Ripped In Thailand

I feel like i am in the eddie of a river, stuck here in Bangkok. We were looking around for Visa’s but can’t seem to get away with out paying over $100 for Cambo and Nam. Malika and i went looking for the Cambodian Embassy just to see if the price was a bit lower. When we had walked all over town and back. We asked a local and he pointed us to the TAT office. Tourist Authority of Thailand, so we went there. We were told that we might be able to get a visa at the Cambo border, but Nam had to be done in advance. A rush visa was something like $300. We were also told that USA held passports paid more than any other country. We ended up getting the two for Johnny and i at $111 per person.To  be picked up 5 days later. Malika put here order in for Nam but had to take a bus the following day to Cambodia any way so that she could leave and come right back in since she had overstayed her 1 month in Thailand. TAT sold her a $45 bus ticket since trains did not run to the border and buses only once a day. On our way home from TAT we stopped at the internet and Malika looked on the Lonely Planet website. I sure wish we had done this first.  There are three trains a day and plenty of buses. Malika paid $10 RT, extended her Thai visa for free and got a Cambodian visa for US $20. B.S.!! she was able to cancel and get her $45 back on the bus, she said she had an emergency and had to get down to Singapore. I went down on Saturday morning with the same excuse, but the guy had already turned in my visa into the Cambodian Embassy, so?? Today we are going down to, fingers crossed get some money back on our Nam visa. Since we have learned that they are one day rushed $30 from Phnom Pen or $20 in three days. This is the Government Agency that has duped us not some private joint. That is the part that irks me the most. $111 sucks, but i can tell myself how easily i could spend that at home, but just knowing that we were straight up lied to really gets me. Our receipts say NO REFUNDS, so we are hoping that our lie of Johnny’s Mom having to go early into the Singapore Hospital early is going to work. Otherwise, i don’t know if complaining to a manager or the Tourist Police will do anything. Either way we plan on sending a complaint to the Lonely Planet. I am a little bit down on Thailand after getting ripped twice  and food poisoning
  I took the bus to china town yesterday. I am getting some horrible blisters on my delicate feet. I was headed there to get some new kicks, I think i need better air flow between my toes. I took the bus cause it is cheaper .34 instead of the normal $1.50 in a taxi. I ended up being stuck in traffic for like 2 hours. It wasn’t so bad because the bus had awesome AC. I sat and wrote in my journal and took pictures of the driver who fell asleep at the wheel. After two hours and not moving very far i decided to wake up the driver and ask if i could just get off and walk. I walked about ten minutes and realized i was like five minutes from home. I had just gone in a very small two hour circle.  Today before speaking with the TAT i’ll try China Town again.

   I’m meeting Peter Kent, Grandaddy former tour manager for dinner tonight, He lives here with his Girlfriend.