To Cambodia Article

[cojones]

When a bus ticket is not a bus ticket

By Gordon Sharpless

November 4. 2004

www.talesofasia.com

For about four years now it's been possible to buy a bus ticket from a

travel agency on Bangkok's Khao San Road offering transport all the

way to Siem Reap. Originally it was nothing more than a few delays, a

long visit at a restaurant in Sisophon, and a few minor guesthouse

dances. Then the companies entered into a price war, resulting in

ticket prices plummeting to as low as a ridiculous 80 baht (about $2

US dollars) for the 450-kilometer journey. To make up for the loss

generated by such a nonsensical price, the operators began cooking up

a wide variety of scams: overcharging for visas, more restaurant

stops, upping the bounty on the heads of the tourists sold to

guesthouses, etc and the service became known as the "Scam Ticket".

Then in the beginning of 2004, the police in Poipet decided they

wanted their cut and the bus ticket prices were pushed back up to the

300 to 600-baht range ($7.50 - $15.00). And with the higher prices we

have not seen an improvement in service, but here today, in November

2004, we are now seeing a service that has more scams, more hassles,

and more unhappy customers than anytime in the past.

I received the following letter this past month:

We travelled on the 7th October. We bought our tickets from an agent

just off the Khaosan Road who assured us we would go via Poipet -

luxury coach/air con minibus.

We were taken to a border crossing that our guest house owner thinks

must be a new one just opened - we have the word DAUNG as place of

entry stamped on our visa. [Gordon here: I can confirm that this is

the border crossing near Pailin, considerably south of Poipet and most

certainly not a direct route to Siem Reap.]

There are two things to beware of - first the very helpful man who

meets you TELLS you to give him your passport and a photo for your

visa - he is with one of the immigration officials as you go into the

Cambodian side so it all looks official - he doesn't offer assistance

with the visa, or explain that there will be a charge. We didn't fall

for this one, having already read very helpful advice on your site. We

said we would do our own visas, and we did - this made us very

unpopular with him from then on.

The visa cost us 1200 baht, not negotiable with the guys preparing the

visas, they just shut the window and refused to open it until the

could see the 2500 baht being waved at them.

We were then escorted (herded) down the road - very dismal dirty place

- to an office belonging to a company called Khaosan Travel

Connections. Here all the people who had let him do their visa were

charged between 1300 - 1700 baht per person for the visa and his

service. There was no minibus - a pickup was waiting. He told us that

the road was too bad for a minibus to get through - this part at least

was true.

The first 15 people were put onto that pickup, which at least had a

bench seat in it. They set off. The rest of us - the bad girls and

boys who either had their visa before they arrived or sorted

themselves out - we had to wait a further one and half hours before

our pick up turned up - it was 3.30 by the time we set off. The pick

up had 6 plus driver inside the cab and nine of us plus all the bags

in the back. We had to sit up on the edge of the back and hold on for

dear life as the truck jolted along a very poor and sometimes

incredible muddy track.

We arrived in Siem Reap at 11.30 at night, to be taken to the usual

"we will take you to a guest house we recommend to save you the hassle

of finding one so late at night". We had already booked ours so we

just got in a tuk-tuk and went away.

The main thing is that having tried to assure ourselves we were going

via Poipet, we didn't and the journey in the pick-up is agony.

It seems that there are buses leaving from the Khaosan Road area at 7

am and 7.30 am - we went on the 7 am bus and some people we met later

who were on the 7.30 bus did go via Poipet. This might be a red

herring but someone might like to test it and let the rest of us know.

My friend and I were advised to go to the tourist police by the owner

of the guesthouse where we are staying. We did this two days ago and

they treated our complaint very seriously. Not only did they take a

statement for their own use but a separate one for the "corruption

police" too.

Apparently the people behind Khaosan Connection Travel are well known

to the police as they have been scamming and moving on for a number of

years.

Some more people staying at our guesthouse also came down the same

way. They also reported the problem to the tourist police.

Last night we were all invited to headquarters where we were each

presented with 200 baht in compensation and assured that Khaosan

Connection Travel had been told to stop ripping tourists off. While I

think this was largely a PR exercise on the part of the Tourist

Police, it does show that they are concerned about people who come to

their country.

I would urge everyone who gets taken to this border and ripped off by

Khaosan Connection Travel to go to the Siem Reap Tourist Police. If

they continue to receive these reports, they will realise how much it

is happening. I know some people are on a tight schedule of temple

cramming when they come to Siem Reap, but if you can spare an hour to

report your problems, it will help other fellow travellers. They are

particularly keen to know about pressure put on people by local guest

house owners when arriving in town.

