Choose another map, showing:

• Thailand
• South East Asia
• Asia
• Eurasia
• Eurasia, Africa & Pacific
• The World

Other entries in Siem Reap

Ancient ruins and luggage gangsters part 1

On the 12^th of August Kim arrived for three weeks of traveling with me. After having been on my own for so long it was great to see her again and to have some company for a while. Things however took a turn as soon as she arrived, the day after she arrived having flown half way around the world to see me I managed to get sick, no doubt some kind of flu I picked up on the buses in Myanmar. Nevertheless undaunted we booked bus tickets to Chiang Mai for the start of our adventure. Now I never thought I wouldn't appreciate air conditioning but on this trip I did - it was so cold it was actually uncomfortable and it made you forget that you were in a tropical country. Anyway winging aside once we arrived in Chiang Mai after our overnight bus journey we discovered that the whole area had just been devastated by floods. It also put a damper on plans when just as I recovered, Kim cam down with what I had just gotten over. The weather and our health transpired to dash plans to trek and what have you but we did manage to get a rather good Thai cookery course in. It was great but used a few too many chilies which I paid for the next day - and how.

So after our recuperation in Chiang Mai it was once again back to Bangkok for the next leg of the journey - Cambodia.

We booked our bus and early the following morning we were rolling our way towards the border and so began what I dubbed the day of the con. We arrived at the border but before actually going there the bus company took us to a local guest house where they conveniently offered lunch and a visa service. Now some Thais I am convinced take advantage of the language barrier and consciously state everything in imperatives rather than asking you what you would like to do, subsequently "would you like to use our visa service?" becomes "you use our visa service!" Thus it seems that all choice is removed from the matter. Now most of the people on the bus didn't question the woman at the guesthouse but I knew that the visa didn't cost the $30 she was charging and so Kim and I and another Australian bloke opted to wait until we got to the border. Once we arrived and cleared Thai customs we went to the visa application area where the Australian guy was already waiting. He told us that despite the sign that says clearly the Cambodian visa costs $20 US, the border police were insisting on 1000 baht instead, he had held his ground and they had grudgingly accepted his US 20 but told him that the visa would take 4 hours. I decided that I didn't want to wait that long so we opted to pay the 1000 baht (still less than the $30 the woman wanted to charge us earlier) plus some unknown 100baht because we didn't have passport photos (they charge this to use the photo from your passport instead - yeah right). What the men behind the desk do is change the 1000 baht for US dollars and then pocket the difference (about $5). Still while the Ozzie guy was still waiting we got our visas in under 3 minutes. Once through Cambodian immigration we were taken by mototaxi to a money exchnge place where things took a turn. The man from the bus company told us that we had to change our money here as it would be late by the time we got to Siem Reap and it being Friday the banks would be closed on the weekend. Reasonable you might think as the banks are closed in Canada on the weekend and Cambodia is not known for its abundance of ATM's. Then he proceeded to tell us that the rate was 3300 riel to the dollar, the rate is actually 4000 to the dollar but he was having non of it. He then proceeded to tell us that the King had just decreed that Cambodia no longer accepted US dollars and that we had to change all of our money here. This was all clearly bullshit but being captives and having no local currency at all (its so worthless that you can't get it outside of Cambodia) we decided to change a small amount of US dollars for food and lodging all the while having the guy tell us we should change all our money with this bloody shyster. Now I don't know about y'all but few things annoy me more than being ripped off and there being nothing you can do about it. I actually asked the guy why he was ripping us off and suddenly the quality of his English deteriorated. I ended up only losing about $5 but the principle of the thing had me stewing for days. Once that little trail was over we went to the bus waiting area with dozens of other tourists waiting for the connecting bus to Siem Reap from the border shithole of Poipet. It seemed some people had been waiting there for hours and we were lucky as we only had to wait about 40 minutes before our dilapidated bus arrived. By way of describing the journey to Siem Reap let me just say that for the 7 hour, 150 km journey (yes that's right) over some of the worst roads I have ever experienced, sitting in the aisle on a plastic chair because there weren't enough seats. After numerous stops designed to increase the time of the journey so that all the other guesthouses are closed and you have to stay at the one they want you to, we arrived at Siem Reap tired, filthy and really really pissed off. The whole day had felt like a huge rip off. We didn't stay at the chosen hostel just for the principle of the thing. Now I'm all for difficult and challenging travel, but this was ridiculous, there was no reason for it. If you're traveling in shitty vehicles with locals then fine but Cambodia is now such a destination for travelers that the only reason for the appalling conditions seemed to be to rip off white people - that's what annoyed me.

Anyway the stress of the journey behind us Kim and I found a nice place to stay and actually really enjoyed Siem Reap - it's really being developed for tourists and the number of incredibly swanky hotels is quite something. The temples of Angkor Wat were just amazing, unlike Bagan they seemed like construction with a purpose, true they still are testaments to the vanity of the kings that built them but you really get the feeling of the life and commerce that emerged around these temples. I'm afraid my meager literary talents will be unable to do justice to the incredible beauty of the place and the amazing carvings and enigmatic smiles that seem to be everywhere - I'll just leave you with some of the photos that I took of the place and hopefully you'll get some idea of what I'm talking about.

After Siem Reap we headed to Phnom Penh for a few days, we did the obligatory day tour of  S21 that was the most notorious of Pol Pots prsions for those deemed to be a thret to the Khmer Rouge. A former high school, 20000 people were taken there and only 7 survived. The displays were interesting and often gruesome but seemded to lack a context, awful pictures without background aren't all that helpful I find. After the school we went to one of the hundreds of killing fields that dot the Cambodian countryside - the one went to was the closest to Phnom Penh and where most of the victims of S21 were taken to be killed. The place is dominated by a large pagoda full of human skulls disinterred from the surrounding ground - very macabre. The whole place has a sad air but we found the experience spoiled by the number of children wandering around in the grounds asking for money. I'm sure that sounds very harsh at first since the poverty of Cambodia is part of the Khmer Rouge's legacy but when you are trying to read the plaques and noticed the pieces of clothing and bone still in the ground and you are being followed around by little kids asking for money to take their picture, I think you can forgive me for being resentful, especially when they get bored and start hitting each other with human femurs that were lying around. The weirdest part of the killing fields is the board that says that the Cambodian Genocide was much worse than that of the third Reich - it struck me as odd to say one genocide was worse than the other as if it was a contest. After two pretty harrowing experiences the tuk tuk driver really wanted to take us to a shooting range which I found really bizarre especially after what we'd seen.

That was the end of our Cambodian experience and the following day we headed back to Bangkok on much more civilized transportation - the bus the locals take!

Add to del.icio.us Add to reddit

Photos / videos of "Ancient ruins and luggage gangsters part 1":