to call it tentatively I want to call it Checkpoint Benji, and maybe do another channel. I haven't quite gotten all my ducks in a row with that, I have got a lot of things going on right now, but I have recently purchased a little house up there and we are looking to do Border Runs more and more up along around Aranyaprathet. Even now it has very much a "wild west" kind of thing to it. And I have got to say, and I've said this to a lot of folks, I know this sounds kind of crazy but Sakaew going into Aranyaprathet is the only place I have ever been in Southeast Asia that actually kind of reminds me of Kansas or Oklahoma, or Northern, Northeast, Northwestern Texas. If you have ever seen the movie Hell or High Water, that that film especially where they are driving around, that is very much what rural Kansas looks like where you have got just these rural roads, and it is all kind of flat. It is still jungle up there but there are many areas where it's paddy, or it's not quite as jungle heavy and it has got a little more of a plains kind of not quite a prairie kind of feel, but a plains kind of feel to it much more than any place else I have ever been in Thailand or greater Southeast Asia with the possible maybe exception of Vientiane, Laos. I kind of think back on that; I've often called Vientiane the Wichita of Southeast Asia because it just kind - I went there in 2009 the first time and it just kind of reminded me of the Southeast Asian version of Wichita. But up there, Sakaew, Aranyaprathet and then you go over under to the other side it's this totally different kind of experience, the Cambodian side of the Border. It does have kind of a "wild west" flair to it. I don't exactly know how to put it. Quoting further: "Fortunately at the railway station there was an ancient steam train waiting to pump us all the way to Battambang which turned out to be the end of the line. Owing to regular ambushes by Communist forces it was too dangerous for the trains to run from Battambang to Phnom Penh." 

So I really do urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in Bangkok Post - The 1970 Visa Run into a War Zone - it was an interesting read. I love hearing, again going back to Hell or High Water, I shouldn't say that, excuse me not Hell High Water, the movie No Country for Old Men. In the preamble to that film Tommy Lee Jones talks about, "I always like to hear from the old timers. I never miss an opportunity to listen to them if I could." And it is kind of what I feel like with the old hands out here. I have been here a little while and maybe for YouTube I have got some “old handishness” to me but these guys that have been out here for decades, they are on a whole other level. They know stuff and experience things that may never happen again; we will never see a world like what they saw. In many ways I think of that as sort of the pre-smartphone era here in Thailand where the experiences I had here in Thailand were very different pre-smartphone, and everybody that has been here since or only come here since, you are just not going to understand what it was like before smartphones. I can remember when bars and things here if you pulled out a smartphone they would flip out on you because they were freaked out about video and stuff. And then things all sort of changed within about a year after we started seeing them come out in force. 

The thing I am trying to get to in this video is the more things change to a certain extent, the more things stay the same. I am going to get to that in a video also on our paid news service, Integrity News Service, if you are interested in subscribing to that I am making long form videos and I am going to go a little bit deeper into kind of my experiences. I am doing a video today; I am making it contemporaneously with this one where I am going to talk about the straight dope if you will on setting up a Thai Business and a lot of it is going to be me talking nostalgically about getting set up over here for the first time. So [email protected]. You can send us an email to that email address, and I will get to you and I will get you into our paid new service if you like and you can watch the long form videos. It will be interesting from the standpoint of talking about business setups sort of generally which I talk a lot about on this channel. Also getting nostalgic about what it was like for me to set up out here, how it worked back then it is very different now in many ways and we are going to get into all of that.  

Also sort of a shameless plug as well. Let's not forget we have recently set up the Pancake Palace. I am going to throw up some footage of our food up here and I will put a link in the description below regarding the location link for Pancake Palace, so folks that want to come by, have a stack of pancakes, maybe have a drink. We do have a little bar in the back. You want to come by have a cheeseburger, have some. We have got good old American chilli. Soon we are looking at possibly biscuits and gravy, maybe some Mexican night coming up. Also our legitimate buffalo wings which really, I don't think anybody in this city has better buffalo wings than we do, and that's no joke there. So shameless plug on that, Pancake Palace, again location link in the description below. 

Going back to the mean for us to this video though is yeah look we are seeing some consternation if you will up along the border. That said, for now the border remains open for the ability to do Visa Runs. We do offer services associated with Visa Runs; it's kind of a concierge service. We are not running a shuttle but if you want to do a Visa Run and you basically want to be picked up directly at your house, taken to the Border sort of walked through all of it, sort of hold your hand if you will. We can provide that service as well and for now it's still possible to use that border up around Aranyaprathet/Poipet but yeah, it is a different kind of place up there and I remember my first border runs in 2008 going into 2009, I used Aranyaprathet - Poipet and boy has it changed as well. I remember it was basically like kind of a mud flat. There was this building and they processed you through on one side and sort of intake you on the other. You kind of walked over this creek - I think it is technically a river but it looked like what we call in Kansas a creek - you walk over these plank boards and then you are in Cambodia and then process on that side and come back. And man has it changed. The border crossing is entirely a different animal now than what it was some 17 years ago. 

So again, interesting article, worth the read, but presently to put a fine point on it presently Border Running at the Aranyaprathet Border remains as it was, although it looks like there are truncated hours and things, so we will be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.