---

So what are we to make of this? Do we chastise the backpackers who are

so naive or at least uninformed as to purchase a bus ticket on Khao

San Road? Do we rant and rave about the incompetence of Cambodian

businesses and how their selfishness is damaging the nation's tourism

industry as a whole? Do we lay blame on the Bangkok travel agencies

selling the tickets? Do we go after the Cambodian government for

allowing these shenanigans to continue?

Conversely, do we throw up our hands and say "well, that's how things

are, take it or leave it"?

Some thoughts on the matter:

1.) Chastise the backpackers who are so naive or at least uninformed

as to purchase a bus ticket on Khao San Road.

For those who live on either side of the border or who have a

reasonable amount of travel experience in the region, it's pretty much

a given that under no circumstances do you ever purchase bus tickets

to ANY destination from a travel agent on Khao San Road. However, a

less experienced traveler, err can I say tourist?, is all too easily

enticed by agent after agent selling bus tickets to anyplace you'd

want to go, mostly domestic, but to Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, and even

Singapore as well. And with so many staying on or around Khao San

Road, you have to concede that the purchasing is convenient, even if

the subsequent transportation is not, but few know that at this point.

What they do know is buying the ticket is easy and cheap and rarely

does the purchaser of said ticket ever wonder why it is so cheap or

what it is the Thais do for transport because you certainly don't see

them buying bus tickets anywhere on Khao San Road.

Having been writing this site for four years and conversing with

travelers in the region for seven it's become well obvious how little

research and preparation some do prior to traveling. Once on a Koh

Kong to Phnom Penh van I was chatting with some tourists about

Cambodia, "What's there to see in Cambodia?" they asked.

"Well, obviously you'll start with Angkor Wat."

"Angkor Wat. What's that?" was their answer.

Needless to say there wasn't much else they knew about the country

they were already traveling in. And if I were so inclined to fill

their heads with stories of Khmer Rouge kidnappings, armed robberies,

extortion rackets, etc they'd probably have believed me. And if I

owned a guesthouse, well actually I do, I could probably have told

them the same crap thereby almost guaranteeing that they stay in every

night and eat all my food and drink all my beer. Sad reality is there

are guesthouses dishing out this garbage and tourists readily

believing it.

Yes, there once was a time when one could set off to Asia without the

benefit of a guidebook, the internet, or much of anything but a map, a

little history, and some knowledge of what a few of the popular

tourist attractions might be along the way. But that was before the

advent of mass tourism. Backpacking, or in the sense of the

romanticism surrounding it that has evolved over the years, is by and

large a myth. A tourist is a tourist whether you're staying in dollar

a night dorms or thousand dollar a night luxury suites. And with

tourism so well developed in this region, traveling without benefit of

advance research via guidebooks, the internet, etc is foolish. Thirty

years ago you were less likely to be scammed because few took the time

to cook up scams because there were so few available marks. Now, with

a million visitors a year to Cambodia, twelve, thirteen times that to

Thailand, there are plenty of opportunities to rip people off and not

surprisingly people come out of the woodwork and get to it.

I'd always hoped that over time continued publicity of the problems

with purchasing bus tickets on Khao San Road would lead to a

reduction, if not (in times of gross optimism) elimination, of these

services, but that hasn't been the case. Whether it's a backpacker van

to Chiang Mai, a "VIP" bus to Surat Thani, or the scam bus to Siem

Reap, these privately run services continue to flourish and continue

to provide headaches and worse for the people who use them.

Moral of the story: Do your homework. Ultimately you are responsible

for yourself. In too many instances, those who get ripped-off were

done in because of their own tacit approval. Information on a myriad

of pitfalls is out there for anyone who cares to look.

2.) The incompetence and selfishness of Cambodian businesses is

damaging the nation's tourism industry as a whole.

Well, sort of. Kind of a loaded question, really. Damaging? Yes, to a

point. But sweeping indictments of Cambodian business practices are

neither accurate nor productive. I've encountered plenty of honest

Khmer business owners in Siem Reap who have no more affection for

these clowns then the rest of us.

"They disgust me."

"They give my country a bad name."

"I am Cambodian, I have to deal with these people. But I don't like

it."

"Someday we will improve."

