I was anxious about crossing into Cambodia. Mike and I read up on a couple border scams and we were prepared to be misled and lied to, but I didn’t know how our pushback would be received. One thing was certain: We were determined to exit Thailand and enter Cambodia without paying a cent more than the official rate.
We had a few options for getting from Bangkok to Cambodia (trains, buses and combinations). Ultimately, we chose a relatively new bus service run by the Thai government that travels directly from Bangkok to Siem Reap. The direct route seemed like the quickest and easiest option. We could also order the bus tickets online, which we love to do so we can accumulate credit card reward points. We thought that using a government bus would mean avoiding the infamous Cambodia visa scam, but we were wrong.
Turn right to encounter your first visa scam of the day!
Again, we read online that others who had gone this route were still dropped at a Thai-side travel agency set up to look like the official Cambodian visa office. Here, travelers are charged a significantly higher price ($37 versus $20) to purchase a visa [note: fellow traveler Jeremy commented below on 7 October 2015 that the price is now $30 USD]. Some of that money goes into the bus driver’s pocket for making the stop.
We’re pretty adept at border crossings at this point in our trip. There is no way we could have purchased a Cambodian visa from Cambodian officials without first exiting out of Thailand. If they were going to try to fool us by stopping at this travel agency, we’d just stay on the bus.
As expected, they stopped at said agency and tried to get everyone to go inside. We lied saying we had our visas already and stayed put on the bus. A couple Finns were hesitant to stay on too, so we reassured them that this was the right decision.
The bus attendant handed out pre-fab lunch boxes while we all waited for the agency to drive everyone’s passports to the border office and back. After lunch, we drove to the Thai border and made a smooth exit. We were to walk through no-man’s land to the Cambodia border, then meet the bus after getting stamped in.
Lunch on the bus while we waited for others’ visas to be processed.
We walked out of Thai immigration and followed the signs that led us to the visa on arrival building. Here we encountered another scam we were prepared for. Single-entry tourist visas are $20 USD, no more. After filling out our visa applications, we handed our forms, photos, passports and cash to one of the officers. He looked up and said, “One hundred baht.” This is the equivalent of a bit more than $3 USD. It’s obviously not breaking the bank, but it’s not an official fee and there’s nothing we hate more than being taken advantage of. Prepared for the fight, we said no. Mike pointed to a blue visa sign overhead that clearly read “Tourist Visa $20.” Then the officer pointed to a white piece of paper with big bubble letters showing 800 [baht] and $20 + 100 [baht]. We didn’t even have baht left and said, “No baht,” to which he responded, “Three dollars.” Again, we pointed to the official sign. With others coming in, he gave up and shoed us off to wait while they processed the visas.
We knew ahead of time of the scam and read that it’s easy to shrug off (while the Cambodia-Laos border “stamp fee” is pretty much unavoidable). Another thing we read for the Poipet border crossing (but did not encounter) is that they might try to tell you that you need to show an international health card, which is not officially necessary.
To our surprise, we saw others from our bus handing over visa forms, which means that even though they entered the agency, they caught on. After receiving our passports back, we headed for the Cambodia immigration office and were in and out pretty quickly. We were the first non-Thais to reenter the bus, which means we moved through quicker than those who pre-purchased their visas.
While we waited for the other passengers, I asked the bus attendant where we’d get dropped off in Siem Reap. Despite it being his job to take this route everyday, he claimed not to know. I even showed him a map on the iPhone and he couldn’t point out where we were to stop. He snickered to another attendant and I could see he was playing a game. More than likely, he was in on a kickback scheme where he would receive money from the tuk tuk drivers they let wait by the bus dropoff. If we don’t know where we are, we certainly can’t walk to our guesthouse. Additionally, these unscrupulous men may also tell you that the hotel you booked is shut down. (We were even told this by a driver as we were walking to our guesthouse later on!) Once they have you believing that your guesthouse is no longer open, they offer to drop you at their uncle’s/brother’s/friend’s not-so-nice guesthouse where they get a kickback. We knew our guesthouse was within walking distance and had a general sense of where the bus might drop us, so we forgot about it for a few hours.
The road in Cambodia is well-paved (and they drive on the right-hand side!). Our ride to Siem Reap was much smoother than the Bangkok to Poipet portion. Since there was a toilet onboard, the driver didn’t stop until our destination. Once we were inside the Siem Reap city limits, we followed our route on a map we downloaded to the iPhone. The bus stopped outside of a travel agency office. Surprise surprise.
A paved road in Cambodia.
Nonetheless, we were quite close to the guesthouse we pre-booked and decided to walk. When everyone rose to exit the bus, the attendant came in and announced that we must stay onboard until they brought all luggage inside the office. He said they could arrange hotels and tuk tuks for everyone. Mike wasn’t in the mood for more of the same and told him we just wanted to grab our bags and walk down the street. But he wouldn’t let us off. “This is also for your safety,” he lied. “This is a very busy sidewalk and we don’t want all the tuk tuk drivers getting in your way.” We looked out the window to an empty sidewalk, then back to the attendant.
When the attendant did let us off, we darted into the office hoping to get away from the scene as soon as possible. Grabbing our bags we had to squeeze our way out of an overcrowded room. Back on the large, deserted sidewalk, we were met by men trying to whisk us into tuk tuks. “We’re walking,” we told them.
All in all, the experience wasn’t too bad since we were well-prepared for their scams and tricks. Besides not liking to be taken advantage of, we try our best not to feed an already corrupt system. We like to think that if more people stood up for themselves this wouldn’t happen. That might be unrealistic, but it’s still best to be a smart traveler by researching these things ahead of time.
