Cambodia Tourist Traps

We generally had a carefree time in Cambodia, but there was on instance that nearly ruined our trip. We wanted to go to jungle outpost Banlung in the far north of the country by local buses and boats. To save time, we had planned on flying back to Phnom Penh. Since the flights were on a very limited schedule, we found it would be more convenient to fly up and take the boat/bus trip back. So, we booked the ticket and headedly to the airport the next morning with no worries. When we went to check in, we were told that the ticket was not valid as it was issued in Siem Reap, not Phnom Penh. I calmly explained we had just bought the ticket in PP the previous morning. The counter person was adamant that it was not the case. I asked to talk to a manager and was joined by another traveler in the same predicament. The manager explained that some unscrupulous travel agencies sold these invalid tickets to travelers heading north with one-way flights. They figured that they would never see them again and that most would just fork over the money at the airport for the ticket. The problem was that it was a real issued ticket, just from the wrong city. This seemed like a real flaw in the system to me if they were allowing such agencies to even sell their ticket! I explained that we had come halfway around the world to Cambodia and now we were having our trips ruined by what could be easily rectified by them. The flight was half-empty so why not just give us a new ticket and then come down hard on the agency for selling an obvious scam ticket. That was impossible they said, we would have to either pay for a new ticket and collect the money from the agency on our return or go back and get our money now and return for a later flight. The only problem with that logic was there were no more flights until the following week!

We forced the manager to call the agency while we were there and explain we were coming for a refund. We went back and demanded not only the money for the ticket but also the taxi fare to and from the airport, which he sheepishly handed over. So, we missed a trip to the jungle for what is one real lag behind Western standards in the terms of customer service.

We got back into town and didn't want to spend more time in Phnom Penh so we headed to the bus terminal and took the next bus to anywhere it was going. It just happened to be Sihanoukville and the rest is beachy history. As you can see, even ducks enjoy the beach in Cambodia. I thought seeing monks on the beach was strange enough but monks AND ducks together....that just might have topped the jungle after all. ;)

Cambodia Tourist Traps

Visiting Cambodia?

Visiting Cambodia?