The folks running these bus operations approach guesthouse owners with

the ever so generous offer that they will bring in the cattle and for

every head they drop off, whether the customer stays or not, the

guesthouse pays $7 (it used to be $6). And they ensure payment because

the guesthouse puts up a $1000 deposit and the balance is worked off

through delivery of the cargo. I know a Khmer guesthouse owner who got

himself trapped into this mess. He rues the day he ever forked over

the deposit. "They come late at night, half the people leave, they say

to me, 'why you do this, try to make us stay like this. Why can't you

just let us go where we want?' It gives my guesthouse a bad name. I

not happy." He won't be paying another thousand dollar deposit.

It was once worse. In the earlier days of this marketing program we

heard stories of guesthouses locking the gates and not letting people

leave. Then some disgruntled tourists made a point of visiting the

police the following morning and a guesthouse was fined $2000 and

threatened with closure if it ever happened again.

Other than selling the tickets and providing transport to the border,

the Khao San Road to Siem Reap tourist bus is a Cambodian operation.

And while it should not be seen as indicative of Cambodia business as

a whole, I would agree that it doesn't do the country any favors

because it's part and parcel to a visitor's first impression of

Cambodia, which in this case is to be hassled and ripped-off. Welcome

to Cambodia, please bend over.

I'm of the opinion that no matter how bad the border and bus scams

are, if someone is intent on coming to Cambodia, they will come

regardless of the situation. But, and this is a big but, what people

too often forget is that there are an awful lot of people straddling

the fence as to whether they want to visit Cambodia or not.

Scenario: Tourist visits Siem Reap, has a great time at Angkor despite

being totally ripped-off on the bus ticket, returns to Khao San Road

and hangs out at a cafe with a couple of other tourists who have not

been to Cambodia.

"Oh," one tourist says, "we have a week left on our holiday but

haven't made up our minds. A week in Cambodia or a trip to the

southern islands."

So the tourist fresh back from Siem Reap tells them yeah, Angkor Wat

was cool but the border and the bus ticket were a nightmare (and

probably not realizing that the Khao San Road bus ticket is most

certainly not the only way to Siem Reap by land). Details of the trip

are offered over a beer and the other couple looks at each other and,

"the southern islands it is" and they're off to Samui. This happens a

lot.

3.) Do we lay blame on the Bangkok travel agencies selling the

tickets?

The awareness and degree of participation on the part of the agents in

Bangkok varies from agency to agency. Many have some idea that the

tickets are basically nonsense as they've heard the complaints and the

questions from potential buyers, "so is this scam ticket I've heard

about?" and I've found from conversations that some, if pressed, will

concede that the service is garbage, but sell the tickets anyway, "If

we don't someone else will." Others will gladly play dumb. More often

the case is along the lines of, "what do I care, this is to Cambodia."

Still, there are others who are certainly more than willing

participants, as once when I was polling agents for prices, a couple

of them quoted a higher price for Thais! There's an unusual twist! And

also another warning flag as to why no one should buy these tickets...

hmm... they're trying to keep Thais off the bus. Why is that?

There was a time, however, when the complaints first started rolling

in, that several KSR agents did stop selling the tickets and though

it's been some time since I last polled agents there, I do recall that

some would not sell the tickets because the hassles involved weren't

worth the meager commissions.

4.) Do we go after the Cambodian government for allowing these

shenanigans to continue?

Well, governments around the world are always fair game, but recent

interviews with the new Minister of Tourism (see website) indicate

that at the very least there is lip service to this problem. And as

the above letter indicates and that one guesthouse in Siem Reap was

nailed with a $2000 fine for locking in guests, it would seem that the

government is not amused by these actions and how they affect

Cambodia's image. Whether they can or are even willing to take further

steps to do something about it remains to be seen.

5.) Do we throw up our hands and say "well, that's how things are,

take it or leave it"?

Ah, the apologist. Certainly a good coping mechanism for the apparent

insanity of living here but not very productive to initiating change.

It's a tough call, where you draw the line between accepting the

status quo or trying to promote change. Move too far to acceptance of

things and run the risk of becoming too complacent, spend too much

time trying to change things and become frustrated and exhausted.

Meanwhile, tourists will continue en masse scooping up dodgy bus

tickets on Khao San Road and complaining about it later. Given the

prices some of these tickets are sold for there's not a whole lot of

justification for some of the grumbling. Here, there, or anywhere, you

get what you pay for, but what the reader describes above is pure

unadulterated nonsense.

---

Source: http://www.talesofasia.com

[BoomBoom]

lol, whats all the fuss about? U get what u pay for, if u want to travel in comfort pay 10k and get the air ticket rather than the 3/400 baht or whatever it was .

very poor and sometimes

incredible muddy track.

hmmz, is this california or cambodia where talkin about here?