Surviving Poipet

Poipet! Not Polpot :p Tho both sounds notorious, Poipet is the border between Thailand and Cambodia, which infamous for the tourist scams. It's kinda freak me out a lil bit the first time I read scam stories bout those border, since I'm not a world class traveler, yet it was the first time I really travel alone (tho I have my Patrick Star with me), but of course I had to cross it no matter what (read: I'm too poor to fly). I gathered the information from the internet, it's not helping - the more I read, the more freak out I became, how come not if they told you 'You will be cheated one way or another at the border. That's just life in Poipet." or "I met 5 other people who went through exactly the same scam even though they knew it was coming." -___-" Until I said to myself, screw all those wankers, they just want money anyway, let them take it lah if they want, I'll enjoy this trip for sure :p

So it was the day before I departed to Bangkok to stay overnight there for 2 nights before head to Siem reap, a Korean angel - Sue Choi posted on Bangkok Couchsurfing forum looking for companions to travel across Poipet border the same day I've planned to go, with big grin on my face I sent her message that I'm DEFINITELY IN!! Felt such a relief to find out that I'm in a group or 4 now, I'm so ready to fight and win the glory of the...I dunno what I'm talking bout, but heck I'm ready for Cambodia! :)

Tips 1: GO IN A GROUP, it'd be easier to share taxi or van, and the touts are tend to hunt single traveler as their prey. The solidarity is in the air, so just need a lil effort to approach fellow travelers on the train or at the immigration office.

Tips 2: DON'T TAKE THE DIRECT TRAVEL BUS FROM KHAOSAN ROAD. Those believed as scam bus, that moves terribly slow in purpose to reach Siem Reap by midnight, so the passengers have no other choice but to stay at the hotel that cooperate with the bus. There are two other choices to get to Aranyaprathet; by train -twice a day, +/- 50THB, 5 hours from Hualamphong Train station, or by bus -departs every 30mins, 160-200 THB from Morchit Northern Bus station. I took 5 AM train, cos it's most recommended. Upon arrival at Aranyaprathet train station, you'll be approached by lots of tuk2 drivers, take one (50-60 THB) to get to Thai immigration office.

Tips 3: NO E-VISA, it's tricky cos I heard some suggestion to have E-Visa, but heard lots more bout E-Visa scams. We need to pay 10 USD to apply E-Visa by internet, but then still need to pay other 20 USD at the immigration, but E-Visa will save you from Visa touts at the border tho. So after taking tuk2 from train station, they will drop you to travel agents-disguised as Cambodia immigration to make sure you apply Visa thru them. It cost bout 1200 THB (40 USD). I almost fall for this trick, cos their acting was so damn good, they deserve oscar for supporting role anyway, fortunately I remembered that official Visa paid in USD not THB, when I saw two tourists paid them in Bath. I urged the tuk2 driver to drop us at Thai immigration office no matter what. he tried to trick us again by dropping us at a nice building -written Cambodia Consulate, by saying we should get our Visa before get into the border and we can get it for 1000THB here. We wouldn't fall for his trick again this time and refused to get down from his tuk2 before we arrived at Thai immigration. He shook his head desperately and drove us there. Finally we got stamped- You've been officially kicked out from Kingdom of Thailand.

Tips 4: PREPARE YOUR PHOTO. There was quite a queue at Thai immigration and Sue was ahead from the rest of us to get her Cambodia Visa. When we arrived there to meet her, she already paid 20 USD and 100 THB for the Visa, tho it's written obviously that tourist Visa is 20 USD, nonetheless the officers there insisted that we need to pay extra 100 THB for express fee. I didn't see what's that express fee for, since no queue there, only our small group. We insisted not to pay that money by passing only our application form and 20 bucks bill and kept pointing the official 20USD Visa sign, the officer kept pointing a white paper written 20USD+100THB anyway, so it's kinda funny all of us pointing at several directions, he gave up eventually, yay!!! but for some who don't have photo, can't avoid to pay extra for that, the amount is negotiable. Even the government officers tried to rip us off, made me even skeptical bout this country I just stepped foot in.

Tips 5: Run away as fast as you can after get stamped in, kidding! but you can try to not get in the so called free shuttle bus provided by the government in order to help tourists, YEAH RIGHT!!! The bus will take you to a bus terminal in middle of nowhere, where you can take taxi/minivan/bus to Siem Reap, with fixed price controlled by the glorious government. Plus you'll have a guide that will introduce you to Cambodia, including telling bullshit bout how expensive things will be if you pay in dollar, but it'd be half price in Riel (Cambodia currency), or cowshit bout there's no other money changer in town, the one at the bus terminal (with very bad rate) is the last one you can get. YEAH RIGHT!! We finally ended up rent a minivan, cos we got more people in our group, total 7 now. But it's not without long struggling, I let the other did the bargain and stuff, too tired anyway :p see!! that's the most advantage to go in group, you don't have to do everything by yourself :)

Tips 6: DON'T PAY FULL IN ADVANCE. When we finally make agreement for renting taxi or van, they will positively ask you to pay full tariff in advance by saying this and that, whatever they say, just ignore them and close the deal by paying half price. Many cases when people pay full amount, they will drop you in the middle of nowhere, so you need to pay more to get another transportation to your hotel. Make sure they drop you at the right place then pay the rest. If you haven't book any accommodation, you can ask them to drop you around Old Market area where bunch of accommodations are available in walking distance.

Good luck with the border crossing, it's all worth it in the end :)