Category Archives: Cambodia

Petrol station habits and information

In most of Europe the procedure at petrol stations is pretty easy: just fill it up and go into the shop to pay. But there are some differences in other countries I came along…

Colombia:
There‘s the standard petrol called corriente, which is about 87 octane, and the more expensive Extra (or sometimes called Premium) which is about 92 octane. Credit cards are accepted in bigger cities. The Extra/Premium petrol is not available at every station, but just in bigger cities.

Ecuador:
In Ecuador there are two kind of petrols: Super and Extra. I always went with Super, which is 92 octane and the more expensive of the two. I don’t know how much octane the Extra has, but I think it’s less than 90. It‘s not possible to pay with credit cards at the stations.

Bolivia:
The locals get subsidized petrol for about 4 Bolivianos/L (0.60 USD), while foreigners pay around 8.50 Bolivianos/L (1.25USD/L).
On most petrol stations outside the big cities just ask for ‘sin boleta’ or ‘sin factura’ and they’ll serve you with a random price around 6-7 Bolivianos/L.
In bigger cities they can’t serve without the ticket (due to cameras/police) and sometimes don’t have the computers to serve foreigners (you need the passport) or they don’t want to do the paperwork and just refuse to give you petrol. This happened to me in Potosi and La Paz. No credit card payment possible in Bolivia at the petrol stations, but I never had issues getting money at ATMs.

Peru:
Standard petrol here is 84 octane and sometimes 90 octane. In bigger cities you’ll get 95 octane. but there are a lot of new petrol stations being built right now, so it gets easier. I didn’t have issues to get 95 every 250-300km.
in some places it’s possible to pay with credit cards, but it’s pretty rare. they calculate in gallons, right now it’s about 14.5 soles/gallon.

Chile:
You have to wait to be served. It’s possible to pay by credit cards (‘tarjeta credito’, Visa and Mastercards are accepted). While paying with card it asks for a ‘clave’, that’s the PIN, NFC chips are working in Chile.
Sometimes there’s another question on the device asking ‘sin…’ or ‘con…’ Not exactly sure what this is, but I always selected ‘sin’/without…

Argentina:
You will  be served here, too. but slowly… there’s mostly just one guy working, even when the petrol station has ten pumps!
‘Gasolina Super’ is 95 octane.
Payments with cards are possible, but just with Visa Debit cards! (My Swiss Visa Credit card also does Debit, so no issues here).
Here it asks again for the PIN instead of the ´clave´ and you have to sign the ticket even after entering the PIN.
It’s hard to get cash at ATMs in Argentina, so I was glad to be able to pay with credit card.

Turkey:
Here you have to wait for a guy to enable the pump (mostly by an RFID card). Most of the time he will put the gas in, sometimes I was allowed to do it by myself.
He will the print out a receipt. Now you can pay cash or go inside the shop to pay with credit card. You’ll get three(!) other receipts: one for the payment, one for the credit card and the third one you have to hand out back to the guy outside which pumped your fuel!

Russia:
Here you have to pay in advance. Which is hard if you want to fill up and don’t know how much it will cost. If they understand English or my sign language, they usually enable the pump for me to fill up and then I can pay the amount by credit card. But sometimes they just don’t want to understand and I have to guess an amount, which they will release. If you guessed too much you have to go back inside to get the change. But there seems to be always a big queue in Russia, so guess right!

Kazakhstan:
You must pay in advance too. But on the bigger petrol stations you can go inside and say you want to pay by credit card and want to fill the tank. So they release the pump and you can go back inside after filling up to the rim. The following stations mostly accepted credit cards: KazMunayGas, Sinooil and Helios.
Sometimes they strictly don’t want to release the pump before you payed. Either by credit card or cash. So better estimate too high and go back inside to get the change. Its annoying, but it works.

You’ll find KazMunayGas almost everywhere, but their shops only have some bottles of water and sometimes coke. Helios seems to be the modern newcomer, mostly with big shops. But occasionally they were out of petrol…

Kyrgyzstan:
It’s basically the same as in Kazakhstan, you have to pay in advance and be good in guessing. Sometimes they didn’t want to give back the change when I guessed too much and could not fill in all.
But I only could pay once with credit card.

China:
It depends heavily on the province you are in!
Xinjiang: The petrol stations are enfenced and guarded by security. The locals have to scan their ID (with digital chip) to open the gate and to get petrol. As the foreigner’s temporary drivers license do not have the digital chip, the guards don’t know how to handle the situation. Show them your Chinese paperwork, sometimes even the passport, ask for their manager and finally they will open the gate and let you in. Credit cards won’t work in China at all, even if the terminals have written Visa/MasterCard on it!
Tibet: Motorcycles are not allowed on the petrol stations at all!
You have to park outside, walk to the pump and they will handle you an aluminium tea pot or can. The sizes vary from 2 litres up to 10 litres. But they are dirty and have sometimes sand in it, so use an extra filter! It’s fun to carry around some petrol at the height of 4500m!
They say it’s for security! But carry an open canister full of fuel is not? And sometimes you have to show your passport too.
Yunnan: No problems at all here! Just drive up, they will fill it up for you. No discussions at all.

