Pacific Rim, Part IX: Cambodia

Fri, Mar 28
I’m livid and can’t even be social. I’m ready to kill someone, not because of the scam, but because I fell for it. I wasn’t informed, and that’s my fault. I should have read Sophie’s Cambodia section in advance. To think that we could have taken the train for less money AND arrived HOURS earlier pisses me off, but the fact that we were lied to over and over makes me sick. They told us so much – all lies! Too bad we’re not in the states; I’d like to sue. They told us they give the best exchange rates, so exchange money now… They gave me less than 33% of the value of my Chinese money. They told us that everything’s $1, because no one’s got coins for change. You get 4,000 riels for $1 throughout the country, and everything’s negotiable and interchangeable. A menu offers food for $2.50, you offer $1, and you may settle on $1.50 – that’s 6,000 riel. Better yet, you may give them $5 to pay, and they give you back $2 & 6,000 riel. I use a lot of energy to work in two currencies, but these guys are all over it. Amazing!

Sat, Mar 29
I wake early, and I still feel stressed. The Germans, the Swede and I had agreed to meet for breakfast and to meet the tuk tuk driver at 08:00 for an Ankor Wat “mini tour”. I think he may have been related to the bus tour from the day before, but we don’t care. He and his friend agreed to $12/day for the mini-tour. As it happens, he doesn’t show up. We wait until 08:15 and move on. I need some money to feel more comfortable. I exchange more Chinese money at the right exchange rate, and I visit an ATM to get $100. The machine gives me $50, 2x$20, and $10 in cold hard American cash. I feel rich and ready to conquer the world.

Closeby a guy asks if we want a tuk tuk. I’m not sure what it is about this guy, but I like him. He offers to give all four of us a day doing the mini tour for $10. We’d agreed to $24, and this guy offers it for $10. I like that and don’t feel the need to haggle at all.

We all climb in and start with the entry - $20 for a single day. This is the most expensive thing we’ll spend our money on in days. We work our way through Ankor Wat and all of the associated temples. The Ankor civilization ruled a whole bunch of Asia until 1432 but fell off the face of the Earth when the Vietnamese invaded. I suppose this place is a lot like Machu Picchu. Anyway, temples start looking like temples. And each one is polluted with kids offering to sell bracelets, postcards, and random wooden things. It gets pretty old, and we were exhausted by the end of the trip. If we started at 10:00 and ended at 16:00, I’d say we spent a solid day doing this stuff. I can’t imagine spending more than one day unless you plan to spend only the morning hours out there.

We ask Chay to take us to a market before we go back, and he does. I love Chay, our tuk tuk driver. To start, he wore a helmet. He was a terribly conservative driver, and with 4 of us, we needed it. He spoke enough English to help us out, and he was honest and genuine. If seems hard to find here in Siem Reap, so he totally made my day and made me like the idea of being in Cambodia again. I tipped him well, and he looked as if no one has ever tipped him. That made me happy.

I agreed to meet with everyone at 18:00 for dinner, and Sophie and Nick joined. We had awesome food on the side of the road for $1.25. We stumbled onto the main tourist party road and found a Mexican joint with $1 margaritas on Saturday. YOU’RE KIDDING! We took up roost for a few, but Jane and I excused ourselves around 21:00. After a day of the ridiculous heat, dehydration, walking and climbing, we were DONE.

Sun, Mar 30
Today’s been planned as a day of loitering. I’m still tired. I have no idea what the temperature is, but it’s insanely hot. I’d say it’s super humid, because I drip as soon as I walk outside, but after washing my clothes, they dry nearly instantly. Strange combination – it must be a dry heat like Death Valley, but I’m very curious as to the temperature.

Anyway, I start with breakfast at Popular Guest House and Sophie joins me around 09:00. Nick and Kelly come over around 11:30 and we hang out in town at the local Internet closets, used book stores, clothing kiosks, etc. By 16:00, we’re boiling hot and go back to the Guest House for some cold drinks. I excuse myself for a bit to get online and update my blog. I hadn’t been able to find an unsecured wifi signal since Surat Thani, and none of the Internet cafes in Bangkok would allow me to use their Ethernet cables. They’re all set up to count the seconds on their computers, and heaven forbid they just measure the time I use at $0.66/hour… I found a guy in Siem Reap that’ll use his watch, and I’m very excited.

