Making our way into Vietnam from Cambodia was not as easy as we thought it would be. We expected to find taxis once we had made our way across the Vietnamese border. Instead, we found half a dozen motorbike drivers lounging in the shade of a giant tree. We took one look at them and knew we were going to get gouged. There wasn’t another soul in sight. We were already marked for the day.
They wanted $16 US to take us to the bus station in Chau Doc. John immediately started arguing with them, which only aggravated the situation and made it worse. Sometimes he’s very good at negotiating, but when he threatened to walk, I interrupted by telling the driver we would pay $10 US each (highway robbery) and they could take it or leave it.
The drivers reluctantly agreed to the price, and swung our packs up on top of the gas tanks. They stuck filthy helmets on our heads as we settled in with the rest of our gear under our arms. I gripped the bike firmly with my legs since my arms were full and sent a silent prayer to heaven as we dashed madly around wild chickens and pigs and bumped over rickety old bridges. I prayed my driver wouldn’t hit a bump and send me flying. At one point, I lost sight of John and Moira and realised for the second time that day that I was completely at the mercy of these people. Anything could happen to me at this remote border in Vietnam and no one would know any better.
My arms were numb when we finally arrived in Chau Doc thirty minutes later. We were dumped at a shitty little shop selling bus tickets with no buses in sight. That’s because there were no buses or bus station. By then, it was close to three o’clock and we hadn’t eaten a thing since that morning. We paid $15 US for our tickets and were told the bus would come at 3pm, putting our arrival time in Ho Chi Minh City around 9pm. A few minutes after we made our purchase, we were told the bus had broken down and we wouldn’t be leaving until 4pm. We couldn’t do anything but wait. In the meantime, I managed to find some noodles for us to eat, but Moira seemed a bit uninterested in eating after I told her not to eat the cube of pig’s blood floating in her noodle broth.
The bus arrived two hours after three other suckers wandered in and joined our group. That’s when we discovered there really was no bus. We would be traveling by mini-van and we had to share our seats with nine other passengers for the next six hours. I thought John was going to lose it when they insisted we had to sit in the back. Apparently, our tickets also had seat numbers and our seats were at the back on a dirty cloth seat with springs poking through. My seat was broken and sitting at an angle. John had his long 6″9 frame crammed in to an impossibly small space. This drive was going to be six hours of hell. As we were leaving town, we spotted the real bus station. We were spitting mad.
I’m not going to get into the details of that long, horrible journey. Let’s just say it’s a journey I wish to forget about. We arrived shortly after midnight after traveling for 14 hours from Sihanoukiville, Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City. After our entrance into Cambodia, Moira had had enough and put us up for a luxurious stay at The Renaissance Hotel. It was like being in paradise after some of the places we’d stayed at over the past three weeks. One thing’s for sure. The adventures never stop in South East Asia.
We made our journey from this border in April 2007. Apparently, this scam is still going on because I just found this travelers’ account of what happened at the same border in March 2008.
From Tales of Asia
Chau Doc bus station scam again (March 2008):I just re-read your tale of the scam warning at the Chau Doc border. In late December (’07) we HAD THE EXACT SAME EXPERIENCE. We were staying at the Orchid Guest House in Kampot and had a great time for 2 nights. The manager arranged a taxi for my wife and I for $25.00 to the border. We had debated getting a taxi to Phnom Penh then taking the boat down and would have done this but since we had just driven down from P.P. we didn’t feel like going back! Anyway, we went through similar events with the border officials, waiting a few minutes, filling out forms, then being told we were through. Not a bad deal, the whole thing took about 15 minutes, tops. Lots of people staring at us since we were the only Western-looking people around.
Then, we spotted the evil brigade of moto drivers, all obviously led by one sinister-looking Fagin type in charge. They wanted $15.00 each! We cited reports of $7.00 each and they laughed. So we started walking. A few yards later the leader caught up with us and we started the bargaining process again. We settled for $19.00 total — I only had that plus a $50 dollar bill and there was no way I was even going to let him know I had that.
Anyway, we got to the bogus “bus station” and tried communicating with these as*holes that this wasn’t the PUBLIC bus station but they insisted that it was. We tried telling the drivers (who we hadn’t paid yet), the woman behind the desk at the bogus bus station, even a customer who looked really embarrassed (one of the scam artists must have told her to split because she disappeared real fast) Then the drivers demanded $10.00 each for a total of $20.00. I guess $1.00 means a lot to them. I told them that the deal we made with their boss was for $19.00 and they started yelling. They looked pretty shocked when I yelled back. I was ready to hit one of them I was so pis*ed off. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I did…
Anyway, we backed down. I didn’t want to wander around a foreign city without a map trying to find the public bus station, and with such unfriendly people lurking about so we paid for the stupid minibus (I think it was $12 each) and then we (surprise!) drove to the real bus station. From there we road an increasingly crammed minibus to Saigon. What a pain. At least we got there by 7:00 pm.
