This was the last weekend before my 90 days would expire, so I finally bit the bullet and made my border run. After being ripped off by Khao San Road bastards last time, I decided to do it myself this time. So, at 6:00 am on Saturday I got up, moved slower than I planned to, and by 7:00 was on the way to Mo Chit bus station.

It’s a shame I moved so slowly in the morning, because as luck would have it, about 30 minutes out my bus hit a taxi. Yeah. Nobody was hurt, but we had to sit there for two hours until another bus came. So the normal four hour trip took six hours.

Upon arrival at the border, it’s never a problem on the Thai side. But the Cambodian side is another matter. I love Cambodia, but the border town of Poi Pet is truly the armpit of the country. It’s a filthy town with garbage everywhere, and a plethora of beggars, from dirty urchins to mothers with babies, to amputees. Cambodia is uniformly poor, but nowhere in the country is the poverty and filth so concentrated as it is here. It’s a shame that most expats dismiss Cambodia based on their visa run experiences. The country really does have a lot to offer.

After dodging beggars in no-man’s land, you arrive at the visa on arrival post, which I was dreading, but it went perfectly, and I didn’t get ripped off. A Cambodian visa costs 20 US dollars. The cost is actually in US dollars, not Cambodian riel, or Thai baht. However, a bunch of friendly guys hang out there who offer to accept 1,000 Thai baht. But 1,000 Thai baht is $25. I wonder where that extra $5 goes?

The best strategy in Poi Pet is to only talk to guys wearing uniforms. So I blew these bastards off, and headed for the counter. The officials make themselves inaccessible by keeping their windows closed, but if you approach and stand there, they will reluctantly open the window. The official even reluctantly accepted my twenty dollar bill. I guess that the officials are trying to insulate themselves from ripping people off by letting the guys in t-shirts do the scamming. The t-shirt guys probably get to keep a small portion of the profits, and the bulk goes to the officials.

With visa in passport, I walked past the tacky casinos, where gambling-loving Thais go, since gambling is illegal in Thailand. At arrivals, which you could easily just walk past, an official sits quietly at a table, with another t-shirt guy who tries to charge 100 baht for the arrival card and 100 baht for only staying one day. A simple “no” suffices.

Once I got stamped in, I immediately walked over to departures. Last time the uniformed officials tried to hold my passport hostage to extort 100 baht for only staying one day. This time the guy stamped me out without any hassle.

It’s always a pleasure to arrive back in the clean Thai side, with its efficient, non-corrupt officials. I was given another 90 day stamp with no hassle. Then I motorcycled to the bus station, where a bus to Bangkok was waiting. Due to the delays, I didn’t get back until 9 pm, and was too tired to do anything. A total waste of a day. But now I’ll finally be able to get a work permit, so I won’t have to do this again.

At least it was cheap. 800 baht for the visa, 300 for busses, and 80 for motorcycles to and from the border, so it only cost 1180 baht.