Four AM came early on our last morning in Siem Reap, but all we had to do was to catch a 5AM bus that would take us to Pakse, Laos. The bus was scheduled to arrive in Pakse at 8PM. I'll leave the math to you...but that was a pretty long time!
We had done some research before making this trip and we knew the "officials" on both sides of the border were a bit crooked. There is also a "scheme" where someone on the Cambodian side gets on the bus, tells everyone what the visa cost will be plus the charge to get "stamped out" of Cambodia, then "stamped in" to Laos. He then goes down the aisle and collects all the passports and most importantly all the money. He will get you through and you'll get your passport back but he's inflated the costs and made a few up! All total B.S.
After the "guy" came on the bus and told everyone the border "process" I decided to stand up and ask if anyone would like to keep their passport and go through the process on their own as people usually do at any other immigration / border crossing. For the most part I got a lot of blank faces, but in the end we were about 8 strong going it on our own.
We got to the border and the 8 of us walked off the bus to the little hut where the Cambodian customs "official" was. The first thing the official said before collecting our passports was 2 dollars... 2 dollars.... 2 dollars, pointing to each one of us. By this time I had slid my passport under the window. Dy started into him saying "we are unaware of any charge to get a stamp to leave the country, there is no charge sir"....2 dollars...2 dollars... 2 dollars... was the response. Then we stood there....tick tock tick tock.... He slid my passport back to me as a sign that if I didn't didn't pay I'd get no stamp. I said to him that we cannot pay this because we only have enough US dollars for our Laos Visa and I slid my passport back. Now it's only a few dollars here and there, not a lot of money really. Why not just pay it and move on? It's principal of not being taken for a fool and lied to, and how foreigners are viewed. I'd rather give money to a charity than guards making a fortune in bribes!
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| Looking back at the Cambodian part of the border. The blue shack is where the "negotiations" took place |
After a few of us kept bargaining, the price came down to one dollar. At that point we had one taker from our group. A bit more waiting, then one Italian fellow in our group said one dollar for two. The guard took the deal. That's when the rest of the group gave in, and so did we as we didn't want the bus to wait. Over our dollar went and our passports were given back. I opened my passport to verify the stamp and the bugger actually stapled 2 of my pages together! Boy he got me. Lol! What is this high school?! Oh well, off to the actual border on foot to the Laos side.
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| Looking forward to the Laos side of the border. |
We get to the window and one of the guys in our group hands his passport over. The Laos official says $35 for his visa (the "guy" on the bus told him $41...more "savings"). Then it was us. Forty three dollars was our charge (the Canadian visa is $42, but they charged us a late fee for crossing after 4pm. The visa price is determined by the amount of foreign aid the respective countries give to Laos. I hand him the money and off our passports go to the next official. He didn't even look at me through the dirty glass window. I turned to Dy and said "I could have given him my Dads passport!". Not what I expected from a Communist country.
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| Part of our rebellious gang negotiating our Laos visa's |
Ok, now one more "official" to hand our passports back. Two dollars he says (the "guy" on the bus collected five dollars for this fee from everyone else!). As Dy's getting hers she says "What is this two dollars for?". The guard immediately replies, "overtime". Without hesitation Dy says, "can I please have a receipt?"..... "No" was the response. We had read that you pretty much have no choice on the Laos side or they will flat out refuse you. I guess we made our point.
With all of that excitement over with it was simply another three hours and we arrived in Pakse. We got off the bus and walked to the nearest guest house and that would be it for the day.
The next day we took a good long stroll around Pakse. It would only be one day as we were catching a night bus that would take us to our destination, Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
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| Nice spot to have a drink in Pakse on the Mekong river |
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| Defeated!! This Papaya salad won! We just could not finish it. It was seriously the hottest thing I have ever eaten. Dy couldn't even finish it. That says a lot! |
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| Looking across the Mekong from our restaurant at a Buddha statue and the French Bridge. |
We caught our night bus at 8PM in Pakse where we were dropped off the previous night. The bus was pretty interesting. It is a double decker, but there are no seats. Instead there are little bunks that fit 2 people. Now if you are traveling alone you literally have to share this bunk with a total stranger or pay a lot more for the full bunk. Thankfully not us! The trip itself was pretty interesting. I won't say I had the best nights sleep, but I'm pretty sure I got a few hours in.
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| Boarding our sleeper bus in Pakse |
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| Our cozy bunk. |
We're loving Laos and find the locals are very friendly.
