Dollar battle at the Lao-Cambodian border

Cambodian immigration and border officials are notorious for their Dollar hunger. Some of them pull notes out of foreigners' pockets as well as local people's pockets. The night before we crossed the border we had prepared to have the 1 US Dollar notes handy.

After the battle in Cambodia

The battle for our Dollar notes began earlier than expected - at the Lao immigration office. When we arrived a group of backpackers had been trying for more than an hour to not pay the requested 2 Dollar per passport. Different persons of the group talked to the officials, tried different strategies, asking for a receipt and their names (none of them had a name sign), pretending that they would never come to Laos again, telling the officials that the 2 Dollars would be illegal etc. but nothing worked. The stubborn officials did not budge an inch. They probably knew all different reasons why they should waive this "stamp-out fee". Having seen the unsuccessful efforts of the group, we tried only little and paid the 4 Dollar in the end. Sarah was furious.

0:4

We rolled over to the Cambodian side where we were "welcomed" by a work group registering our health state. We filled out a basic form and got a piece of paper in return. They wanted 1 Dollar per person. We offered them 1 Dollar, they said no. We offered 1 Dollar and our remaining 4000 Lao Kip, but they shook their heads. We showed them our bicycles and said that we had come all the way from Germany. They didn't pity us.

The closer we had come to the Cambodia, the more had I tried to recall my Khmer. Recalling my Khmer is definitely more difficult than my Cantonese. I have never ever actively spoken Khmer, only listened to. Articulating Khmer words is like tongue twister. I had prepared some sentences in Khmer for Cambodia. Now it was time to build a language bridge to them.

I told them in Khmer that we didn't have any money. It helped. They looked at me and grinned. In Khmer they said that they would accept 1 Dollar. They returned the 4000 Kip and told me to buy water instead.

1:5

The next station was the Cambodian visa station. It cost 20 Dollar plus a dodgy 2 Dollar fee for the form. 2 Dollar for a piece of paper! I again tried my Khmer and told them I was a Cambodian son and asked why it was so expensive. The first answer was that Phnom Penh, the capital, was far away. Well, this answer could be interpreted like "the capital is far away, so we can do what we want". In Khmer they told me that they had to pay electricity, stamp pad ... Yeah, sure. Another 4 Dollar were lost. As a comfort they indicated that as a Cambodian son I could get a special visa type K. I would be entitled as long as my passport is valid to enter and leave Cambodia whenever I want and stay as long as I want. What a pity that they couldn't issue this special visa at the land border crossing.

1:9

The third and last station was the immigration check in order to get stamped-in. An arrival and departure card had to be filled out. Sarah went first and was asked for a 1 Dollar stamp-in fee. I joined them quickly, recited my Khmer sentence from above and our stamp-in fees were waived.

3:9 ... final result. Let's see what will happen at the Cambodian-Thai border in one month time.

Finally we were in Cambodia, one of of our main destinations on our trip! We were so much looking forward to it, but somehow this reception damped our joy. However, we didn't want to generalize the behaviour of some crooked officials to all the people of Cambodia and were soon after proved that in general people are lovely.