Trip to Cambodia, tips to avoid travel traps

Overcharged taxi fare or the fraud services of counterfeit travel agencies, these negative experiences causes Jayne Gorman a lot of trouble and feel very disappointed for the trips to Cambodia and Vietnam. Following the sharing and advices of Jayne Gorman – an Australian traveler and blogger from Sydney, who has travelled to more than 60 countries, on Skyscanner Australia on May 26th on the tricks that he has been through while travelling to Cambodia and Vietnam.

1. “The bus station is closed your bus has gone.”

We travelled from Cambodia to Vietnam via a cruise on Mekong Delta. Our plan was to catch a bus to Ho Chi Minh City as soon as we arrived. However, 2 minutes after being on a cyclo and asking the rider to bring us to the bus station, the rider said: “The bus station is closed your bus has gone.” We know that this was not true and we even checked with the tour guide on the cruise. I told the cyclo rider firmly : “Please take us to the bus station” but he refused.

Despite of our insistence, the cyclo rider stopped at the house of his relatives on an outlying countryside and transfer us to an old car of his relatives. We kept asking the cyclo rider to bring us back so we can catch another cyclo or taxi but in vain. Finally, we gave up and went with his friend to Ho Chi Minh city after 6 hours. It was late in comparison with our initial plan but at least we were safe.

How to avoid this trape: From now on, we will try book the car via hotels or well-known travel agencies and ask for advices from other visitors. This method may be more expensive but we can at least have a more trustworthy driver and we can ask him to the exact places that we want.

2. “Your hotel is not good.” 

In Cambodia a few day before, we also have the same issue with another driver. When taking a tuktuk and give the driver the address of our hotel, we were asked : “Have you paid for this place ?”. Though his question was strange, I honestly reply : “No, why did you ask so ?”. He replied : “This hotel is not good, we will take you to a better place.”

Then, he took us to a hotel where he received a commission and not the recommended hotel by travel guide book that we booked. The “Lake View” hotel that this driver introduced to us seem to be nice but actually, our room did not have a window to view the lake as how it is named.

How to avoid this trap: Follow your initial plan and tell the driver that you paid for the hotel. If you have not paid yet, don’t forget to have a quick check of the hotel room before giving them the money. This will help you to eliminate the problem of getting a “non-window” room like us.

3. Unstable fare for cyclo

I always had troubles each time trying to catch a taxi in Vietnam. A cyclo rider pushed the fare 10 times higher than normal and after taking us to the destination, he insisted that we heard wrongly the initial price but we know that we did not because I always use finger to check the price the riders. Another trick that related to drivers is they often accept to take you and your friends with a fixed price then another drivers suddenly appeared and replacing the original one with the fare doubled. 

How to avoid this trap: If you have found a taxi with measured fare by kilometres then you may have higher chance to be cheated. You may have more funs with the short trips and I often tips for honest drivers.

4. “This tour does not exist”

Our “tricky” trips in Vietnam ended the way it started. On the last day in Ho Chi Minh city, we booked a tour to Cu Chi tunnels provided by a travel agency in the city. As guided in the first place, we waited in the hotel, however, after a few hours of waiting, the car supposed to take us there did not come. The next day, we went back our home country with a lot of disappoitnment.

How to avoid this trap: Instead choosing a cheap travel agency for saving a little bit of money, we wished that we booked via a hotel or a more trustworthy website.