Monday, June 15, 2009

Cambodian Consulate run by teenagers?

A poster on travelpod.com asked, "So the Cambodian Consulate is ran by teenagers huh?"

Here is their story:

We grabbed a bite to eat and caught a tuk tuk to the border about 6 miles from the bus station. We were driven to the Cambodian Consulate on a side road and told we needed to purchase visas. Ken and Jino both demanded we go to the border which they finally did….so you don’t need to go to the Cambodian Consulate to get a visa which is really a roadside shop next to the Cambodian Consulate sign. We were escorted thru Thai departure, thru the health check, thru Cambodian immigration and Cambodian visa procedure by a young man in a yellow shirt we couldn’t seem to shake. We did end up paying 25 bucks for a visa instead of 20 but what can you do. On the other side we tried again to shake our yellow shirted friend but he was joined by another yellow shirted escort and it was impossible to shake them. They finally convinced us to get on the free shuttle to the taxi stand, at the taxi stand we were escorted thru the taxi stand out the back door and thru a trash filled lot to another street where our taxi waited. ??? The taxi ride was only 40 so we took it. I have heard that it takes 4 or 5 hours to get to Siem Reap, but we made it in 2 hours. On the outskirts of town we pull over to take a tuk tuk to the hotel, something about the taxi couldn’t go into Siem Reap. We finally loaded up into the tuk tuk and watched as our taxi drove past us into town. Our tuk tuk driver wanted to take us to a really cheap hotel, but Ken had already picked out a hotel and we were taken there.
Yes, a typical day at the Cambodian side of the border with Thailand. I myself have a similar story.

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