Early boat
We had quite an early start to the day today; we had a boat to catch to the shore, then a bus to Cambodia! The 4 of us had breakfast at the restaurant right next to the pier, the same place we ate when we arrived. We were actually the first ones here too, that makes a change. Eventually, people began streaming to the pier, and it got quite busy. Everyone got loaded onto the boats, and then we were off, our final leg of Laos. It wasn’t too long before we arrived back on the shore of Nakasong.
Once we had docked, we began searching for the bus pickup point. There are a couple of different companies, one was on the right side of the road, a few hundred metres from the shore. Another pickup point was on the left, a bit further up, in a big car park. We didn’t know this, so there was quite a bit of confusion as to where we go. Thankfully, someone from the other bus company pointed us up the street, and we eventually found our bus’ stop. Mat and I had a wander across the street to a little shop, we only got some snacks. We had to wait a while for the bus to Cambodia, but eventually it came. Punctuality isn’t the strong suit here.
To the border
Everyone got in the bus to Cambodia, and all our gear was strapped to the top. It was only a short drive to the border, so nothing too hard to deal with. There were a lot of people at the gate to the border. Fortunately, people know how to line up here, so we all got in the queue and waited for our turn at the desk. It didn’t take too long for the queue to go down and for us to get stamped out. Just in front of the desk where you get stamped out, there’s a dude with a table there handing out visa slips. We filled them in and gave them back to him, along with our passport photos, passports, and $38. See the tip box below as to where we went wrong!
There’s also a woman at the exit of the Laos border gate who will swap any kip to dollars. It’s important to note that there are 2 currencies in Cambodia, dollars being the main one, and riel being the other. They are quite interchangeable, and both will most likely be accepted. Most will prefer dollars because they can get a better exchange rate. So we waited around for a bit, before the guy got on his bike and drove to the Cambodian border gate. I was slightly confused, but everyone started walking towards that building. A few fellows kicked up a fuss when they realised the guy who handed out slips was actually scamming people.
Tip!
Despite us having read in-depth on how to avoid the Laos-Cambodia border scam, we still got caught by it. Once you get stamped out at the official desk, which is behind the glass window, just take your passport and walk to the next building. There’s a guy at a normal, individual desk on the platform who will charge you $38 instead of the $35 it costs at the other building. This extra $3 is to basically take your visa slip, and hand it in on the other side. It’s the exact same as you walking and handing your passport slip to the other side. It is only $3, but we were still frustrated at being scammed.
In Cambodia
Once we got to the Cambodian border, we waited outside of the building for a while, whilst the visas were being processed. Again, one of the fellows got angry at the slip guy for his scam, and I almost thought a fight would break out. Little by little, the slip guy brought our passports to us, and we then proceeded inside the building. Once inside, we had our photos taken and gave some details, before being given the okay. Once everyone had been stamped through, we made our way out of the border area. Everyone then waited in a small seating area for our bus to Cambodia to arrive through the border. For my last border crossing, check it out here!
There were a few food places and shops around, which we explored, as we had to wait about an hour before our bus came through. Once it did, everyone got on the bus and we were finally away. Our first destination in Cambodia was to be a small town called Stung Treng, which was along the Mekong River. Only Mat, Julie, and I are getting off here, Mischa has a shorter time schedule, so had to leave us. When our bus to Cambodia arrived in the town, we said our goodbyes to Mischa, and felt like a piece of us had gone missing. Julie had decided that she’d tag along with us for an undisclosed amount of time.
Settling in
There weren’t many hostels around, and the ones we did find were full or shut. We eventually managed to find a hotel on the main strip, and it even had 3 beds in it. The hotel was called the Angkor Meas Hotel. It was pretty cheap, but luxurious. Once we’d dumped our stuff, we headed straight out. The first place we headed was to get a SIM card, which was only a few shops up the road from us. Our SIM of choice was Metfone as this seemed to have the widest coverage and best speeds. We bought the SIMs, and the woman even helped us to activate and solve any phone issues.
For dinner, we went to a really small place, I think someone’s front room of their house. I had a chicken and coconut amok (type of curry), and it was beautiful! We also withdrew money from the ATM, usually it was $100 at a time! If you do $90, then you’ll get a $50 bill, then some $20s or $10s. There’s also a heart breaking $5 fee! We carried on having a look around the place, plenty of fresh meat markets around, especially fish. The 3 of us booked another bus to Kratié for tomorrow, the next town in our path. We did this at a bus company on the main strip, fairly easy to find one.
The 3 of us had a walk down to the pier that extended into the Mekong river. There were quite a few people there fishing, I don’t think they’d been very successful to be honest. We were able to witness a fantastic sunset which was made all the better by the dark clouds. After it had gotten dark, we returned to the hotel and turned in for the night.
