So far in our travels, we have crossed overland from China into Laos, and Laos into Thailand, relatively pain-free (as it should be). However, I have never had so many border-scam stories than for the Thai-Cambodian border between the towns of Aranaya Prathet and Poipet. Just a week before, in a Chiang Mai bar, a British couple came over to our table and began telling us their issues at this particular border crossing. They must’ve really wanted to get it off their chest; we hadn’t even mentioned that we were going to Cambodia. So, with this in mind, along with scam-savvy advice from many travel blogs, we set off early in a tuk-tuk towards the border, a little apprehensive but ready to face whatever these con-men would throw at us.
Little did we know that such knowledge would prove useful straight away. As soon as our tuk-tuk driver dropped us off at the border- BAM!- we were hit with Scam Attempt #1. This one was the Big One that we were expecting, too; to have it on our arrival almost took the fun out of it. A man approached us with two forms: ‘I have some forms for you to fill in to get your Cambodian visa.’ ‘Thanks,’ I said, taking the departure card, ‘I’ll fill it out over there.’ I pointed as far away as I could. ‘Come into our office’, he said, sweeping his arm towards a glass office with ‘Cambodia Visa’ crudely printed on it. ‘Otherwise you will have to go to the consulate.’ They will tell you that you have to go to the Consulate, the Internet has told us, but this is not true. You can get a ‘visa-on-arrival’- much cheaper. With these words ringing in my ears, I just said a firm thank you and walked away. Advice to anybody traveling overland- if you’ve read that your destination is a ‘visa-on-arrival ‘affair, there is NO NEED to get that visa until you enter that country. All I can say is, thank god for Internet travel blogs. And no, I don’t mean mine- ha!
Anyway, we passed immigration no problem, passing under a grandiose arch that announced the ‘Kingdom of Thailand’ on one side, and the ‘Kingdom of Cambodia’ on the other side. No pick-up trucks heading into Thailand from Cambodia, as carts wheeling goods over instead; we saw one with at least 500 wicker baskets balancing precariously, the height of a house. It was time to get our ‘visa-on-arrival’, and potentially face Scam Attempt #2: gross overcharging for the Tourist Visa. We filled in our application forms (which looked a little different from what the other guy had shown us- funny that) and handed them in, a little nervous about what they would quote. The thing is about this scam, it’s difficult to argue TOO much; these are the officials that let you into the country, after all. We held our breath…‘USD$20’ he said- and we exhaled. That was the standard price! ‘And 100 Baht’, he added. Ah- not so much the standard price. We’d read that the officials ask for a ‘tip’, and that you should usually just give it, and thank your lucky stars they didn’t rip you off with the visa. From Laos to Thailand there had also been a small ‘processing-fee’. If it means that we avoided argument, a little extra is extremely cheeky, but not the end of the world.
All this time, we had been shown the correct route through the border crossing by a seemingly helpful young Cambodian called Pan. As we got stamped into the country, Pan told us of a ‘free shuttle bus’ that took us to a bus station, where we could get a taxi or bus to Siem Reap. Intending to take a taxi to SR after reading bad things about minibuses from the trusty Net, we hopped onto the shuttle, pleased that we’d managed to avoid most of the major scams. Ha- yeah, right. We’d just landed ourselves slap bang in the middle of one…
Three of us travelers (an older French guy, Patrick and I) and our two ‘helpers’ (ha!) arrived into the bus station, where two British ladies seemed relieved to see us. ‘Where can we catch a taxi from?’ I immediately asked, eager to get to Siem Reap as quickly as possible. ‘How about a minibus?’ the other ‘helper’ said. Warning bells began to ring. ‘When does it leave?’ Patrick asked, thinking what I was thinking. ‘We just need to wait for a few more people; it holds 15,’ the helper said. ‘Are there any breaks?’ I asked, after reading tales of wasted hours spent in random restaurants en-route to SR, ensuring a late arrival into Siem Reap and greater chance of taking the bus-driver’s guesthouse choice- that happens to give him commission. ‘It’s a two hour journey- there’s just one bathroom break’, Pan told me. A bathroom break, for a two hour journey?! Those warning bells rang louder. Seeing that we were unsure, and obviously desperate to leave, one of the British ladies quipped ‘It’s only $10!‘. We asked the older French guy (who we later found was called Roger) if he wanted to share a taxi. ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘but not for the $48 they’re asking for here. At the most, it should be $30’. I was practically deafened by alarm bells by now, but we’d fallen for this scam, and there was no way back to the border now. They had us trapped.
