Chad and Sharon Moore

After doing our research, we were expecting the worse, scams galore!  We were picked up at 8am and caught the ferry back to the mainland where we hung around for 1/2 waiting for more customers (a common thing in Thailand) and then we set off to the border town, Aranyon Prathet.  It was an interesting ride as its not a direct route so the driver was taking quite a few back roads so we got to see more of the non-tourist Thailand. 

We arrived at a restaurant in the border town where we were told to change onto a big bus to the border.  I wasn't surprised as I was expecting to be herded together with the other travellers from Bangkok.  We had to wait at the restaurant for an hour or so, apparently the bus was being cleaned which was bull as when we got on the bus it had leftover rubbish in it!  There was nothing else to do but wait and you couldn't wander off as the bus could be ready any minute, so, like everyone else, we had some lunch.  I noticed that when people had finished eating a lady was taking them into an office to sort out visas to Camodia.  We asked around and found that people were being charged nearly double the price of a visa!  When our turn came we refused her services saying we would get the visa at the border.  She didn't like it and told us that you couldn't get the $20 visa at the border and that the bus would not wait for us even though we had paid to be taken to Siem Reap which is 4-5 hours past the border.  We could now see why people were paying twice the amount, even though we knew a few of them were aware of being ripped off, but they didn't want to be stuck at the border.  We stood our ground and eventually we all got on the bus that took us a 5 minute ride to the border.  We all had to get off this bus and once through the border got on another bus so our original driver could have taken us straight through to the border but he was probably getting some commission from the restaurant/visa people. 

A Cambodian guy from the other bus company met us at the border and as we didn't have our visas he escorted us to the various spots - Thai exit control/visa service/border crossing.  When we were at the visa service they said that they wanted 1100bht each (should only be around 700 bht each).  We told them we didn't have that much money and only had US$20 for the visa.  Eventually they agreed to accept $20 plus 400bht each which was still a complete rip off but after a bit of haggling, we finally settled on 100bht each as long as it was fast tracked :-)  It has signs at the office saying that the visa is $20 only so this extra money is for the officials who issue the visas! 

Out of a bus full of about 30 people, only 4 of us didn't cave in! Even though we had left the group behind, the bus guy assured us that we would not be left behind which is contrary to what the woman in the office told us.

We all eventually got into Cambodia and were loaded onto the oldest bus in the world!  It had no air con, the seats were comfortable but didn't recline but it was great being able to look at the countryside on the way to Siem Reap (5-6 hours).  The road to Siem Reap is renowned for being really bad and is quite dangerous in places.   This road won't be paved until the contract with some airline flying between Bangkok and Siem Reap has run out.  We finally got to Siem Reap at about 11pm and it was no surprise to find out that we were not being dropped in the centre of town (as told when booking ticket) but outside a hotel (of the driver's choice) 4km from town!!

We jumped on a tuk-tuk and headed into town ($1 for 2 people).  We decided to stay near the market area of town at Ancient Angkor which is a great hotel with a pool, air-con, tv, fridge for $13 pn.  Our room even has a balcony which is great. It was 11.30pm but we had arrived, safe and sound, a lovely hot shower to wash of all the dust from the bus ride and it was straight to bed.