Fun with bureaucracy…
Day 39
Start – Neak Loeung, Cambodia Finish –Phan Thiet, Vietnam Distance travelled – roughly 400km Words by – Johnny Bang |
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The day started at Neak Loeung with one goal – get to the beach this afternoon. This will involve a border crossing into Vietnam and about 400km on the road.
We got a good early start from Neak Loeung, as daylight confirmed last night’s assumption that we were not in the nice part of town. In fact, as we left it appeared the town lacked a ‘nice’ part all together.
The ride to the border was not unusual (in that it was a familiar 50-90km/hr slog punctuated by death-buses, potholes and missing sections of road). Pulling up to the Cambodian border building, we were told by some other travellers that we would not be able to bring our bikes in – they had tried in the past and failed. I had never intended into coming into Vietnam and had accordingly done no research. A quick chat with Dan and we decided to try anyway.
Here is the resulting 2 hours of running around in 40 degree heat playing charades with people in uniform - summarised for the players at home:
1. Go to Cambodian Immigration, they won’t stamp your passport out until they are satisfied Vietnam will let you in with the bikes – so they direct you to Vietnam Customs down the road to confirm Vietnam will stamp the bikes in.
2. Go to Vietnam Customs and explain (charades style) you have a motorbike (vroom vroom) and you need your paperwork stamped (stampy stamp motion). They should agree in principal that they will stamp the paperwork.
3. Back to Cambodian immigration with the good news - only they think the Vietnam side is a bit shifty (and may change their minds), so they want to physically see the stamp for the bike into Vietnam before they stamp your passport out.
4. Back to Vietnam Customs with the paperwork for the stamp. But hang on, they won’t stamp the bike in until it is stamped out of Cambodia (we are now in a chicken- egg type scenario).
5. OK, new building, Cambodian customs now, getting bike stamped out of Cambodia (my guy was hopeless and stamped the Vietnam page resulting in more complications - but this is the simplified version so I will leave that fiasco out).
6. Back to Vietnam Customs now for bike-in-stamp.
7. Now back to Cambodian Immigration for passport-out-stamp.
8. Now to Vietnam Immigration for passport in stamp.
9. Congratulations – you have gotten your bike into Vietnam, unfortunately you are now sweaty and dehydrated and stress has aged you 5 years in the last 2 hours.
I rewarded myself with an unpleasant, warm beverage from a stall in which the sweet old lady proceeded to pocket all my change. Welcome to Vietnam.
We rode all day to Phan Thiet, the roads in Vietnam better in quality than Cambodia. Everyone rides a bit slower in Vietnam, and there is a cap of 150cc for motorbikes. I am not going to admit on the internet that the rest of the day was spent at twice the speed limit, but when the speed limit is only 40km/hr for motorbikes, you can make your own assumptions.
Late in the afternoon, and about 1km from finally hitting the beach we got our 3rd puncture of the trip, without much communication we set about at the task, and the change was done in about 20minutes. I only stopped helping to take some photos and laugh (on the inside) as an old local over-helped Dan by showing him how to over-tighten axle bolts and bend split pins into obsolescence.
As sun fell a jeep pulled up and the driver told us he has a bar a few km’s down the beach with a cheap guesthouse. So we finished the tyre and went to have a look….
We got a good early start from Neak Loeung, as daylight confirmed last night’s assumption that we were not in the nice part of town. In fact, as we left it appeared the town lacked a ‘nice’ part all together.
The ride to the border was not unusual (in that it was a familiar 50-90km/hr slog punctuated by death-buses, potholes and missing sections of road). Pulling up to the Cambodian border building, we were told by some other travellers that we would not be able to bring our bikes in – they had tried in the past and failed. I had never intended into coming into Vietnam and had accordingly done no research. A quick chat with Dan and we decided to try anyway.
Here is the resulting 2 hours of running around in 40 degree heat playing charades with people in uniform - summarised for the players at home:
1. Go to Cambodian Immigration, they won’t stamp your passport out until they are satisfied Vietnam will let you in with the bikes – so they direct you to Vietnam Customs down the road to confirm Vietnam will stamp the bikes in.
2. Go to Vietnam Customs and explain (charades style) you have a motorbike (vroom vroom) and you need your paperwork stamped (stampy stamp motion). They should agree in principal that they will stamp the paperwork.
3. Back to Cambodian immigration with the good news - only they think the Vietnam side is a bit shifty (and may change their minds), so they want to physically see the stamp for the bike into Vietnam before they stamp your passport out.
4. Back to Vietnam Customs with the paperwork for the stamp. But hang on, they won’t stamp the bike in until it is stamped out of Cambodia (we are now in a chicken- egg type scenario).
5. OK, new building, Cambodian customs now, getting bike stamped out of Cambodia (my guy was hopeless and stamped the Vietnam page resulting in more complications - but this is the simplified version so I will leave that fiasco out).
6. Back to Vietnam Customs now for bike-in-stamp.
7. Now back to Cambodian Immigration for passport-out-stamp.
8. Now to Vietnam Immigration for passport in stamp.
9. Congratulations – you have gotten your bike into Vietnam, unfortunately you are now sweaty and dehydrated and stress has aged you 5 years in the last 2 hours.
I rewarded myself with an unpleasant, warm beverage from a stall in which the sweet old lady proceeded to pocket all my change. Welcome to Vietnam.
We rode all day to Phan Thiet, the roads in Vietnam better in quality than Cambodia. Everyone rides a bit slower in Vietnam, and there is a cap of 150cc for motorbikes. I am not going to admit on the internet that the rest of the day was spent at twice the speed limit, but when the speed limit is only 40km/hr for motorbikes, you can make your own assumptions.
Late in the afternoon, and about 1km from finally hitting the beach we got our 3rd puncture of the trip, without much communication we set about at the task, and the change was done in about 20minutes. I only stopped helping to take some photos and laugh (on the inside) as an old local over-helped Dan by showing him how to over-tighten axle bolts and bend split pins into obsolescence.
As sun fell a jeep pulled up and the driver told us he has a bar a few km’s down the beach with a cheap guesthouse. So we finished the tyre and went to have a look….
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