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Published: April 19th 2008
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There's Room For One More
... can you see why we refused to get in??? Or on?? Ohhhh ... Cambodia ...
Entering Cambodia was a gong show. An unbelievably frusturating, infuriating, expensive gong show! We had heard from many other travellers that the borders crossings from Thailand to Cambodia are sketchy at the best of times, so as a result we decided we'd rather spend a little extra and pay for a bus to take us straight to Phnom Pen. We were expecting a bus which would pick us up at our guesthouse in Thailand, drive us to the border, wait while we cleared immigration, and then would scoop us up again and we'd all head merrily to the capital of Cambodia. Instead, what we were given was a ticket saying that we had paid and that once we made our own way to the border and had cleared immigration, we should ask for "Mr. Sam". We weren't too impressed, but also written on the ticket was a big fat "No Refunds", so there wasn't much we could do and we caught a minibus to the border the next morning at 6am.
We had been warned by many people that the immigration officials are dodgy and will try to overcharge for the entry visa, and that
some even force travellers to purchase malaria pills or change money at a bad exchange rate. We were prepared ... had our best "we're Canadians and don't want to mess with you, please just smile and let us through" faces on ... but ... problem number one came in the form of a mean and menancing old Cambodian woman yelling at us. She demanded we pay her 1200 Baht each (Thailand money ... why they ask for Thai money in Cambodia is still a mystery to us) ... which is double what the visa should cost. We said "No, no, umm, it's supposed to be $20 US!", to which she replied "Hey! I said 1200 Baht! Now!" We didn't want to get ripped off, but we also didn't want to make her any angrier ... so 1200 Baht it was and we were stamped through.
Problem number two came in the form of "Mr Sam". Apparentlly he didn't exist. He was supposed to meet us outside immigration, but instead we were greeted by endless eager beavers who insisted Mr Sam told them to drive us into town. We agreed, and as we were driving into the border town to
Dum Da Dum ...
all packed up, no where to go ... meet up with our bus to Phnom Pen, the driver said "Ohhh ... I don't know what you're going to do, the bus already left!" Trevor looked at his watch and replied "What are you talking about?? It's 8:10am! We paid for tickets to take us to Phnom Pen!" The driver then stopped on the side of the highway, pointed to a minivan and said "There, get in." We stood there, looking at eachother in disbelief ... we're not talking about a Ford Windstar, we're talking about what should be a 12 seater, but has been stuffed like a Thankgiving turkey! Not kidding you, there had to be at least 25 people in this van! There were arms and legs and roosters and luggage bulging out the back and stacked on the roof. It was unbelievable! We flat our refused to get in the car and demanded to talk to Mr Sam! It wouldn't have been such a big deal if we hadn't paid triple or quadruple what the rest of the minivan riders paid, but both our taxi driver and Mr Sam (who by this time had arrived on the scene in his Lexus and was standing on the
Vroom Vroom
Maybe we can borrow her bike? side of the road arguing with us) had turned quite nasty and were refusing a refund or to even call the company we had booked with in Thailand. Mr Sam sped away in his Lexus as fast as possible and we were left with the angry taxi driver. The end verdict was that for whatever ungodly reason we missed our bus and were made to wait the night in this dinky border town so we could catch the bus the following morning.
The next morning we arrived at the bus station half an hour early, were assured by the girl that we had plenty of time, so Kristena ran off to find us some breakfast. While she was gone, the girl came up and said "Ok, we go now!", and loaded our backpacks onto the bus. Trevor pleaded with her to wait 2 minutes and ran up the street in desperation, and when he returned the bus was gone! OUR BAGS WERE ON THAT BUS!!! The next few minutes were ones of unbelievable panic, and we begged another bus to take us to the station where apparentlly our bus was supposed to be waiting. We found the bus, showed
our tickets and were finally on our way! However, after we'd been on the highway for about 40 minutes, the drivers assistant came up to us, sat down and said "You want to go Phnom Pen? We no go Phnom Pen. This bus go to Sihanoukville." (Sihanoukville is a good 5 hours away from Phnom Pen). Seriouslly, at this point, a loooong angry stream of explictives came flying out of our mouths ... we had SHOWED this guy our ticket when we boarded, he had said "Phnom Pen?" and we had said "Yes, Phnom Pen." So, why the flippity flip didn't he say something sooner???? Was it really necessary to wait until we'd been driving for 40 minutes to fill us in!?!???? It wasn't our finest moment. The driver had agreed to stop the bus and let us off at a point where, hopefully, the bus to Phnom Pen would be passing through ... but we ix-nayed that idea because so far our arrival in Cambodia had not gone as gracefully as we had hoped, and the thought of being stranded on the highway in the scorching sun was not funny. Not even a little bit. We ended up switching
This Bus is Not Leaving Without Us!!
... waiting at the rest stop to board our bus, our REAL bus. buses at the rest stop and eventually made it to Phnom Pen!
This is T and K signing off, we hope YOU have a better day!
P.S. We didn't get pictures of the van they wanted us to take, but it was pretty much identical to the ones on the photos!
(And for other travellers ... it's a lot less stressful if you do it all yourself! From Trat, catch the minibus to the boarder for 120 Baht, cross the border, catch a taxi into town, spend the night and catch your bus the next morning. There really is only one bus leaving a day, it should cost 400 Baht or less! And for the visa, get an "E Visa" online, it's the Cambodian governments way of trying to crack down on the corruption at the border and you'll be waved right through! Good luck! Take some Ativan before you go!)
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Isaac
non-member comment
how long did you end up waiting for the riel bus, edmonton oilers? these kraft dinners you speak of must be fantastic, but if you don't find those... siem reap's one and only mexican restaurant (by pub street) has 2 tacos for $1.50 on saturdays and they hit the spot anyway...it was nice talking to you on the bus from koh kong, and i've yet to peruse the other entries on your blog, but it seems you 2 have got your priorities crooked (at least by cookie-cutter back-at-home standards) and we were impressed all the best, isaac and crew