Avoiding Border Scams in Cambodia
Many People don't know about how corrupt the system works here in Cambodia, and from those who know, many don't really care about it because they only spend a short holiday there and just want to avoid any stressful situations and are likely to pay much more than "official" prices.
At nearly every land-crossing borders there is a high potential of people getting bounced, but in particular I want to denounce the POIPET Border when coming from Thailand.
POIPET Border is the most frequent with tourists I guess, since it's the nearest to Angkor Wat, where usual travelers are heading to. There exist many blogs in the Web where stories about border scams from Poipet are told.
The thing is, there is no such reliable bureaucratic system like in developed countries - even though rules, official prices etc. exist. The Cambodians just don't really care about them and try to make extra money. But it's not only the Cambodians, Thais are using this issue for their own profit as well and do it even worse.
I work in Cambodia, thus I have a Business Visa. And that's the first tip I want to give:
CLAIM THAT YOU WANT TO DO A BUSINESS VISA BECAUSE YOU ARE GOING TO WORK IN CAMBODIA
...Thai Bus companies will bring you to a small restaurant/tourist office where they act like an official border and ask you to fill in the Visa Forms for Cambodia and pay for it. That's no offical thing, and they will charge you a lot more than the offial VISA price (official 2016: 30 dollar for tourist visa), they will charge you sometimes more than 40 dollar and really force you to buy the visa with them. In my opinion, no one is doing these countries a favor with supporting corruption, so you can feel free to say no doing the VISA with them.
The problem is they will get really angry and say that they won't take you to the border, so you have to take a taxi and pay the extra costs. Also they want to scare you and will say, you will need much too long at the border if you do the Visa by yourself, so you will miss the Bus continuing in cambodia. That's just a stupid lie, don't listen to them.
But the easiest way without any discussions is probably just pretending that you will start to work in Cambodia and therefore need a Business Visa. The Thai people have no proper Visa Form for that, so they HAVE TO bring you to the border - without any discussion in most cases.
Once at the border, you can just make the Tourist Visa for 30 dollar, or Business Visa for 35. In most cases the Cambodian Officers want you to pay 5 dollar more for the Tourist Visa and sometimes an extra 100 Thai Baht fee as well for there own purse (pretending liek it is official).YOU DON'T WANT TO PAY THE EXTRA MONEY? ...Then simply JUST DON'T PAY
If you don't pay it, they will probably start making trouble and won't give the Visa to you. They will ignore you maybe, or tell you, you can't get it or you will miss the Bus etc.
But if you are not too stressed with your time, you can relax and wait until they will continuing your Visa. In Many cases just waiting worked, not much arguing. But of course, if they really want, they can be cruel and let you wait until they close and probably you really miss the Bus then, and have to pay an own Taxi or Minibus to your destination.Get a VISA before travel to Cambodia at a Embassy or via the Internet.
The E-Visa costs a little bit more, but you pay an official and not a scam price. And you don't have any struggles at the border with it.
Making the VISA at an Embassy can be struggling as well, but you can be sure to pay the official price and don't support corruption.
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