CAMBoywhatsthebigideIA

The Border Scam.

Jason and I went to Cambodia today to renew our visas in Thailand. We took a cab to the boarder, which took about 3 hours. When we got there we entered a parking lot about 150 metres away from the boader crossing. As soon as we got out of the taxi two guys in uniforms labeled "Cambodian Boarder AAL". They said that they would help us fill our forms out to cross into Cambodia.

At this point Jason starts to get suspicious, however we were not sure how the boarder crossing worked so we went along with it. So they filled out our forms and then said that the visas cost 1500 baht ($50) each. We thought that this was a bit strange so we told them that we only wanted to go in to Cambodia and out right away. We said that we only wanted a 30 day visa. They said that they understood, and we heard before we left that there was money required to renew a visa, so we went with it.

They came back to us with a 1 month visa in our passports and so we proceeded through Cambodian customs. After we got on the other side they met us there and said that we had to give them our papers so that they could get a departure stamp. They said that it cost 300 baht each. After Jason and I started asking questions, they started to change the price...it turned into 600 baht a person for a stamp. At this point we realized that we were getting screwed so we said, "NO, we are in Cambodia...we should not have paid you already and now we just want to get back into Thailand."

They then brought the Police over and had one of them try to tell us that we had to pay. We looked at him and said "NO, can we have our passports back." He looked at us and gave them back. We then proceeded over to the Thai Customs building. The two men in uniform continued to pursue us insisting that we don't know what we are doing and that we had to pay them. After the Thai boader guy told us that we actually needed a departure stamp we headed towards where the Departure Centre aparently was. On the way the two guys in uniform directed us to more police which tried to intimidate us into paying. We still insisted that they leave us alone and we moved on.

We then ran into a couple of "Tourist Police" that asked for our passports and asked us what happened. We told them that we got jipped and they immidiately had us sit down. They acted like they wanted to help us. They pulled out a book with a bunch of pictures and profiles of suposed suspects and had us try and pick the right ones out. After they directed us to the building where we could get our departure stamp. They told us to come back to see them after we were stamped and ready to go.

So we came back and what do you know, they have the guy who took our money. They have him, even though we pointed out a different guys in the bookd earlier. They had us sit down and they put on a long show for us. They had the Captain of Police there "busting" this guy who took our money. They said that the visas actually cost 1100 baht each (which was a lie) so that they could give us back 1000 baht of our 3200 baht that was taken.

At this time we wanted to leave so we agreed. They also had us fill out a "thank you" note to the Boarder Police for "catching" the criminal who took our money. They also had us pose of a picture with the captian giving us our 1000 baht back, so that it would make the Boarder Patrol look like it was doing it's job.

In the end we made it back to Thailand, realizing that the two men in uniforms, the Police, and the Boarder Patrol were all in on this scam to take our money.

We figrue that the Visas cost very little if anything. We also assume that the two men in uniform and the Police split the 2200 baht, and the Police get some good publicity for "catching" the criminals and "doing their job".

It was an adventure, we now know the scam, and we have our visas renewed. All in all it wasn't all that bad.

This is the "Diamond City". As soon as we entered Cambodia we ver obviously left a 2nd world country and entered a 3rd world country. There were children begging for money and the cars on the cement road in Thailand turned into wood buggies on dusty/dirt roads in Cambodia.

You can see the lineup of karts on the side of the road.

Here is Jason with one of te "good guys". (cough)yeahright(cough)

Myself, with an obvious look of happiness on my face with our "heros". (hack)iwaschoaked(hack)

Jason and I with the Tourist Police Captain that "rescued" our 1000 baht from us. (sneeze)itwasallbull(sneeze)

(ah cheew)croaked cop(ah cheew)

The guy on the left was supposed to be the guy that took our money getting in trouble. I wouldn't be surprised if he is back on the boader looking for other forongs to steal from.

An archway near the boarder.

Despite our sort of negative Cambodian experience...it still starts here.