There is a thing in Cambodia where transport to and from border posts is really expensive – they kind of know you want to get there and there is no other way – or so they think you think... I refused to pay the $11 for a bus to the border, and so i thought i would try and get a bus to the next town instead as that should have been $4 – the only thing was that the bus left at 2pm and that would mean it would be too late to get to the border and beyond. So i tried the local minibuses, the only guy that was trying to sell me a ticket was also trying to rip me off, he was wanting to charge me $7 to the next town... and when i started picking up my bags to walk away he started dropping his price and eventually stopped at $3.50.
I have noticed that i get quite stubborn, and i do not like it when they try and extract more money from me than the actual price of the ticket – whereas others find this amusing, so i guess there is some learning to do in this area... So, because he tried to rip me off – i refused to buy a ticket from him, no matter how little it is. I continued picking up my bags and then i walked... for quite a few kilometeres, in the heat with my bags - i seem to enjoy torturing myself! LOL! I tried getting a lift in one of the local pick up trucks, but they weren’t picking up, so i continued walking. Someone in army uniform came past on his scooter and gave me a lift to the turnoff, so at least i was on the right road. I then walked a couple of kilometres and after no taxi-type pickups coming past i decided that i would go for the hitching option. There are so many 4 x 4’s, and none of them stop to offer a lift.... After a while a lovely couple who did not speak English stopped and gave me a lift. So that got me to the next town... once there, many people try to find out where i am going so they can sell me tickets, so i walk again... i head towards the main road, but then a cloudburst appears, so i hide out in a little shop on the side of the road. It had a plastic awning sheltering it from the rain, but as it was not taught water collected in it, meaning that it could fall through the awning. So my job while i sat there was to empty the water before it became lethal. When the rain cleared i bought some toilet paper, a lighter and a can of condensed milk... I asked if i was going in the right direction and was told that i wasn’t. So i decided to walk all the way back to the centre of town and ended up catching a local minibus for $4 which dropped me off at the border.
I didn’t realise it was the border as it only has a few porter cabins, so it could have been just another village... I found the Cambodian official who was to stamp my passport and he was requesting that i pay him $2... I had read about this in the Lonely Planet, so i acted naive and asked him what for. His response was that it was to stamp my passport – so i just smiled at him and said this was not an official charge. He smiled back and did not pursue the matter. His buddy that was having no part in this negotiation just stamped my passport and i walked away without paying. A bit further down the road i found the little cabin that housed the Laos officials. Usually you can get a Laos visa at the border crossings, but not at this one, so i had arranged that in Phnom Penh and it was significantly more expensive than i had expected. As they don’t get any visa fees at this border crossing, they also ask for $2 to stamp my passport... I tried the same trick, and explained that i had already paid enough for the visa, but they were more stubborn than i am – not something i come across often (Lol!) – and were refusing to stamp my passport without the money. So i eventually surrendered the money and left with a stamped passport.
At most border crossings there are masses of annoying people trying to take you somewhere for an exorbitant amount of money – well not at this border crossing. It was quite desterted, except for the few men who were doing some construction on what i imagine is to be the new border post buildings. One of them offered to give me a life on his bike but i declined and continued to walk with my bags for a couple of kilometres. I thought the place where i was going was only 5km from the border, but it turned out to be a few more than that, so i was really grateful to the driver of a truck that eventually gave me a lift to Ban Nakasan, so grateful that i parted with a few dollars to express my gratitude.
From Ban Nakasan i needed to catch a ferry to Don Det, which is a little island in the middle of the Mekong river. Once again the ticket sellers were trying to get me to pay more money than was necessary, but i just sat and waited for about an hour before a group of 7 tourists arrived. They had paid an all inclusive ticket to Don Det, and these guys were now telling them that they had to pay for the ferry – which in theory they had already done. They were then quite happy to accept the normal ferry price from me, and after about half an hour and the other tourists having to repay their fare, we were off.
It was now sunset as we took our short trip to the island while watching the sun go down...
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