Simianus
4.6.2010
[If you don't want to read all this, don't leave. There's photos of monkeys.]
Flying into Cambodia from Thailand is reserved for the rich and the ignorant. A ticket can cost upwards of $250 one way. We had been paying approximately $45 to travel elsewhere by plane and $250 wasn't in our budgets. Besides, I had read quite a bit about all the scams you get accosted with trying to cross the border and it sounded like a lot of fun.
We flew out of Phuket early in the morning en route to Bangkok. After we arrived, we immediately tried to find a place to take visa photos for us. I was supposed to get E-Visas but never got around to it. This is unfortunate because I had a photo ready to be submitted that had me holding a PBR. If you read Cambodia's visa rules you would most likely agree with me that they would accept this photo. Obviously, this would have been the best thing in my passport and a great conversation centerpiece.
We got our photos and tried to figure out which bus we needed to take to get to Aranyaprathet, the large Thai city near our Cambodian border crossing. While I was making sure we had our directions right, we missed the bus
Flying into Cambodia from Thailand is reserved for the rich and the ignorant. A ticket can cost upwards of $250 one way. We had been paying approximately $45 to travel elsewhere by plane and $250 wasn't in our budgets. Besides, I had read quite a bit about all the scams you get accosted with trying to cross the border and it sounded like a lot of fun.
We flew out of Phuket early in the morning en route to Bangkok. After we arrived, we immediately tried to find a place to take visa photos for us. I was supposed to get E-Visas but never got around to it. This is unfortunate because I had a photo ready to be submitted that had me holding a PBR. If you read Cambodia's visa rules you would most likely agree with me that they would accept this photo. Obviously, this would have been the best thing in my passport and a great conversation centerpiece.
We got our photos and tried to figure out which bus we needed to take to get to Aranyaprathet, the large Thai city near our Cambodian border crossing. While I was making sure we had our directions right, we missed the bus
twice. Oops. Not to worry, it was a frequent shuttle to the actual bus station. Once we finally get there, we board a large bus without aircon and set out on a long, bumpy, and hot 4hr bus ride. The most exciting thing about the ride was that at one point we stopped so the Thai military could board and remove two teenage guy sitting near us.
The bus parks in Aranyaprathet and this tuk tuk driver rips open the doors and starts yelling all kinds of poor English at us. He climbs in and grabs my pack but I tell him to leave it with a loud and threatening voice. Worked pretty well. I shot down his expensive offer to drive us to Poipet, the Thai city which is actually on the border, and talked him down to a reasonable rate. Something close to $2. Here comes one of those fun scams I was talking about. Our driver veers off the main road and takes us to a semi-official looking building with visa information plastered all over the front. I told him to get back on the road and take us to the border, but he suddenly lost all ability to communicate in English. A well dressed man comes up and tells us in impeccable English that we need to buy our visa here. I tell him "no" and that we want to go back to the border. He says there is no way to get in without buying a visa from him. I lie and say we bought E-visas. I included a big smile along with the lie that I hoped had one of those eye twinkles that says "I know your scams and I have you defeated. sukka". The twinkle worked and our well dressed man snapped some Thai at our driver and we were promptly off to the real border.
The Thai border crossing is all business and we get into Cambodia without further trouble. The only problem is that we can't find immigration. Turns out we walked right by it. I figured this was Cambodia's fault and if they wanted to hide their immigration then that's their loss and I'll walk right in. This didn't fly with JoLyn and she insisted on entering the country legally. We found the building and went through the arrival process. Here comes the second big scam. There is a twenty dollar fee visa fee to enter. The Khmer official who stamps your passport will then ask you for an additional bogus fee of approximately 200 baht [$9]. I've heard horror stories about tourists refusing to pay this fee but I simply said "No. Just $20" and pointed at the $20 sign. Our official shrugged and dropped it. Strangely, he was infatuated with my Suriname visa. He kept asking me about it and showing it to his friends. I got the impression he didn't think it was a real place.
Our next step was finding a taxi from Poipet to Siem Reap, our Cambodian destination. Basically, we avoided a suspicious "government" taxi depot and found our own ride. This turned out to be much less sketchy than I thought. I was still really paranoid though. JoLyn didn't share my intense precautions but under the circumstances I feel they were warranted.
Well, this puts us into Siem Reap: home of the Angkor Wat temples. I feel like I've written a book and this is a photo blog after all, so I'll stop. Next post will go into detail about Angkor and Siem Reap itself. Until then: photos.
I feel like I needed a relaxing song to calm me down after typing so much. Wide Eyes by Local Natives.
The bus parks in Aranyaprathet and this tuk tuk driver rips open the doors and starts yelling all kinds of poor English at us. He climbs in and grabs my pack but I tell him to leave it with a loud and threatening voice. Worked pretty well. I shot down his expensive offer to drive us to Poipet, the Thai city which is actually on the border, and talked him down to a reasonable rate. Something close to $2. Here comes one of those fun scams I was talking about. Our driver veers off the main road and takes us to a semi-official looking building with visa information plastered all over the front. I told him to get back on the road and take us to the border, but he suddenly lost all ability to communicate in English. A well dressed man comes up and tells us in impeccable English that we need to buy our visa here. I tell him "no" and that we want to go back to the border. He says there is no way to get in without buying a visa from him. I lie and say we bought E-visas. I included a big smile along with the lie that I hoped had one of those eye twinkles that says "I know your scams and I have you defeated. sukka". The twinkle worked and our well dressed man snapped some Thai at our driver and we were promptly off to the real border.
The Thai border crossing is all business and we get into Cambodia without further trouble. The only problem is that we can't find immigration. Turns out we walked right by it. I figured this was Cambodia's fault and if they wanted to hide their immigration then that's their loss and I'll walk right in. This didn't fly with JoLyn and she insisted on entering the country legally. We found the building and went through the arrival process. Here comes the second big scam. There is a twenty dollar fee visa fee to enter. The Khmer official who stamps your passport will then ask you for an additional bogus fee of approximately 200 baht [$9]. I've heard horror stories about tourists refusing to pay this fee but I simply said "No. Just $20" and pointed at the $20 sign. Our official shrugged and dropped it. Strangely, he was infatuated with my Suriname visa. He kept asking me about it and showing it to his friends. I got the impression he didn't think it was a real place.
Our next step was finding a taxi from Poipet to Siem Reap, our Cambodian destination. Basically, we avoided a suspicious "government" taxi depot and found our own ride. This turned out to be much less sketchy than I thought. I was still really paranoid though. JoLyn didn't share my intense precautions but under the circumstances I feel they were warranted.
Well, this puts us into Siem Reap: home of the Angkor Wat temples. I feel like I've written a book and this is a photo blog after all, so I'll stop. Next post will go into detail about Angkor and Siem Reap itself. Until then: photos.
I feel like I needed a relaxing song to calm me down after typing so much. Wide Eyes by Local Natives.