On the way home, I stop at the local liquor store – Mini Max. Where they come up with their names is a mystery to me. I find some refrigerated Spanish red wine, fruit juice, and a 7Up for sangria. We’d all been craving it, and I thought I’d surprise everyone when I met up with them again. Mission accomplished! Sophie cut the tops off a couple of water bottles, and we started mixing. With 6 of us drinking, the combination didn’t take long to finish, which meant it was time to eat.

Back to the street, we went to the $1 stall where we’d eaten the night before. I don’t think we could have missed the place, passed it, nor avoided it. The woman that runs it was looking for us and cornered us before we could see the other stalls. No worries though, it was good last night and good tonight as well.

We finished the night at the Temple Bar, next door to last night’s Mexican joint. They have 2 for 1 drink specials until close. Each drink is $4, making the sale price on par with the rest of the street’s $1.50 - $2.00 price range. More importantly, they had some seriously crazy concoctions, like the AK47 – Gin, Vodka, Whisky, Rum, lime, and soda. I can’t imagine a worse drink nor a worse name, but these guys love it.

I didn’t understand the English fascination with guns until I found out that there are no guns in England. I can’t imagine such a thing. I shot guns with I was a kid, and these guys have never seen a gun? Apparently, there’s a shooting range close to Siem Reap that allows you to shoot from hand guns all the way up to a grenade launcher. Worse, you can buy a cow to blow up. I can’t imagine something more disgusting, although the 10-12 year old children offered as sex slaves isn’t too far off. I think there’s a side to Cambodia that is really dreary, but thankfully I didn’t see much of it. The worst I saw was a man with one foot, a thumb and a pinky. I presume that the rest were removed from a mine, but I’ll never know. He was selling postcards for double what the kids sold them at, and I said no. He offered some hand painted cards, and I bought a couple. Granted, I’ve only been here a couple of days, and Siem Reap is likely the most touristy place in Cambodia, but I’m ready to get back to Thailand.

Mon, Mar 31
After the ordeal on the way to Siem Reap, I’m not sure what to expect going back to Bangkok, but I can’t see how it could be worse. Stephanie, Tom, Nils, Anna, and I are all going to the border together, so I’m thinking safety in numbers. Sure enough, they make our lives a living hell again. We’re the first in the bus, so we think we may have a bus for probably 40 to ourselves. Unfortunately, we pick everyone else up along the way, and we end up with a full house. Funny thing is that there’s no luggage storage under the bus, so bags are stacked up in the back and throughout the isles. There’s no toilet and no a/c. We’d specifically confirmed that there was a/c, so we’re upset. At about 08:15, 1:15 behind schedule, we hit the road for our 6 hour journey, squished in like sardines with no leg room.

We make it to the first rest stop, then the second, then the border. Aside from the obvious, we’re in good shape. We get out of Cambodia and into Thailand in record time, about 15 minutes. I’m ahead of the others, but I scope everything out in advance. I follow when prompted and end up in a smaller group of about 10 farther down the road, split from the rest. I’m being asked to get onto a minibus, and I reject the idea, telling them that I’ll wait for my friends. The minibus leaves, and I’m alone with a bunch of local children pounding on my legs asking for “one dollar.” I can’t deal with it any longer, so I go back through customs and find my travel mates.

The waiting begins. All of our bus exits the Thai immigration, yet we’re told that we need to wait for the others. Meanwhile, smaller groups are being split off with enticements like sleeper bus tickets for three, because there are too many on our bus. I’m wondering how there can be too many on our bus when we all made it here, 10 have already left, and more are dropping like flies. There are 7 of us now, sticking together for dear life. I’d felt a sense of relief when I crossed the border, but the anxiety was coming back…

Two hours later we find that they’ve combined 2 Cambodian buses into 1 Thai bus, and we are waiting for the second bus to come through. Everyone’s there now, and just as it starts to rain, we walk to the bus – THE SAME BUS THAT BROUGHT US TO THE BORDER A FEW DAYS AGO. The hair on my neck stands straight up, but I’m thankful for the rain. It’s the first I’ve had since Singapore, and just as there, it only lasted a few minutes. It was refreshing and gave me the sense that all of the Cambodia grime may actually wash away.