Laos:
They only have ‘regular’ (the red pump) and ‘Diesel’. I have no idea if regular is 90, 93 or 95 octane. And the petrol itself is also coloured red! They will pump the petrol for you and also ask for how much money you would like to tank, mostly they understand ‘full’ or some similar hand guesture. Payment is in cash directly at the pump, you won’t get a ticket. Most of the times there are girls working the pumps. And on my big bike they are too small to look into the tank to see how full it already is…

Cambodia:
Similar to Laos, there are workers at the pump stations to do the work for you.
You can choose between 92 and 95 octane. Payment is always in US dollars with the fixed ratio of 4000 riel = 1 USD.

Thailand:
Same same as in Cambodia, but you have a lot of choice. There seem to be five different types of fuel and colors at the pumps. I always went for 95 (the orange one), which I guess is 95 octane with E10 (10% Ethanol).
I can recommend the PTT stations. They always have a 7-Eleven supermarket there!

Malaysia:
Finally be able to get the petrol by myself again! Payment with credit card is also possible again, directly at the pump! Interestinly, goods in the shop have to be paid with cash, no credit cards accepted.

Indonesia:
Pertamina seems to be the biggest and most common petrol company there. Outside of the big cities I could only see these Pertamina stations. They pump the petrol for you and it has to be paid in cash.
There are about five different petrol colors and names. But there are no octane numbers on them! you cannot go after the nosle colors, as they seem to repurpose old pumps.
The workers always sent me to the scooter pump, but this is 88 octane (which my AfricaTwin had some troubles with).

This is what I found out about the different kinds:
Premium: 88, yellow
PertaLite: 90 (officially 90. but if asked, they said it’s 88), yellow
PertaMax: 92, blue or sometimes red
PertaMax+: 95, red (only seen once…)
Bio Solar: I guess this one is with Ethanol (E10?)
DexLite: Diesel

Australia:
You can pump by yourself, but the operator inside has to release the pump after you put the nosle into your tank. You MUST get off the bike, otherwise they won’t release the pump! (security reasons, they are afraid you can not run away if the station explodes…). Payment is inside the shop.

In the outback there’s the special Opal fuel, wich does not have fumes. So the Aboriginals cannot get high from it…

 

Border crossing Cambodia – Thailand (Hat Lek)

I made it into Thailand! Not completely legal, but almost 🙂

Thailand changed the rules last year for travelers with their own vehicles. Officially it’s now required to get a special permit, a guide and a temporary Thai drivers license (they don’t accept the International Drivers License convention of 1968, they want the one from 1949!)
The whole procedure would take about 15-20 days and costs a minimum of about 1000$ for a two day Thailand transfer! For a 30 day transfer this could go up to 5000$!

Some friends tried to get into Thailand without the permit on a big border in Laos and were being rejected. So I tried a small border crossing, the most southern border from Cambodia to Hat Lek in Thailand. And it worked! They either didn’t know the new rules or just didn’t care to enforce them.

Here’s the report:

I arrived at the Cambodian border at about 8:45 in the morning. I guessed they open at 9:00 as it was Sunday. But the border is open daily from 6:00 until 22:00.
It looked closed when I arrived. Not many people there and a metal barrier, but a guy just motioned that I have to drive around it.

I went to the right building to the departure booth. Only three people in front of me. After about five minutes it was my turn. Don’t forget to fill out the departure card which is likely stapled into the passport. The officer stamped it and I needed to look into the (Logitech) camera for a photo. Then they took my fingerprints of both hands! Three weeks ago when entering Cambodia from Laos they didn’t even had computers and wrote every person manually into a big book!

After the passport check I headed to the left side of the street to the customs office. The officer said I can go directly to the Thai border. But I needed the stamp on my carnet de passage (CPD)!
I insisted and said this is important. So he sat down, looked at it and gave me the stamp with signature. I ripped off the lower part, which the customs office must keep and gave it to him (he didn’t even fill it out!) and said “this is for you”. His answer was “I’d rather have  money”. But he just smiled and didn’t want a bribe. Not even the usual 2$ fake exit fee.
Then I was free to go.

On the Thai border I’ve been instructed to park the bike on the left side (left driving in Thailand!).
I headed to the building on the left side and an officer handed me the immigration card. I filled out the arrival part of it and went to the booth nr 4 “Immigration” and gave my passport with the card. The lady recognized my motorcycle jacket and asked for the bike papers.
I had to give the carnet de passages and the vehicle registration. She entered everything into the computer and printed out two papers for the bike, which I had so sign. Then she sent me over to the booth nr 2. There an officer stamped my passport, and I had to sign in a big book. He took one of the papers and gave me the other.
For most Europeans no Visa is required for up to 30 days. Even on land borders like this (it used to be 15 days on land borders and 30 on Airports). But they limit it to two land border crossings per year!

After that I thought this was it (because they entered the bike info from the carnet into the computer) and headed back to my bike.
But another guy came to me and said I had to go to the right side to the customs office. My heart stopped for a second, as I thought that I already made it!
At this booth he entered the information of the carnet into another computer and asked the same question as booth nr 4 (which color is your bike?). Then he correctly filled and stamped the carnet, printed another paper (which I had to sign again) and gave everything back to me. In Thailand it’s required to have a vehicle insurance, but they didn’t ask for it (I bought one online for about 20$).
No fees and no bribes on the Thai side neither, very professional and fast.

The whole border crossing took me about one hour.

Now I’m in Thailand without the permit. But I guess that no police officer knows about the new rules and just cares about the standard papers, which I have.