Poipet II

Story so far:

1. I'm in Poipet (Cambodia).
2. The bus station is run by the local mafia.
3. The mafia pays the police.
4. The police keep the locals under control by prohibiting competition from other small taxi drivers and transport companies.

After being used as a bate, I was back at the bus station separated from the rest of the group and my buddy Igor.

As soon as the taxi stops and I get off to talk to Goon 1 and the rest of his mafia crew. I tell him to fuck off and inform everybody at the bus station to NOT take any buses or taxis from the bus station. While I am doing this the 2 Germans get scared and decide to pay $60 US to get a taxi to Siem Reap. Pussies....

Sidebar - I was informed later that the 2 Germans were pulled over on their way to Siem Reap and got charged an extra "highway fee" by the local police (or some dude in a police costume).

Determined not to get ripped off and give money to the local mafia, I decided to talk to another group of people. There I met Matt the brave English fellow (if you are reading this Matt, I sincerely respect you for your bravery and courage), Hoshi the Japanese, and 2 Swedish girls who later ditched us.

After explaining the whole deal to Matt, we decided to venture out to the edge of the town to see if we can pick up local taxi instead of the one run by the mafia.

When we started walking towards the main road, a new fellow that I have not seen before approached us on bike and started speaking in an angry tone. He stated that he was the police and that we had to take the bus or taxi from Atta or we will be picked up by the local mafia and etc, etc...

I was a bit hesitent as first as I did not know if this fellow was really the local police but Matt directly asks him to see his badge. At first the fellow seemed hesitent but he eventually produced a card that said "Immigration Card". Immediately after seeing this card Matt said

"I saw this card a hundred times and I don't want to see it again. This is fucking bullshit"

and grab the card from the guy forcefully and threw it on the ground. At this point the fellow claiming to be the police got even more angry and said

"I cut you now!"

to Matt and started to rummage through his pocket for something. At this point I thought he was looking for a pocket knife or perhaps a gun so I immediately threw my back pack on the ground and got prepared to back Matt for violence that may ensue. When the guy pulled out a small cell phone and pretended to start dialing for back up I was extremely relieved and felt that I had accidently soiled myself :-)

Observing the obvious anger of the guy Matt immediately changed the course of the argument and apologized for throwing his "badge" on the ground. At this point we told him to go away and we walked towards the main road.

Upon walking for about 10 minutes on the main road towards Siem Reap, we were approached by a local on a dusty yellow moped who discreetly told us to continue to walk away from Poipet towards Siem Reap and a taxi will be waiting for us. A few moments later, the fellow who claimed to be the police approached us again on his moped and offered a taxi for 3 of us at $60 US. I offered him $45 for the 3 of us and he kept persisting on $60. We then told him that we were talking to Siem Reap and to leave us alone. After saying something in broken english, he took off.
About 5 minutes later he came back saying that he can arrange a taxi for the 3 of us for $45. I told him no and lowered the price to $30. He got pissed off and stated that I originally said $45 before. I told him to fuck off again and in about 5 minutes he did.

Finally we arrive at the edge of the town. At the left corner were standing the guy who claimed to be the police, the local on the yellow moped who approached us earlier, and another local on a black moped. Each of them had there own taxis and obviously were very hungry for our US $.

We took the taxi offered by the fellow who claimed he was the police because it was $30.

Lesson learned: What matters is the principle, not the money.