I crossed the border twice between Belize and Guatamala, unusual only in that Guatamala didn’t recognize Belize at the time (I don’t know what the status is now). Guatamalan maps included Belize as part of the country, with no border at all.
At the Sunshine Village ski resort in Alberta, one of the ski lifts crosses the border into British Columbia, then comes back into Alberta before you get to the top.
Back in the 70s, before the fall of the Wall, I was stationed with the US Air Force in western West Germany. A friend and I traveled to West Berlin and we had to take the train through East Germany. The travel took place overnight, and we were told to keep the blinds closed at all times as we traveled through East Germany, but I did take a peek at the border crossing as the train was stopped. Nobody came on to ask for our papers or anything, though.
We also went through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin. We were required to wear uniforms, and were not allowed to take public transportation. Before we passed through, we had to stop on the Allied side of the Checkpoint, and told them when we expected to come back. We were not more than 10 minutes late coming back, but because we couldn’t take public transportation, it was a long hike back. Just as we got back, there was a US Army car preparing to transit through the Checkpoint to look for us. We got a lecture.
Haaha. No, I was not one of the handwritten entries. I can’t imagine how they kept the books current- they must have just called all the border posts when someone new was kicked out. I recall seeing homosexuality listed as someone offense, which passed me off.
My oddest experience involving international borders, which I think I may have told of on TSD before now: in 1984 I was on holiday in Poland, touring around the country travelling by train. Near the country’s extreme south-eastern tip are the towns of Zagórz; and Przemyśl, about 40 kilometres north-east of it “as the crow flies”. At that time there was a rail route linking the two, very indirectly: it ran far east-and-then-north, clocking up just over 100 kilometres. It also left Polish territory to run for 40 kilometres through what was in those days the Soviet Ukraine, and then bent back into Poland. (The rail route had been all in one country, until the border-rearrangements which happened in 1945.) The Polish railways ran a couple of passenger trains each way per day between Zagórz and Przemyśl, passing through the Ukraine under a “corridor” arrangement – officially, not stopping at all whilst in the Ukraine. Passengers on these trains needed no specific extra documents for the journey.
My journey was on the train which left Zagórz for Przemyśl at about 6.30 a.m. Took nearly four hours end-to-end, most of the way through beautiful scenery in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. The train halted just before entering the Ukraine (at a fearsome-looking border set-up of barbed-wire fences, watchtowers, and the whole such panoply, even though the two neighbouring nations were supposedly friends and allies); a squad of uniformed and armed border guards – one with a “German Shepherd / Alsatian” dog – got onto the train, and perched on various parts of its exterior and duly travelled thereon through the Ukrainian sector of the journey, presumably with the idea of thwarting any subversive doings. When back again at the Polish border 40 kilometres later, the guys all got off, and the train went on its way.
This struck me as a less scary scene than one might have imagined: many of the guards looked to me, in appearance, as though they had been about twelve years old – pretty un-threatening in aspect. Everyone concerned, seemed quite relaxed about the whole business. It was often speculated that a good deal of the old Soviet bloc’s seeming obsession with security and guarding things, might really have been about disguised unemployment relief: part of Communist policy was that everyone should be guaranteed a job, no matter how pointless / ill-paid. I don’t know how this particular scene may have changed after the fall of Communism; and at all events, nowadays rail passenger services no longer run over this route.
No-one I know has every crossed it but I’d like to nominate the Victorian-Tasmanian boarder for the least crossed border in Australia. It’s less then 100 meters long and is located on an uninhabited island in Bass Strait!
More seals have probably crossed it then humans.
I took an overnight train from Germany to the Czech Republic in 2004. I only had a second-class ticket, which would have put me in a compartment with 5 other people (six bunks that folded down from the walls). I got super lucky, though. When I boarded one compartment had just filled, so I was the first person in the next compartment, and then no one else got on so I had it to myself. I gave my passport to the attendant when I got on, and then sometime during the night the door opened and a flashlight was shined in my face for a few seconds. A night train across the Iron Curtain is still the most James Bond thing I’ve done in my life.