We had more terrible adventures in Saigon with moto and taxi drivers trying to rip us off (we were successful — this time — in preventing this) but overall, we were having such a bad time we ended up staying 2 days instead of 3 (and flew to Hoi An where we had a great time!)
One thing is for sure, I don’t ever want to travel to South Vietnam again.
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hola carrie!
didn’t know your trip to vietnam to start off as such….gosh what a nightmare. i do remember a few incidents where Caucasian looking tourists were hassled by them people. i didn’t experience any problems with transport probably cos I don’t look like a Caucasian tourist or I am probably too large for them crotch rockets.
Hello, hello AT! Yeah. It was an interesting introduction to say the least. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t all bad cuz it makes for a great story. This happened last year though. I’m somewhat dismayed to read that this scam is still running at the Chau Doc border.
John managed to cram his 6’9 frame onto one of those mini-mopeds. It was very very funny, but none of us were laughing when we finally arrived.
Motorbikes and buses are fraught with danger. I’ve been there, I sympathize.
Just found this site after doing a search on “chau doc” — trying to find photos of this filthy place for my website. I’m the one who wrote the “tales of Asia” entry. I still get steamed when I think of the Chau Doc moto brigade mafia and how I allowed myself to get scammed by those evil men.
It’s weird — Vietnam is much better off economically than either Cambodia or Laos yet we had great times in both those countries. Spend a whole week in Cambodia — wonderful people. I would not go back to South Vietnam if you paid me. The most horrible scam artists I’ve ever met. Hanoi, ironically enough, was better, with it’s “do whatever, just stay out of my way” attitude.
Hi,
I need to get from Chau Doc to Ho Chi Minh in a day on the 7th.
I’ve heard bus is the way to go, but want to pre-book my tickets. Does anyone know a legitamate way to book this transfer?
Thanks Nadia
Interesting to read, what a terrible experience you had, I’d be pretty fired up myself to have to ride all that way ins such incredible discomfort, at cost, after being deceived. I would have lost it, passing the bus station like that. My only rip off that occurred in Saigon on 15 July – just 3 weeks ago at time of writing, was outside the city’s famous Ben Thanh market, a cyclo driver, like many simply wouldn’t leave me alone, so, when I finished perusing the place, as my hotel was a few bocks away, perhaps 1km) I wasn’t sure exactly how to get there, no the problem of crossing streets with motorbikes all driving in the opposite sides to me (from New Zealand) I thought fine, we’ll do it. I asked and reconfirmed on the price – 15 000VND. He seemed friendly enough, spoke good English so he was talking like an old friend. So, off we went for the short trip. And since 15 000 isn’t much for hard manul labour in the heat, I decided I’d at least buy him a bottle of water and the 7/11. Well, after maybe 5 mins he stopped 3 blocks short of the street in which the hotel is, and said cyclos aren’t allowed in that area. Funny, as I’d seem them a plenty there. But the real shock was when he told me the fare was 150 000 VND! That’s more than the price of a taxi to travel 4 kms back home in NZ, and he hadn’t even brought me to the hotel! (Fortunately I could see a distinctive neon sign down a street so I knew how to get there.
Anyway, I was furious and had a stand up row, saying “you said 15, 000!” He keps saying “no no no, 150 000,” I started shouting loudly “it’s a scam!” His face puckered up and he looked angry yet fearful, he got 100 000 by which time I was really erupting and he rapidly pedaled away. I can understand the poverty people here suffer, and maybe overcharging a bit, but not 1000%, and just being plain devious from what he’d said. Certainly during my time there, I saw some sights that tore me inside, like a young guy aged early 20s, obviously been employed in the dangerous task of clearing landmines from the war, with only one leg, the other just half his thigh. His pleading eyes made mind water and I gave him some money, if his English had been better I’d have also invited him to have a meal with me.
Paul,
How annoying! I generally let my husband deal with these kinds of things. He’s far better at keeping his temper than I am. Thanks for stopping by!
Vietscam. In Asia if you fix a price it’s best to write it down, always have a notebook.Then if they up the price you just give them original agreed price and walk. They going to call the cops? The police are lazy, they only ever do some thing for money, so if they did come, which would be a miracle akin to real pennies falling from heaven, they’d charge the cylco too.
In Phnom Penh you get a bus that takes you to HCM, costs about $15, arrange at your Guest House or another nearby. You get off at the border, go through Customs and Immigration and get back on the bus and go into HCM.
You’ll get the same scam at the Cambodian borders too, going in.