Arrived in Phnom Penh 2 nights ago after a long boat and bus ride from Koh Chang, across the border at Had Lek, and then onto Phnom Penh.
The border crossing was everything we had read about. Before we could get out of our bus, our bags were whisked away by many guys waiting for us. They just want to wheel them 100m down the path to the 'quarantine' zone! I did notice that the locals did not need to go into this zone, only the farangs (the foreigners).
In quarantine we were shepherded through many steps.
1. "Health check": guy in plain clothes with temperature gun type thing clicks it at ur forehead, gives you a yellow slip as a health guarantee: 20 baht! Proof of the yellow slip is not needed for any further part of the process.
2. "Visa form": guy takes your passport off you and fills out a visa form, returns many minutes later to get signature. Still no sign of getting passport back: 20 baht!
3. "Retrieve bag": guy holds your bag tight until you pay him and then he complains that it's not enough until you ignore him: 20 baht! Some people paid 100 which sounds a lot but is about €2.50 so no robbery, just bribery.
4. "Pay for visa": you are brought into a room with darkened windows. Four officials in khaki coloured generals uniforms and two other random serious dudes sit in the room plus a guy with a plain t-shirt with 'police' screen printed onto it in comic sans font! Tense atmosphere, questions asked and $40 charge each. We know from research that it costs $20 so we start to explain what we have heard. Emmet is told to stop talking, stay quiet, only listening and do what is told by the big guy in the corner. We explain we have only $26 each and they accepted reluctantly.
5. Thumb and finger prints and get visa and passport from dude who filled out the forms: 20 baht!
All done, out of foreigners quarantine, say goodbye to the many local touts selling rip off cigarettes and cans of beer, unsealed bottles of water and... Onto the 9 hour rocky roll-y slow bus ride to Phnom Penh!
Must mention that we then enjoyed 9 hours of really loud Cambodian karaoke music videos on the bus.
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