Cambodia Bound

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Getting up at 3am is never a nice experience. Getting up at 3 am in order to face one of the days you have been least looking forward to already just makes it even worse. It was therefore with much reluctance that we got up and headed down to the Tuk Tuk waiting to take us to the train station.

Now, we had seen many things in the guidebook explaining that the best way to make it to the border without much hassle (until you get there) is to do it by yourself. This way you can avoid the hassle of getting stuck on iffy transport and being overcharged. Whilst we knew there would be some amount of overcharging paying 200 Baht for two 20 Baht train tickets and a Tuk Tuk drive really was a bit much. However, the train did amazingly run on time and so it was just after 5:00 am when we arrived in Bangkok. We managed to catch up on a bit of sleep, both on the train and at the train station whilst we waited for the minibus at 7, expecting some run down barely working heap to arrive for us. It was a bit of a surprise when a nice minibus turned up and, after we had collected the other passengers, even more of a surprise when it wasn't completely packed..

We made good time on the way to the border, which is the nice way of saying that our driver thought he was a rally driver. We arrived, as always with arranged transportation in Thailand, not at the border but at a stopping point where we were to get lunch whilst some paperwork was sorted out. Luckily we didn't have any paperwork to sort out as we were not using their company to get us to Siam Reap, so we were loaded straight back on to the bus and taken to within a short walk of the border.

Through chatting with other guests, and reading different guidebooks, we were aware of many of the possible scams that can happen at the border crossing near Aranya Prathet. These were the ones we avoided on our way across the border:

1.Whilst still in Thailand many people will approach you and tell you that you need to get a visa for Cambodia (if you are getting it at the border) whilst still in Thailand. This is rubbish and any “visa” you get will be worthless.

2.If you are applying for the visa on arrival, the Cambodian officials are likely to try and overcharge you for the visa when you get there. In our case it was the usual $20 plus a mysterious admin fee off 200 Baht. If you smile nicely and remind them of the price they soon stop. This also worked with the first attempt at getting us to pay the visa fee in Baht, which is more than the price in dollars.

3.After obtaining the visa, you make you way to passport control, at which point some security officials try to tell you that there is a fee for the arrivals card you need to complete. Fortunately Steph just smiled nicely and pinched the cards whilst explaining that we needed them.

4.For non English speakers the guards will charge a fee to complete the arrivals card for you.

Once you have battled with the scammers, the crossing itself is actually quite easy. From where we were dropped off, very close to the border, it is a short walk, ignoring everyone who approaches you, to the border. From there you come out the other side into a large strip of land that belongs to no-one – you haven't yet entered Cambodia but have left Thailand, that contains a lot of casinos.

From here the passport control, if you already have a visa is about a 200 metre walk on your right hand side. If you need to get the visa this is about a 50 m walk and again on the right hand side. Don't be tempted to take the path with the welcome sign above it, it leads to a restaurant and casino!

Having successfully navigated the border control we were then in the safe hands of the government endorsed tourist monopoly which owns pretty much all the transport, at least for foreigners, out off Poipet, and is apparently a little rough handed with anyone who tries to set up. They will take you on the free shuttle to the bus terminal where you can either get one of the infrequent buses or get a private taxi. The taxi is not much more expensive if you wait for the taxi to be full before it leaves.

We waited there for about an hour and a half, getting lunch along the way, before enough people turned up to fill out the taxi. Just as we were leaving all the people who were on the minibus with us arrived at the same terminal. Depending on who you spoke to the travel companies were charging between 500 to 700 Baht for the onward trip to Siam Reap. We got it for 360 Baht at the terminal.

The ride over to Siam Reap was okay and we were soon dropped off somewhere, in order to get a Tuk Tuk to our hostel. This turned out to be the third type of Tuk Tuk, this time taking the appearance of a horse and carriage, only using a scooter instead. What followed however, was about an hour of “fun”. The free ride works by them first not taking you where you wanted to go but to somewhere they probably get commission if you stay. From here they moan a bit that you are staying out of the centre of Siam Reap, a very small city to start with so this makes little difference, before trying to get you to book them tomorrow to go to Angkor temples with.

