Moc Bai / Bavet border crossing
Trip Start
May 03, 2007
1
22
65
Trip End
??? ??, 2008
Moc Bai,
Vietnam
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
No romantic Mekong boat trip to cross the border.
Saving $5 per each on visa charges was our aim. All we needed to do was apply for the visas ourselves, rather than pay the comission for our 'guide' to do it for us. Easy.
The visa cost was $20......that is, provided that you pay in $. If however, like us, you only have Vietnamese Dong, you need to pay $25. It would've been easier for us to get our bus guide to get them for us. So, we're $5 out of pocket each and having to fill out all of the paperwork too.
Once through the first section of passport control you need to fill out another form to state that you are in good health on entering the country. They then demand your çertificate of vaccination for Yellow fever. Of course we don't have one of those. The only certificate I have is the scar on my shoulder. I showed him this and he seemed satisfied. I can imagine that's another money spinner for the border guards.
Hey ho, we were through, along with the other 4 people who had joined us on our save $5 crusade, only to find..............yes you guessed it..........our bus had left without us. We had no idea where it had gone to and all of our bags were on it. Oh joy.
After a few moments the realisation struck each one of us and panic began to set in. Chin found a bus going in the opposite direction from the same tour company that we were using and enlisted the help of its bus guide. After about 5 frantic minutes of waiting he told us to wait in the car park and that someone would be along to help us. So, we did that. A few more minutes went by and our original bus guide appeared.....phew. He didn't look too pleased though. He got some moto drivers to take us 2km down the road to where the bus was parked to re-unite us with our seats. Turns out that the drvier should never have left without us. We're still not sure if this was our 'lesson' for having done him out of $5 comission or not. We'd like to think not.
