At Poi Pet I was totally fucked up from that nightmarish busride. They stop about a half a klick short of the infamous roundabout which serves as the approximate border for all the hucksters and shills. From the roundabout to the actual crossing you are besieged by conartists of every type. Taking those types of busses however sort of saves you from being harrangued as a bus attendant- after guving you a laminated badge around your neck- leads you to the bus company office just short of Cambodian Immigration.
Inside the office you hand a bus employee your passport and departure forms, he checks that they are in order, makes a notation that speeds you through Immigration as well as contacting the minivan on the Thai side that will take you to Bangkok. As I said, I was majorly fucked up as in disarray. When the employee in the office asked for my ticket I realised that the driver had never given it back to me after I boarded in Phnom Pemh. The employee tried to be a dick about it:
Hom: "What was your seat number?"
Now, if readers will recall I had boarded the bus at about 9PM just before it departed from a bustling market in Phnom Penh. There is no way I was going to know the number but offered a reasonable guess:
Me: 13B I believe.
Him: I will check...(5 minutes later, long after all others had left)...No, they say that there was noone in 13B.
Me: Look, I was the only foreigner on the bus for its entire trip. If you cannot verify my passage by the manifest then you can simply ask the company headquarters (I then proceded to show him the logo of the travel agency that booked it).
He finally tired of the game and asked for my passport and departure documents. It was then that I realised that my US Passport was missing- the passport I was/am travelling on. I desperately tossed my kitbag with a gaggle of Cambodians staring at me as if I were an insect in a petrie dish, studying me oh so intently. Minutes later I found it and quickly made my way to Immigration. Stamped out I made my way to Customs, received the same and onto Thailand...
Inside the office you hand a bus employee your passport and departure forms, he checks that they are in order, makes a notation that speeds you through Immigration as well as contacting the minivan on the Thai side that will take you to Bangkok. As I said, I was majorly fucked up as in disarray. When the employee in the office asked for my ticket I realised that the driver had never given it back to me after I boarded in Phnom Pemh. The employee tried to be a dick about it:
Hom: "What was your seat number?"
Now, if readers will recall I had boarded the bus at about 9PM just before it departed from a bustling market in Phnom Penh. There is no way I was going to know the number but offered a reasonable guess:
Me: 13B I believe.
Him: I will check...(5 minutes later, long after all others had left)...No, they say that there was noone in 13B.
Me: Look, I was the only foreigner on the bus for its entire trip. If you cannot verify my passage by the manifest then you can simply ask the company headquarters (I then proceded to show him the logo of the travel agency that booked it).
He finally tired of the game and asked for my passport and departure documents. It was then that I realised that my US Passport was missing- the passport I was/am travelling on. I desperately tossed my kitbag with a gaggle of Cambodians staring at me as if I were an insect in a petrie dish, studying me oh so intently. Minutes later I found it and quickly made my way to Immigration. Stamped out I made my way to Customs, received the same and onto Thailand...