“Where you name?!” the immigration official yelled at me. My name was obviously not on the document I was holding in my hand which just happened to be the registration for the motor-bike I had been riding for the last week or so across Cambodia. I looked at him puzzled and I say, “yes it’s my bike I bought it” and he seems to get angrier. He actually speaks good English but it’s the end of the day and I can tell he’s not budging. “Go get it changed!” he says… go get it changed?!?! What am I going to do, ride back across Cambodia for 4 days and prance right into Ho Chi Minh City and ask for them to change the name on my registration card and then come back?? Oh ok! I’ll be right back sir!
This situation wasn’t getting any better as I pulled out the receipt from the place I bought it from and tried to talk him into believing that the name of the registration was the name of the dealership. Ya… he wasn’t buying that either and the fact that he spoke English well wasn’t helping. Usually between the misunderstanding and the lack of ability to communicate I can get them to just let us pass but that wasn’t the case this time.
I’ve already checked out of Cambodia and I can’t go back! I mean you already know the difficulties I had getting into Cambodia the first time I doubt I’ll have such good luck the second time! We opt to head back in that direction as, lucky for us, there are actually two hotels in between the borders. Evidently this is where all the Thai people come to gamble on the weekends since the prices are significantly cheaper and I can be a testament of that as our hotel on the first night was 14 dollars and our hotel on the second night was 6 dollars.
We pull up in front of hotel number one and I tell Ericka to watch the bikes as I get us a room. I slide up to the counter and I ask for a room. More awesome news! They’re sold out! They politely tell me that across the road is another hotel and to ask them… hotel number two here I come!
I walk through the door as if I think I’m John freakin’ Wayne himself. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not in the greatest of moods and my mind is preoccupied with trying to find a solution of the ever growing problem I have outside. “How much for a room?!” I ask… the man looks at me and says, “we don’t have rooms here.” What?! You don’t have rooms here?! It’s a hotel!! I say these words to him and he begins to try and explain to me that the hotel sells CHIPS… not rooms… If I want a room I have to buy chips. I look at him and I say (because he speaks English very well), “I don’t think you understand… what do I have to do to get a room here??”
At this point another man appears to my right and says, “Follow me to the VIP counter sir.” Now we’re talking! VIP here I come! We criss-cross back and fourth between poker tables and thick cigarette smoke until we come to a counter. I thank the man and I approach the counter, smile at the young girl on the other side, and say, “How much for a room?” She looks me up and down and politely notifies me that they are all out of rooms.
I am beginning to think that they just don’t want to rent a room to us. I head back outside even more stressed than I was earlier. By this time Ericka is sitting at our bikes and there’s a few men standing around her. Great… I’m going to have to go Chuck Norris on some of these people at the border between Cambodia and Thailand but evidently that’s not the case. All of them are admiring our bikes and one gentleman has already offered to buy them. Evidently this happens often and the man says we must go into a dark alley to negotiate the price. Ya… piss off!! We’re not going into any dark alleyway to negotiate a price.
I look at Ericka and I immediately come up with a plan. “ok this is what we’re doing… we’re going back, getting our passport stamped as if we’re walking across, and then we’re going try and just drive right passed them!” She nods in agreement and we head that way. We literally have ten minutes before the border closes! I enter the building with both passports and I approach the table. The man is extremely polite and nice and I hand him both passports. He tells me that Ericka has to come in as well and I explain to him that she is watching our bikes.
He laughs at the very thought that I’ve been riding motor bikes across south east Asia, hands me two entry papers, and tells me to go get Ericka. I run outside, grab her and tell her to go inside and fill out the form. As she’s doing that I am literally grabbing our day packs (our go-bags for those of you in the military) and run inside. Papers are filled and passports are stamped and we head back to our untouched bikes. We slowly begin to try and pass the immigration but this time the bar is down on the road. We missed our window as the customs guy comes out and begins yelling, and I mean yelling at us!
“OK… looks like we’re dumping these!” I say… we ride about 50 yards back to Cambodia… pull over… put our locks on the front wheel, drop our helmets, slap our bags on our backs, make sure we have everything, and literally run across the border as it closes. Yes… I have officially dumped a vehicle off and run across a border now and where as part of me feels super bad-A… the other part of me misses the 650 dollars I spent on it!
Tagged: 2012, abraham, adventure, Airport waiting, Andorra, arab, Around the world, Asia, ATW, backpacking, Belt, Berga, blisters, border crossing, bored, bracelet, broke down, bus, bus ride, bus station, Cambodia, camel, camel ride, Canillo, chi minh city, chris, city, clean, clear water, climbing, concert, Conquering the world, corvette, couch surfing, couchsurfing, customs, desert, dirty, dirty laundry, Doing nothing, driver, dumping bikes, Egypt, Ericka Korb, Europe, Ferrada, ferry, Fire side chat, fish, flip flops, food, freedom, gas, God, GoPro, gunshot. night time, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, ho chi minh city, Honda, Honda Win, Hostel, hot, ideas, illegal entry, immigration, immigration official, Iraq, islands, istanbul, kat, laundry, Learn, leaving, liars, locals, locking, lying, malaysia, Manel, meal, mechanic, Moped, Motor bike, motorbike, Motorcycle, motorcycle trip, paradise, patch, police, pyramids, qatar, ramadan, Rich, richard v gilbert, run across the border, singapore, snorkeling, South east asia, sri lanka, stockholm, Student, Swearing, Swore, thai border crossing, Thailand, tips, Travel, tropical, turkey, vacation, Vietnam, watermelon juice, Win, Yamaha
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