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You are here: Home / Archives for robbery

Not exactly grandtheft auto

November 29, 2010 By Danny

“That’ll be $2,” we were told by the border agent. We asked for what and were told that it was the ‘holiday’ fee because it was a Sunday. Never mind that neither Cambodia nor Laos are Christian countries or that any such fee officially exists, this is the way this border is run and there is no choice given but to participate. Requests for receipts go unanswered as the border agent, wearing his undershirt, can’t even look you in the eye. The bus who arrived the next day, late because of mechanical difficulties, was charged $7 per person.

IMGP6421We arrived to Laos around dusk and were let off of our bus in the dark. Somehow we made our way to the island ‘paradise’ we were set to explore for the next few days. We found Don Det to be so wonderful that we couldn’t stand to wait to leave…so the next day around noon that’s what we did, and that’s when we started to have even more problems.

Once on the mainland I realized we’d left the cell phone behind and called for it to be sent over on the next boat. We’d left it behind at the agency who sold us our bus ticket and the agent still had it, identified it, and said I’d need to pay the boatman…to which I agreed. A few minutes later he called the person with us back and said it was ‘stolen’ in the 2 minutes he was on the phone with me.

Right. Not only was that @$$ probably talking to me while using our phone, but his accomplice, the man standing with me whose phone I was using, repeatedly asked me how much it was worth.

Next up. The bus was late. It should have arrived before 4pm. It didn’t arrive until nearly 9pm, about 5 hours late. Over that time, my friend the cell phone thief has had many beers. It is now very dark and we’ve been waiting on the side of the road for the bus for hours. Around 7pm he decides he is hungry and wants to put us all in his car and we’ll wait for the bus at the restaurant 3km up the road. He is drunk so we say no. He keeps trying. It is dark. I sneak around the side of the car and feel around for….yup….the keys are sitting right in the ignition. So I steal them. We’re not going anywhere.

Is that grand theft auto? Beats me!

IMGP0342I stay out of the ensuing argument, as I have the man’s car keys in my pocket. Somehow though, he realizes we’re not going anywhere and give up. Then decides to light a fire using rice stalks (fresh ones, ya’know, still green and filled with…water) and shake burning sticks at us as they go out. He is upset when we are unimpressed, you wouldn’t have been either. He was still drunk but as Winston Churchill might remark, in the morning he was still going to be stupid.

I ended up hiding the car keys right in front of the driver’s side tire. It was dark and they wouldn’t be seen until they were looked for. It was good I did this because as we were boarding our bus when it did finally come he came in our direction and started yelling and screaming about his car keys. I just told him he was drunk and he should go away. His friend quickly stopped him, we assume because he found the keys on the ground where I’d left them. He may have helped to steal our cell phone, but we got a good laugh at his expense.

IF YOU GO: On the Islands you will find nothing to do but sit in a hammock in a mosquito filled area. There are some waterfalls to look at (nice) and the river dolphins to see if you didn’t do so in Cambodia, but all this will only take you a day tops. When you decide its time to leave your mosquito and roach infested bungalow (cheap, but that is literally the only option) just take the VIP bus in the AM north, don’t take the afternoon bus that is coming from Cambodia.

Filed Under: Asia & Oceania, Headline, Laos Tagged With: border crossing, headaches, robbery, transportation

Thwarted!

August 4, 2009 By Jillian

From Banos we spent virtually the next 48 hours on a series of buses to make it to Peru. From Banos we went to Ambato, Riobama, Loja and Macara. Well you can imagine how much fun that was. Considering we actually made it through Ecuador with all of our stuff (hooray!), we decided not to tempt fate and decided to cross into Peru at the Macara/La Tina border crossing on advice of other travelers and our guidebook. The more popular crossing, along the coast at Tumbes, is apparently hectic, chaotic and full of con artists, thieves, and counterfeit money.

To say this border crossing was tranquillo is an understatement. With virtually no one else at the border, save a few military guards, we had to yell and bang on the door at the Peruvian immigration office to get someone to stamp our passports. No line, no lengthy forms, no customs check. Every other border we’ve been to has had sufficient public transportation, but then again the other crossings all had lines and people. Resigning ourselves to what was sure to be a VERY expensive cab ride to the Sullana, almost 140 km a way, we were shocked when negotiations started at $5 per person. Negotiating the driver down to about $3 we sped along the road arriving in Sullana just before dusk. A city ruled by mototaxi’s, our guidebook noted that Sullana was dangerous after dark so we headed directly to the long-distance bus station.

Chugging along in our moto-taxi with our backpacks sitting on an uncovered shelf behind the moto-taxi we wove through the alleys and dry aqueducts of the city. Waiting to make a right turn back onto a road, I turned my head slightly to check our bags. Two men jumped out of the moto-taxi behind us and approached both sides of our moto-taxi. Before I knew it the man on my side was trying to push himself into the cab and had his hand on my pocket. Screaming and pushing him as hard as I could out of the cab, it was over before Danny even realized exactly what was going on. We had successfully thwarted their attempt to rob us! Shaken, we urged the driver onto the bus station. Looking back on it we can’t decide if our moto-taxi driver was involved in the scheme as his first question to us was “did they take anything?” not “Are you ok?”. Large signs in the bus station indicate to only take taxi’s and moto-taxi’s approved by the station (inevitably more expensive, but certainly more secure) due to the high number of taxi robberies and assaults. It was a lovely introduction to Peru.

Sitting on the most luxurious night bus we’ve ever been on, we quickly fell asleep and put the whole moto-taxi theft incident behind us.

Filed Under: Peru, South America Tagged With: border crossing, Peru, robbery

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