That’s small potatoes compared to some in this thread, but I was on my way to a dopefest!
Talk about “wonderfully crazy and complicated, seemingly for the sheer joy of being so…” ! One does wonder why Captain James Black’s error was never corrected by means of a little bit of disregarding of the 39-degrees-and-12-minutes line, and creating a small “jog” in the border by which the island would be all in one state, or the other.
If those reprobates in the south wish to unite it into the mighty Victoria I’m all for it. Otherwise we’re not giving up an inch. It would set a bad example with the South Australians and their claims that we stole some land off them. 
How about a one way boarder crossing
The northern terminus of the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) ends at the US/CN boarder. It is accessible by
1: a 30 mile hike from the US, or
2: a (about) 5? mile hike from a park in Canada.
Problem is you can not enter the US legally from the trail, you can enter Canada from it. So that presents a logistical challenge for those wishing to thru hike the PCT southbound (adding a additionally 25 or so miles over the much more direct route. People who are traveling north can enter Canada and exit at this park.
I took the train from Nice, France to Monaco. It’s just a short ride of a few minutes, nothing more than just another train stop.
Wow. I’ve heard that it’s pretty lawless down there. What sort of a group were you with? Did you feel safe?
A few more I thought of…
Iran to UAE by boat (Bandar Abbas to Sharjah).
Macedonia to Kosovo on foot (it was going to be by road but a truck accident meant we had to walk a few miles).
Russia to Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan by train.
We tried to do Somaliland to Ethiopia by road last year but it didn’t work out and we ended up flying Hargeisa to Addis Ababa.
Another is the famous Cal Neva Resort, Spa and Casino that straddles California and Nevada at Lake Tahoe. It’s currently closed for renovations, but I remember the painted border line down the middle of the main room, separating the gambling side from the non-gambling side.
If you ever want to go to Nunavut without flying, you can take a good paved road in northwest Quebec to Chisasibi, and have a local outfitter take you a couple of miles to an offshore island. All islands in Hudson Bay and James Bay are Nunavut territory.
I’ve been on the ferry between Bridgeport, CT & Port Jefferson, NY and probably on the ferry between Manitowoc, WI & Ludington, MI.
My parents loved taking ferrys.
A bit off-topic from borders as such; but discussion of Australian island oddities caused me to realise that I had no idea what is the current status of Norfolk Island, of convict-times notoriety. Googling revealed that it, plus a couple of nearby islands, are an External Territory of Australia. Ignorance fought !
I think you mean Carter Lake IA, the only part of Iowa that is west of the Missouri River.
Most people who fly into Eppley Airfield in Omaha, NE cross into Iowa before crossing back into Omaha when they leave the airport. It can be confusing if they’re not familiar with the area- “Wait, we’re in Iowa now?”
Or if they’re heading to the airport- “What happened? How did we get in Iowa? We never crossed the river, did we? Where’s the airport?”
He was probably with the Birdwatcher Gang…they’re only dangerous if you block their line of sight to a Rosita’s Bunting.
I took a camel truck across the Iraqi border to the Radisson hotel in Kuwait.
My two least-crossed borders, at least for foreigners, are on the Thailand/Burma border and the China/Vietnam border.
On the China/Vietnam border there was no guard so I walked a few meters into Vietnam and took some border marker photos. China marker on left, Vietnam marker on right. And here is technically my first time in a southeast Asian country, I would only properly enter Vietnam four months later. That area is worth a visit for the Ban Gioc–Detian waterfalls. Here you can see the Vietnamese side of the falls on the left, and the Chinese side on the right.
On the Thai/Burma border I saw a Thai solder but he didn’t bother me when I went through into Burma. I didn’t have my passport on me anyway, so I was a bit worried. There was no security on the Burmese side. I think that area may be controlled by Shan rebels, though. Me at a cool border sign. Thai border station. Walking to the unmanned border gate on the Burmese side. Me in a small village on the Burmese side.