Saturday 6th Feb
After negotiating a price through one of the tour operators on Koh Chang island , we managed to arrange transportation, accommodation for one night at the Koh Kong border and then further transportation to Sihanouk Ville for 1200 baht (24 pounds) each.
Everything was so well organised on the Thai side, they have certainly mastered the art of tour organisation!
The journey from Koh Chang to the Koh Kong (Thailand/Cambodia border) took 5hrs. The shock, I think for all of us was the transition from the ultimate laid back and well organised Thai side to the chaotic mayhem on the Cambodian side.
The first thing was that upon arriving at the border, before the mini bus had even had the chance to switch his engine off, a Cambodian guy had climbed on the mini bus and started collecting bags/rucksacks of the roof. As we thought that it was part of the transportation arrangements none of us questioned it. We were couriered over the border by another person who seemed overly helpful! By the time we had made it through immigration & quarantine (temperature check for swine flu), we ended up paying 1200 baht for our Cambodian visa, the immigration police, corrupt as they are, refused to let us pat in dollars, meaning that the visa should have cost $20 but it actually cost $38!
If the pain of that wasn’t bad enough the two overly helpful Cambodians had their hands out in return for helping us with visas and luggage. Then they kindly put us in a private taxi, not the mini bus we had already paid for! The taxi driver rook us to a currency change in a street market and told us that we must pay him 4800 Cambodian riel (just over $1 each) for the toll. By the time we had finished getting a poor exchange rate, ripped off by the taxi driver who told us that Thai baht and US Dollars were no longer accepted in Cambodian! We had well and truly arrived in Cambodia gringo style!
However, on a positive note the taxi driver did drop us off at the right guest house at least!
The guest house, Apex, was very good, nice friendly staff, a good restaurant that does in fact accept Thai baht, US dollars and riel! The guesthouse even had a swimming pool!
After finding an ATM we decided to call it an early night as wee were still a little shell shocked from the border crossing!
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