Our ride with the Tuk Tuk driver ended badly. As we arrived at the third guest house, I should technically say fifth but he took us to two that we didn't want to see so I'm not counting those, we decided to leave him as the guest house was going to take us to their second guest house. Herein followed a slight curfuffle as he leant on the bags explaining that he could take us and that he wanted us to book with him tomorrow. I had already decided not to spend another minute with the guy, so spending a whole day with him was not going to happen. Remarkably I managed not to shout at him, though this was helped by the fact he didn't bother arguing for long.

The guest house we eventually decided to stay at (Shadow of Angkor II) is very nice and I would recommend it to anyone in Angkor. Despite Lonely Planets advice I would choose the second guesthouse rather than the one directly overlooking the river. It is slightly further away but less than a 5 minutes walk from the first guest house, and you get a much nicer room for your money plus a pool.

Unfortunately, unlike Thailand, Siam Reap is not cheap. It will probably take 2 days to see most of the temples, passes come in either 1 or three day form and cost US$40 per person for the three day pass. With no public transport to speak of unless you fancy a day cycling around in 30-35 degree heat you need a Tuk Tuk to take you between the temples for the day. This will cost between $12-15 though more if you go to the furthest away temples. Then there is the cost of a guide if you want to know anything about what you are looking at. This will set you back about $20-25 for the day.

We decided on the first day to to see some of the further out temples without a guide and then see the main temples with a guide the following day. We would also stay out to see the sunset – at the nice time of 6pm at Pre Rup and then get up to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat at the not so friendly time of 5:30am.

I much preferred the second day as the guide was really good and we also used the Tuk Tuk less on the smaller circuit, with our guide often walking to and from some of the smaller temples. We were also lucky as it was a slightly cooler day to be walking around the temples. We also had enough time to use the pool at the guest house a little before heading out to find dinner.

The Khmer cuisine is a little odd as, depending on where you go there version of spicy can vary quite a lot. A lot of the food uses fish, so not the best for Steph, but they do put on a good vegetarian alternative if you ask nicely. All in all, despite a few problems with one Tuk Tuk driver Cambodia has been good fun so far.

Steph: Angkor Wat is the place I have looking forward to the most, at least since we left Australia, if not of the whole trip so I thought I should add something more. The actual Angkor Wat temple I was a little disappointed with. Whilst it was impressive, it didn't look quite like I was expecting – from always seeing the photo of it reflected in the water I was expecting more water by it. It is dry season now so there would be more water in the wet season but still not what I'd imagined. It also had the usual problem of too many people – I was hoping to avoid this by looking around just after sunrise but I couldn't believe the number of people who were there to see the sunrise and even though some of them went on to other temples or back to their hotels for breakfast there was still quite a few people wandering around.

There was a similar problem with the other famous temples, Bayon with all the faces and Ta Prohm, where it is still overgrown with jungle and was used in Tomb Raider. They were however still fascinating to explore and as Harry mentioned I liked having the tour guide to point out things and tell you a bit more about the temple. He also answered the questions we had asked each other the day before when we were wandering around the temples and it was an opportunity to chat a bit about life in Cambodia now as well.

I've heard some people say that they get fed up of exploring temples after a day or two but I didn't really find that. The thing that struck me was how different they all were and that kept it interesting. I think my favourite was Preah Khan which is a huge monastic complex because I enjoyed just being able to wander around it exploring and because it wasn't one of the three main ones near Siam Reap it wasn't too busy.

I also enjoyed when we went to some further away temples in our tuk tuk because you drove through small villages and saw some of the Cambodian countryside.

We've had some long days of sightseeing recently so I'm looking forward to heading to the beach for a little while. I just hope we can find somewhere to stay over the Khmer New Year holiday or we will only get a morning at the beach before heading up to Phnom Penh!

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Photos

Lolei
Late 9th Century Hindu Temple. Part of the Roluos Group outside the main park.

Bakong
Also late 9th Century Hindu Temple. Part of the Roluos Group.

Preah Khan
Late 12th Century Buddhist Temple.

Neak Pean
Late 12th Century Buddhist island temple.

Angkor Wat at sunrise
Early - mid 12th Century Hindu temple.

Bayon
Late 12th Century Buddhist Temple.

Ta Prohm
Mid 12th - early 13th Century Buddhist temple.

Comments

[Kate]

Photies
Nice to see some photographs of Stephanie!! And particularly of you both together. cambodia looks an amazing place.