Our helpers tried to insist us that they were ‘not part of the border mafia’, that they were ‘trying to help us’. Sure didn’t seem like it. Remembering internet accounts of eternity-long waits to fill minibuses, we said that we’d wait 10 minutes. If no-one came within that time, we were getting a taxi, even if it was still a rip-off. We wanted our journey to Siem Reap to take 2 hours, not 8. True to their promise, within 10 minutes a bus-full of fellow gullible travelers fell into the station. One group had no US dollars, so had to change their Thai baht into the bus station’s only available currency- Cambodian Riel- with horrible conversion rates. Funny that, when all of the bus prices were quoted in US dollars. When Roger, who was as skeptical as us about the whole thing, asked about this strange system, the guy retorted ‘The US dollar isn’t as used as much anymore in Cambodia; the locals all use the Riel’. I recognized that exact line- from an Internet blog entry titled ‘Lies Told By Cambodian Border Con-men’. Whipping around to Patrick to ask if he’d heard too, I saw that he was no longer behind me. I looked around, and spied his green backpack 50 metres away at the bus station. Our helper was watching him very closely. What was Pat up to?
‘Come and get your ticket, madam’ the lie-spinning helper shouted. ‘We have enough people; the bus is ready to leave’. Watching Patrick return, I waited it out for a while, as did Roger. Patrick sidled up to me: ‘I’ve got a taxi for $30’. Amazed, impressed, but wanting to show neither, we both called Roger over to us and slyly told him our coup; he accepted without hesitation. ‘Follow me,’ Pat hissed, and so we did, striding away as our helpers shouted after us with increasing desperation: ‘Hellooo? HELLOOOOO?’
Patrick took us to the meeting-spot, but the taxi driver wasn’t there. I was worried for 2 seconds, but then Pat spied him in the distance- and there he was, straw trilby hat and all. Apart from a brief doubt that he might pilfer our stuff when he stopped for gas and opened the boot, the journey to Siem Reap was very comfortable on the relatively new smooth road. Probably can’t say the same thing for the dozens of motorbike drivers we passed carrying upturned dead pigs on the back of their bikes. Certainly something you don’t see every day! Our driver, who actually worked for the scamming taxi/minibus company, told us he thought they were expensive, and ripped people off by dropping them off outside Siem Reap and making them get a tuk-tuk. In contrast, he took us straight to the centre, and you know what? He did it in UNDER two hours! No useless stops at all! It was all thanks to Patrick’s subtle cunning, otherwise we would probably have had no other option but to be fleeced along with the rest of ‘em!
Phew! I know this has been a long blog post, but I just wanted to write every little detail, just in case any of you guys ever find yourself at the same border. Those Internet blog posts sure helped us be wise to those con-men; even if this blog helped one person out, that would be worth it!
And so! Why all the bother to get to Siem Reap in the first place? Well, nearby lies a little-known joint called Angkor Wat… an example of the once-mighty Khmer empire’s grandeur, and the world’s largest religious structure. Also one of the most beautiful, as witnessed at sunrise this morning…it was worth the ungodly wake-up call of 4.30am, even if it means we’ve slept most of today. More on that in a few days, as tomorrow our trusted tuk-tuk driver Ang takes us to see a few more Angkor temples, along with some floating villages! Today has been SCORCHING, and it’s only going to get hotter- highs of 35 degrees- so expect to see a few sweaty pics! On that unsavoury note, I’ll head off…see you in Phnom Penh!
No comments:
Post a Comment