Helpful information:
Arty Dubs: Direct Bus from Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia
Living Large, Spending Small: Bangkok to Siem Reap, Debunked.
Travelfish: Bangkok to Siem Reap
geeze! When you guys get back to the states, no one will be able to get anything by you!
Let’s see them try. Ha!
I have to say the you both are very well prepared. Glad you stood up for yourselves and still arrived with out a problem. It could have gone either way.
You’re right. We heard that others weren’t as lucky as us. Worst case scenario, we would have paid up. Glad we didn’t have to give in though.
It gets a bit tiresome after a while doesn’t it? We did the Poipet border the other way around so didn’t have to contend with the famous fake border scam thankfully, I knew they tried to charge more but $17 is ridiculous! A pet hate of mine is when someone is trying to scam you and they’re sniggering and chatting to their mate as if you’re stupid enough not to realise.
Yes! I agree with your pet hate. Just because I can’t understand their language doesn’t mean I don’t understand that they’re laughing about the situation. That’s when I wish I could speak Thai or Khmer or whatever and shock them!
We went through something very similar. Thanks to your advice (via FB) we avoided both scams. I’ll post before too long. I’m sure you’ll chuckle… 🙂
Glad to hear you guys were able to avoid them too. The bubble letters were quite laughable, huh? Looking forward to hearing about your experience!
Really glad you guys stood your ground! Yes 100 baht/$3 isn’t a lot, but it is the principle of the thing.
For sure. And we read your post before heading out. It helped a lot!
Hi guys
Just a question, I have found that sometimes we get all paranoid about scammers, but in actual fact a few dollars and you can really get good assistance. Example, I was in Bali and rode a motorcycle from Kuta right up to the Northern tip. I stopped at a waterfall and was met by someone i thought was a scammer, who said he was a local guide blah blah and said it was customary to use a guide etc. I thought oh bugger it and gave him equal to about $5AUD and whist he did steer me through a few little family stalls to buy gifts (i bought a much needed icy coke instead), it was well worth it and in fact I tipped him at the end. We tried coffee beans growing on the trees, other native berries and I had a full commentary. Do you think all of these were scams, or could a few extra dollars have been worth the while? Please don’t think I am being critical.
Hey! That’s a fair point, though I wouldn’t consider that a scam. We did do the same thing (hiring guides) in various cities around the world. In India we hired guides at popular sights, and they said they were certified guides, but who really knows. Having that extra knowledge made the visit that much better (as opposed to only having a guidebook or pamphlet for info). The temples in Bagan and Siem Reap come to mind when I think of “guides” you don’t necessarily want to give your money to. You can set up legit guides in advance, but kids or adults will approach you while you’re there and follow you around just splurting out information so they can stick out their hand for a buck at the end. It’s not a scam per say, but it’s annoying if you don’t want them there, isn’t it? And giving them money at the end will encourage and promote this behavior. That’s the kind of thing I, personally, wouldn’t want to encourage.
Hey guys! Reading your experience reminds me how frustrating dealing with this scams was! I’m glad you didn’t fall in their traps as so many travellers do! The border crossing changed a bit, now the visa fee is $30. We had read a lot of stories online beforehand too and were ready for this challenge. We wrote a new updated walkthrough on how to avoid all the scams, with photos to find your way through the border (and avoid the freaking fake offices)!
All the best! Love your site!
Jeremy
Hey Jeremy, thanks for the visa price update. We made a note about it in our post. Those scams make a lot of people nervous, and rightfully so. We just got to a level of being so fed up with them that we were ready to put our foot down. Glad to you did too. Safe travels!
On Christmas 2015, the staff at the Cambodian quarantine booth had invented another innovative scam : they asked us to fill out the visa application forms. Then they told us that the tourist visa would be 40 $ now, and that we had to pay them. At first I believed them … they were government officials in uniform … so they must be honest [ joke ] ! But later, after they had returned our passports with the visa ( with a written price tag of 30 $ ! ) I realised I had been scammed by uniformed officials :-0
I wasn’t willing to give in, and warned all people arriving at the quarantine booth that the visa costs actually 30 $ and not 40. I did that for a while, much to the dislike of the quaratine staff.
Then I went to the visa office just behind the quaratine booth and complained to a cop about the scam. His only answer : “I don’t know, I don’t know.” Then I went to a high ranking police officer ( decorated like a general ) and complained. Within minutes I had my money back ! And that officer gave me a “thumbs up” and a smile …
lol Thanks for sharing your story and warning other travelers about the scam. That’s a pretty funny recounting, though I’m sure it was not as funny in the moment. I’m glad you got your money back and they didn’t give you a hard time for complaining (we definitely heard that other travelers weren’t as lucky as you)! I think the take-away from crossing borders in SE Asia is: trust no one.
Hi, I am an Asian and is currently in Pattaya. From Pattaya, I am looking to cross the Poipet border and explore Siem Reap. I know for a fact that for ASEAN country members, we are not required to obtain any visa & pay the 30$ fee. In the visa check room, have you seen a different queue for ASEAN travellers not requiring visa? Because I dont want to be pushed by anyone in the border to pay 30$ when I don’t have to, & I am a girl so most probably, if a guy asks me to pay, I might fear for my life and give in.
Sorry, but we weren’t on the lookout for ASEAN traveler queues, so neither of us remember seeing anything like it. If you don’t need a visa, I highly doubt they’ll stop you and ask for money. You could also print a page from the Internet that shows you don’t need a visa – just as backup in case you’re asked about it. But if Cambodia doesn’t require citizens from your country to obtain a visa then I can’t imagine you’d have any problems at the border.