Robbing bastards...

Woke up this morning still drunk from our impromptu piss up at Adam’s bar. What better way to be crossing the border?Then, made our way down for our 8am boat which finally left about 9.15. Once we crossed onto the mainland we were ushered to an office where we were given visa forms and told that the cost of the visa would be $28 if we did ourselves, or, $29 if we gave to the tour company to arrange. The actual price of a visa should be $20 but this border is known for its ‘extras’ that obviously make the officials very rich men.

Monk using free wifi

Obviously, we decided we would do it all ourselves, which upset the organiser, meaning that he refused to speak to us from then on, or anyone else for that matter. Hey ho! Finally got on a minibus to the border and went to the Laos departure office, here started the fun….. They requested $2 per passport for the exit stamp. We politely told them ‘No’, and then requested a receipt but to no avail, it’s simple, no $2 no stamp. Robbing bastards!

Huge fishing nets

Then when we walked across to the Cambodia side there was a health check point, that seemed random as several people walked past, but obviously they stopped us. They asked us to fill out a little yellow form then asked for a $1, we politely said no. They then asked for yellow fever certificates, which we had at the bottom of our main bags, we fished them out but were told they had expired, they hadn’t as they last 10 years and not 1, so again told them no $1.

Gorgeous!

Then they aked us if we had a gonorrhoea vaccination, do they even exist?! At this point, we told them that under no circumstances were we paying them, (well maybe involving a tad bit of shouting in a less polite way than stated) picked up our bags and walked away, they did not protest. Next stop our visa on arrival, $23 not the $20, but we just argued a little then paid.

Huge beautiful storm in the sea

Then when we went through the checkpoint they requested $2 per passport for a stamp, argued a little then paid $1 as a compromise to get it over with. So we made it through for $26, but pretty sure that $6 was all falling into back pockets. If we want to ever get work whilst travelling we will definitely try and get an immigration job. With the 100’s or maybe 1000’s of people crossing this border each day, they must be very rich men! We then found our bus and it was nice and we soon left for Kratie. When we arrived we checked a few guesthouses and found an ok one for $5 close to everything. We went for a nice walk along the river and had the most amazing fruit Smoothie consisting of banana, pineapple, apple, dragon fruit, avocado, condensed milk and ice, amazing!

written by

chrischarly on August 22, 2011 from Stoeng Treng, Cambodia

from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia

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