Aranyaprathet - Poipet

Since there was a 3 day weekend this weekend (Queen’s Birthday: health, long life and happiness to Queen Sirikit!), and my buddy had to make a border run to “refresh” his visa, I made a trip to the closest border to Bangkok today. The closest border, is a Cambodian border, Aranyaprathet on the Thai side, and Poipet on the Cambodian side. This border town is often called the wild wild west…or rather the wild wild east in this case.

We woke up in the super early morning, to take a bus at 3:30am to avoid all the riff-raff. There are casinos at the border, located in this somewhat unregulated zone between the Cambodian and Thai borders (but really on the Cambodian side it seems. Well there are casino buses that leave from Bangkok at around 6 and 7 am, and the bus ride takes about 3 ½ hours. Taking the casino bus costs about $2.50, taking the regular bus (which we took) costs about $4.50, and then there are other buses geared toward foreigners that cost about $25. Getting to the border anywhere after 9:30 am, means long waits in queues trying to process through immigration. This is due to all the Thai/Korean/Japanese gamblers, western backpackers, and western visa runners arriving pretty much all around that time. Our waking up so early and arriving at the border as it opened paid off; we breezed through immigration and had the morning to experience the casinos without too many crowds.

As we arrived at the border, we experienced going against the flow of an ocean of humanity. In the morning, thousands of Cambodians stream into the Thai side of the border, since end-products are sold cheaper on the Thai side than they are on the Cambodian side. (I am guessing this is due to ease of logistics and market opportunity in Thailand). There are ALL manner of people pulling and pushing carts, driving trucks, carrying stuff back and forth across the border. What an outstanding example of cross-border trade and commerce Poipet is. Check out some of the pictures here.

Border residents are able to sail easily through immigration, as they have the opportunity to buy border day passes, and just simply flash their passes at the border guards. After we processed out of Thailand, into Cambodia (to get back into Thailand, one must process through Cambodia) and out of Cambodia again, we explored some of the big casinos set up in the zone between the two borders. I do want to take the opportunity to brag just a little bit here though. After we paid the $20 visa fee for Cambodia, that is all we’re supposed to pay to process through Cambodia. However at Poipet immigration, corruption is pretty rampant, and westerners get hustled for additional moneys by the various immigration officials. Reasons range from “visa stamping fee” to “not having bird flu inoculation fee”. It’s not too much money, generally it just tags on another $8 or so. Anyway, my buddy processed in first and immediately got hit up for the “visa stamping fees.” He paid immediately, so when I stepped up I got hit up as well. Well, I started smiling and laughing with the immigration officials saying, “C’mon man, I know how this works….c’mon, you’re going to have hundreds of tourists coming here right behind me, you’ll make all kinda money…let me through…I’m only half the size of a regular person so give me a discount.” This got them laughing quite a bit, and they let me go through without having to pay the “extra” fees. It is SOOO important never to get angry, or lose one’s cool in these situations, or to act arrogant. Smile, make jokes, be persistent but pleasant, and who knows, ya might just get lucky and get through without a hassle.

After immigration, we wandered into the casinos. We got a buffet breakfast for about $4, and then explored the game floor. Blackjack is not very popular at all in these casinos, so I was kinda disappointed. There are tons of Baccarat tables, Diamond War, Pai Gow, and a bunch of other games I had no idea what they were. My buddy sat down at a baccarat table and proceeded to play. I wandered around and finally found some video 8/9 blackjack table. There was one guy playing at the table, who was quite friendly and invited me to sit down and teach me how to play. As it turns out, this guy works in one of the other casinos, so he knew how to take advantage of some tendencies in the video 8-9 machine to perhaps improve ones odds. Well, he explained this to me, and I ended up winning back the entire cost of my trip (bus/visa/food), so that was quite fun. As I sat there, because I’m a dwarf, and also a westerner I get a lot of interest and attention into what I’m doing, so lots of people would come by and watch me play or talk to me, or whatever. Man, talk about a lot of pressure when you’re sitting there at the table alone (the guy who taught me had to leave after a bit), and having a small crowd of people sitting behind ya watching you play and groaning or cheering at every win or loss. None the less, I had a good time, and met a lot of very friendly people. Well, my buddy got cleaned out at Baccarat, and I had had my fill of gambling, so after a few hours, we figured we’d get outta here and head back to Bangkok.

Heading back onto the Thai side of the border, we had missed one feature of the border by arriving so early: child beggars. Lots and lots of them, and they are quite nice and quite pleasant…offering to hold umbrella for you to shade from the sun, carry bags (if you have any bags), offer assistance on where to go, etc. But, they are all asking for a few baht. This isn’t so bad, but if you do happen to give out a few baht, well it’s all over…the word is out and the person who gave out some money proceeds to get swarmed. Now unfortunately, because I am different, I experienced this swarming without having to give anything out. I think all the western tourists were quite grateful I was at the border that day, ‘cause I literally had a mob scene of kids surrounding me and walking with me along the border. What can you do? If I give a few baht out, does the money really go to the kids, or to some begging border syndicate business? Plus, my gosh there were just so many kids, and I just didn’t have that much change on me. My solution, but a ton of fruit and drinks and hand it out to the kids. Seemed to work quite well, and now for sure I won’t be forgotten at this border if I ever come back again. I wish I had taken a picture of the scene of all these kids mobbing around me, but one has to be quite careful of pickpockets and stow away wallets, cameras, and this sort of stuff securely in front pockets or backpack held IN FRONT of the body. I was finally able to get a reprieve from the kids (again I want to stress, they were all quite nice and pleasant, just kinda difficult to manage so many and all asking for baht.), when some Thai army guards chased them away from me. Very soon after, we jumped on a tuk-tuk to head back to the bus station, and caught the next bus back to Bangkok.