Bangkok Cambodia Avoid Border Scam

Avoid the border scam in the border of Thailand and Cambodia (Aranyaprathet Thailand, Poipet Cambodia)

Booking
We booked the trip to one of the many travel agencies in Khaosan Road, check the prices as they have different prices with the same itinerary.  The vehicle is a van and we leave the places and pick up more booked passengers in several guesthouses along the way.

Van Travel
It was a long travel and we had two stop, one in the gasoline station where the driver asked us to get down and do our thing. The second stop was in the restaurant, a little bit like a small resort.


How the scam works.
We arrived at the Aranyaprathet border of Thailand. When we get down of the Van, there are people guide us to get inside of the building just beside where we get down. They gave us forms that make us think that it is an immigration form. They have these confusing tactics so that we get into them. This scammer asked us money of around 800 Baht for each. They took our passport and asked as to wait for our turn. On our turn, they gave back our passport and asked us to get inside another building and that's when we realized that it is the Thailand Immigration Building. We did the normal immigration check out. Exiting the Thailand Immigration is the Poipet, the border of Cambodia. The guy there is waiting for us and take again our passport and asked us to wait, we wait for maybe an hour and then they gave back our passport already with Cambodia Immigration Checked In Stamp on it. (You'll never know that you are in the Cambodian Immigration as the place is like an open-air waiting area with a lot of people waiting) Then they guide us to the bus waiting area.

How to Avoid the Scam.
Immigration is an easy process, you don't need to spend extra money for the service that is not necessary.  Avoid the scammer by going straight to the Immigration Building, asked the people around where is it, asked at least three people and make sure you are heading to the Immigration. Some countries do not need Visa like ASEAN countries are free to get in without paying any cents.

Bus Travel
Including in the booking fee is the bus trip from Poipet to Phnom Penh. it was a very long trip again. We arrived in Phnom Penh safely.

Use your Google Map it helps.

Tourist Life in Cambodia

Compare to other cities in Southeast Asia, Cambodia is just starting to grow, This time it looks just like an ordinary town in the Philippines. They have more parks than high rise buildings. Constructions are ongoing and building a good looking future.

Like Thailand, tuk-tuk, and a motorcycle is the basic means for public transportation in Cambodia, they are negotiable and works as a taxi without Meter. There are other forms of vehicles like improvise bikes with a carriage.

Cambodia uses US Dollar and Cambodian Riel in daily public purchases, expect that when you pay in Dollar they will give you a combination of Riel and Dollar as change.

The restaurants are everywhere in the city, they are in crowded and tourist areas like the riverside and shopping mall. Fried worm, crickets, etc and snails are some of the street food you'll see everywhere in the city.

People are friendly but communicating is a bit of challenge as still most of the Cambodians are not able to speak English.

Streets in Phnom Penh are busy noisy with the sounds of motorcycles, it is coming very traffic in crowded places. Most of the city intersection doesn't have traffic lights and cars just go through by giving way to each other.

In the afternoon parks and public spaces gets a lot of people doing some walking, games, exercise and other outdoor physical fitness activities... it feels and looks really good.

Nightlife, the same as other cities people need to be careful as some people have really bad intentions.

Phnom Penh is a great place to experience, their history will touch your heart especially when you visit the Genocide Museum.

Filipino Travel Vietnam

I and my buddy arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam via bus coming from Cambodia.  Getting into the immigration is easy as the conductor of the Bus collected all the passenger's passport for Vietnam's immigration check-in.

As we get closer to the city the first thing we notice is the volume of scooters/motorcycles on the road, aside from the bus where we are in, there are no other vehicles. If Amsterdam has the most bikes then Vietnam has the most Scooters.

I got a nice first impression of Ho Chi Minh City as it clean with a lot of parks within the city. Noticeably that this city is already like Bangkok with so many white tourists. Expect a lot of travel agency, food shop, bars and nightclub. I didn't notice any striptease show club.

The shopping area of Ho Chi Minh City is maybe smaller than those in the Philippines and Thailand but they also have those signature expensive international brands.

English is not a problem in the commercial/touristy area because most of the people speak English, but getting into the other places is a bit of problem to communicate.

In the parks, you'll notice young people, group of teenagers chatting with foreigners, and then one of my Vietnamese friends mention that that is their way of learning English.

Fast food chain like McDonald, KFC is not big in Vietnam, there are some but not like Philippines where Mac Donalds, KFC, Jollibee are in every corner. Oh! there are Jollibee in Vietnam.

Vietnamese Coffee, Bahn Mi, Pho are some of the original Vietnamese food and drinks that you should try when you visit Vietnam.

As a Filipino, we are allowed to stay in Vietnam for up to 21 days visa free, we consume those days staying in different hotels, the cheapest good hotel room that we can afford. We re using hotels.com to book a hotel because it charges exactly as it is, no need to pay extra when you arrive at the hotel.

Filipino Drama TV program was big in Vietnam at that time. They dubbed the audio to Vietnamese.