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Published: August 11th 2006
Jan and I found a bus from Khao San Road to Cambodia. We searched for the cheapest and most convenient route, which ended up forcing us to spend an entire day traveling. They told us that it should take about 12-14 hours and that the bus stopped on the boarder so that we could get a Visa.
We left early Thursday morning and spent the first five hours on the bus to the boarder. Jan spent time reading in the Lonely Planet and I tried to focus my eyes outside the window so I would not get carsick. He showed me interesting places to stay, something about scams, and then other unique facts about traveling in Siem Reap, the nearest city to the Temples of Angkor.
The bus stopped for what I thought was a break. It turned out that they brought us to a travel agency to get our Visas. The Visa is easily obtained at the boarder for 20 U.S. Dollars and most of the travelers had that with them—thinking they were well prepared.
Several of the travelers got a little pissy when they found that the agency would not accept this. The man tried to
Cambodian Boarder
Right outside of the stamp out stationcalm them through his kind reminders that he was just the translator and made up some BS excuse on why the visa had to be purchased for 1,200 Baht, rather than the 500 Baht that is recorded in the travel guides as the going rate.
When we got back on the bus, some people were still angry and questioning what had just happened. After we started off Jan opened back up our Lonely Planet to one of the pages he showed me earlier. I had read the article with little interest the first time not even considering that it applied to us. The second time I read it intently realizing that everything that had taken place through that day truly, in fact put us on The Scam Bus (pg 294 of the 2005 Cambodia addition).
It would have been fine if the scam stopped there. Sure they got their extra 700 Baht from everyone and maybe that price covered the rest of the bus ticket, but it didn’t stop there. The article said that once we got to the boarder we would be escorted to a bus that would take us on back roads and drive really
slow. This was because they wanted us to arrive late in the evening so they could bring us to a specific guesthouse where we would have to stay, for the time being late and the passengers weary from traveling. For this they got a nice commission.
After I finished reading the article again, the first thing I could think to do was to tell the person across from us who I had seen reading the same Lonely Planet. He was shocked at me lashing orders for him to get out his book and I was embarrassed to find that he has the French version so the pages were different any ways. I sat there in sheer powerlessness trying to think of a way out of the situation.
“Jan,” I said, “When we get to the boarder, let’s just run for it!”
“What?!” he said.
“I don’t care if we have to pay more. It is worth it for them to not get more money
off of and take advantage of us.”
“It says that they will get really angry though and make a scene.”
“I don’t care! They can’t hold us prisoner. Besides it will be an adventure.”
Full House
Well...cab “Alright, if you really want to I don’t mind.”
“
When the bus stopped at the border I met two of the people who were angry about the visa outside of the bus. I asked them if they had heard of the Scam Bus.
“Yeah, why?” the girl asked.
“Because we are on it.” I said.
I asked her if they were interested in making a run for it after the boarder crossing, as I did another English girl came up and said, “If you are getting a cab and have room I’ll go too.”
“Wow.” I thought, “I never really actually expected any one to listen to me. I had never been good at planning things where other people actually participated.”
So I gave them the Lonely Planet opened up to the article for them to read hurriedly as the guides were trying to run us off like sheep to the boarder crossing. Jan still had to go to an ATM and we were told they didn’t have them in Cambodia, so they waited for us reading.
When we came back they were like, “We sure as hell are coming with you.”
When we were at the Visa stop, the guides put a piece of Yellow duct tape on us. Now we knew it was so they could identify which group we were with. After we spent over an hour going through the boarder we started to walk past the group to the “Free Transportation.” We honestly didn’t know anything about what we were doing. Our only plan was to not get back on a bus with that group.
As we walked the guide came running. “Wait with the others! You can have a seat over there.”
“No it is ok,” I said. “We can take it from here.”
“What?!” He said in horror.
“What are you worried about?” You already have our money.” I said in a snood tone.
The English woman took a more mature stance and began to ask him how we could get to Siem Reap with out them.
“Where do these shuttles go?” She demanded, “To a bus station?”
“Yes, but you can go with the group.” He argued.
“You are going to take a long time, so we don’t want to go with the group.”
This conversation turned into a
Score.
We should have signed up for this...there are five of us. heated one as the woman demanded for him to answer her questions and not become rude. When she finally made it clear that we did not want to go and were not going to go with them, the guide really became hot.
“Take off my Yellow sticker!!!” He shouted at her as though it was the only card he had left to play.
“NO, not until you answer my questions,” she said.
“Giver me my sticker,” he repeated in the same tone but with more desperation.
“If you answer my questions you can have back your little piece of tape.”
He ended up answering our questions and we were shuttled to a bus station after giving the man his tape back. I kept mine out of spite.
When we got to the bus station, we realized that it was also a trap. They were now trying to make us pay again to take the same bus. There were no other busses at that station. We decided to all cram into a taxi, which said it would take half the time of the bus. He did, however, say that he would drop us off at
Cow Crossing
Come one now, the road isn't just for human traffic whatever guesthouse we wanted him to.
Jan and I crammed into the front. I got us into this and was not going to make some one else feel more uncomfortable than myself. When we started we realized it was a bumpy dirt road. “It can’t be like this the whole way,” I thought.
Coming across the boarder you see rickety wooden carts being pulled by grungy workers. You see children begging for money and woman crying at you to buy their hand-made scarves. The road is paved but the concrete is covered with a thick layer of dust from the wear and tear of its use. Towering over the people of Cambodia in the “TAX FREE” zone are magnificent casinos and hotel. This is where all of the rich Thai people come to gamble. The contrast of clear, spotless yellow paint and shiny windows to the faces of the toddlers running barefoot has the power to open any one’s eyes.
Now out of the zone we saw streets that did more than match the intense poverished eyes of the people. Where there were buildings there was no grass. All bare ground was littered with broken, plastic cups, brown, aged Styrofoam containers, trash bags and every kind of waste imaginable.
After several Kilometers, we were greeted by the flat, lush open planes of the Cambodian landscape. It was here that we realized that the entire road to Siem Reap was not paved. We drove at an average of 20 MPH the entire time as we reared over huge holes, avoided deteriorating bridges and waited for crossing cows.
We made it in to Siem Reap in time to have a nice dinner together and then go to bed early. The others were there for some time, but Jan and I were going to hit the sites in the morning. The English woman wanted to get a guide and transportation, so we decided to join in on splitting the costs. We thought it would be more enlightening considering our short time there.
It turns out that the Scam Bus is ANY bus leaving from Khao San Road that can be arranged via agency. The deals look good but as the lonely planet says, common sense should tell you that 300 Baht ($7.50) for a 12-hour bus ride is too good to be true. We surely found out the hard way.
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Andy
non-member comment
Scam Bus
Bit late now but some of the budget air lines offer flights to Phenom Phen for $10 and the bus journey then to Seim Reap is only $4, and no hassle at all, anyway good luck with cambodia