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Published: October 27th 2009
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Welcome to Cambodia
This is the chaos that is the border crossing into Cambodia. Pic is in Cambodia in "city" called Poipet. Up at 4am to catch taxi to bus terminal. Caught gov bus (air conditioned) to border to Cambodia with no problems and it was an uneventful 4 hour ride through lovely Thai countryside. We were only non-Thai people we saw until we got to the border. OK, The Border. What a FUBAR! After leaving bus and catching a tuk-tuk (3 wheeled motocycle transport) towards border, we were diverted by driver to the "Royal consulate of Cambodia" for Cambodian visas. This "consulate" is a 3 sided shack with seedy looking people trying to sell you an overpriced visa. We already had visas from online so asked repeatedly to be taken to border (this a scam that is widely reported on internet so we expected it and it was no biggie). At border, got dropped off and immediately accosted by children wanted to carry our bags and people offering to "help" us across the border or to find something to eat or to get visas or to find toilet or to....you get the picture. They followed us closer than ticks on a bloodhound. Everything was so loud and chaotic and dusty and confusing to read, it took us several minutes just to figure
out where the border actually was. Once there, got stamped out of Thailand no problem after going through an H1N1 health check where you fill out a form and they scan your body temperature. You then enter what we'll call "no man's land". It's a bridge connecting Aranyaprathet, Thailand to Poipet, Cambodia. The bridge had all kinds of hawkers, scam artists, vendors, casinos, vehicles going across, and general chaos. After about a 10 min walk across, we finally found immigration into Cambodia (thanks to many helpful people who graciously guided us there out of the kindness of their hearts..oh, "do you need a visa or taxi or blah blah blah"). Immigration into Cambodia was smooth since we already had visas and didn't need to go through the visa scam of being charged too much or needing to bribe a "official". We saw only 1 other non-Thai or non-Cambodian person at border since we got up so early and we were one of the first foreigners to cross today. Later the other busses from Bangkok arrived and clog up border with hundreds of people waiting in line for immigration (which is why we left so early). Ok, to get a taxi-
Rice paddies
Taxi driver says 90% are farmers in Cambodia. A lot of that is rice. Note the people fishing in the rice paddy. supposedly simple you'd think. The taxis are run by a "mafia" with an association that overcharges you for a trip to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat). They wanted $60 (yes, that U.S. dollars since Cambodia uses mainly dollars as their currency). If you can get a non-mafia taxi car, you'll pay a lot less but you have to make it through the mafia first. After declining the gracious offer of the "free" bus ride to taxi depot (aka mafia bus takes you to mafia taxi depot so you have no choice but to get their taxis), we were instantly surrounded by many "helpful" taxi drivers throwing out prices. Most were $60 (mafia). You know they're mafia since their touts (hawker) are dressed in professional khaki pants with nice logo yellow polo shirts. We just kept walking up street and were suddenly surrounded the non-mafia taxi drivers and got a shout out price of $30. We agreed and were quickly rushed to the car with the drivers surrounding us (presumably as protection from the mafia taxi drivers who were pissed they lost a fare). We got into taxi and about to be off when a border policeman sauntered up to the nonmafia
Khmer dinner for Rick
Amok is a "traditional" Khmer (Cambodian) dish. drivers and asked/told them to open trunk. You see the officials are in on the mafia thing too so they hassle the nonmafia drivers). After a quick inspection and a few phone calls amongst nonmafia and mafia drivers (presumably to their "bosses"), the official said we could leave in this taxi. Of course, he accepted the small token of monetary appreciation from our driver for his time and trouble. Then, 3 hours later we arrived in Siem Reap (the city right outside Angkor Wat). After a nap, we checked out Siem Reap markets and ate dinner. We'll be off to the temples tomorrow with the same taxi driver who drove us from border. We agreed he'd be our ride the entire time and then take us back to border Friday morning. It will be nice since the car is air conditioned and we don't need to find another taxi each day. Off to bed and hopefully a restful night (we haven't adjusted yet to the time difference and wake up at 1AM each night and are wide awake). Sleep is a prize we're trying to win.
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Allene Lewis
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OMG- Taxi and Visa's !!!
Wow sounds like you almost needed Mission Impossible Team. Rick you look like the Khmer dinner was a little too spicy! Tammy, you sure that was banana smoothie? You guys are enjoying yourselves and thanks so much for sharing. i love reading the blogs