Lizzy_Loo O.S

Follow Lizzy as she travels the world, conquering fears, experiencig life with the locals, and drinking from the fountains of youth! Or, stick around to hear about her experiences in cultural intergration in the never regions of deepest Asia, Europe, and the rest of the world, and experience the with her the trials and tribulations of international travel.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

BKK to Cambodia

Well after a last, very frustrating day, in Bangkok I took the early morning bus to Cambodia. After many warnings i still got sucked in by the "scam bus". Basically you pay a decent price for a ticket that takes you from BKK to Siem Reap. The trick is that instead of taking you to the border to do you visa they stop at a restaurant and extract 1200 Baht for a "quick" visa service instead of the required 800. i stood my ground and said all i had was US20...that is what your actually ment to pay at the border. So they tell me that I will have to find my own way to Siem Reap because the bus wont wait for me..they have a schedule to keep. This is all a stand over tatic to get you to cough up the extra cash that goes in their pocket. When we get to the border I tell the bus driver to wait or refund me my cash for the onward trip...I reach the Visa department and some smug shit tells me it's 1000 baht or if i pay with US it's 2 hours. So i say I'll wait! What did i have to lose the bus driver was leaving without me anyway! Only half an hour later I get my visa and on my way to the arrivals desk for my stamp. Mind you I didn't resist telling smug bastard to "have a nice day" so venimously he almost fell of his chair!
I get outsid arrivals and low and behold their is my bus with every other sucker who had cought a scam bus too. We get ushered onto a small bus only to go 200 meters to get off. Finally the heard you back onto a bus according to where they think you will be staying. For every person they get to stay at a guest house, after much pleeding and sometimes a little aggression, they get a commision!
My bus had no air con or suspension and the 7 hour trip was down a red dusty dirt road that looked like a moon crater. It was the most awful thing i have done to date.....and I am exhusted!

1 Comments:

Blogger Tarns said...

Ah Liz, I know it's difficult but you just have to remember that they are so desperate, they will try anything. And besides, you have Americans to thank for their behaviour - they're the ones that dish out cash like they're chocolate wrappers - because it's so cheap for them!

8:07 am  

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