Con men, conspiracy theories and currency scams....ahhhh Cambodia

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Well well well. Where do I begin? That title probably has all the avid readers (all two of you) intrigued.....but before I jump into that fiasco, i'll back track a bit on what we've been doing since the last entry.
We spent out last day in Bangkok in the Siam square district, shopping and revelling in the chaos of Bangkok. We found a gourmet food supermarket which was, as you may guess, Daryns idea of heaven so we spent alot of money getting heaps of tasty bits and pieces for a picnic..it was sooo good.
We went out for a few drinks on our last night in Bangkok and Daryn played numerous games of pool with a lovely Thai man and no, he did not lose anymore money. I went home before him but must have been sleeping too deeply as when he came home and tried to get me to wake up I 'didn't hear a thing, so he spent the night sleeping downstairs on the couch - I think much to the amusement of the guest house staff.
Bangkok was really good fun this time around, and Daryn really enjoyed his first experience of this part of the world. It is crazy and hectic but touristy enough to ease you into your trip slowly.
We left on Monday morning to to go to Koh Chang, an island about 5 hours from Bangkok in Trat province. We had possibly the slowest bus in history, which was painted with a garish little mermaid mural and showed the movie Herbie. Hmmmm. We stayed at a beach called White sands beach which was lovely, although the weather didn't always co operate we did get some good days of blue skies and warm water. The beach was a little pricey and, we soon discovered, something of a hot spot for 60 year old Joseph Fritzel types and their 19 year old girlfriends - an interesting clientele. On the last day there we did a cooking course which was amazing. It was in a little open air classroom overlooking a lagoon which ran out to the sea and was in the middle of nowhere. We did the class with 2 French girls and learnt to make pad thai, 2 different kinds of soup and curries, and sticky coconut rice with mango. We made the curry pastes from scratch which was fantastic - althought the tiny Thai teacher put us to shame using the pestle and mortar. We had plans to do so many things in Koh Chang but lying on the beach and not doing much at all won out in the end. A perfect antidote to Bangkok.
We left Koh Chang yesterday (dear god, was it only yesterday) having booked a package transport thingee from our hotel there all the way to Siem Reap (the base for Angkor Wat). We were told it would take 8 - 10 hours, so I geared myself up for the worst, thinking maybe 12 hours or so. The first few legs -fine. We were where we were supposed to be, the drivers and guides were friendly, we're thinking, this is great. Then we get to Aranya Prathet, the border crossing town on the Thai side. I, of course, had done my research and had read that the tour buses will try and sell you the cambodian visa at a much inflated price, and that it's best to just do it yourself at the border. The lady organsing the visas for our group came over and I said, no, no, you're charging too much, I'll do it myself at the border ok? She then tells me that if I insist on doing it myself, the bus will not wait for us on the other side and we will have to get there ourselves. So in the end I hand over our passports (a seriously disconcerting feeling) and an extra 100Baht fee as I don't have a passport photo, and the 'fee' for the visas, which is nearly double the official price. Ah well, I think, what can we do now, at least she'll sort our visas for us.
We then have to go through Thai immigration, but we have both lost the huge white departure forms they staple into your passports when you arrive, so the customs officials seem convinced we are lying and perhaps overstayers blah blah blah. We finally manage our way through, and to the other side of the Cambodian border (turns out the Cambodian border officials are just as uninterested in the official visa rate and charge whatever they feel like, sometimes 1000Baht, sometiems 1200, sometimes 1300). We then are told by the Cambodian guide that we need to change money here, as it it impossible to change baht in Siem Reap. I thought this sounded dodgy, but the idea of turning up in Siem Reap at midnight with no currency was unattractive, so we foolishly changed all our money here. I had been reading up on the exchange rates the day before but Daryn wasn't too sure of them, so when he changed the money he just assumed he was getting a fair rate. Needless to say, we realised later on we had been well and truly had - for about a third of the value of the money, which has seriously screwed up our budget and money, but we are trying to be positive and see it as a learning experience - easier said than done. Anyhoo, we then set off, which is where the conspiracy theory part kicks in. The road between Poipet (the Cambodian border town) and Siem Reap is obviouslya major tourist route, but is still unsealed and hugely potholed and in disrepair. The legend goes that Bangkok airways is paying the Cambodian government a huge amount of money to keep the road unsealed, as they are the only airline flying into Siem Reap. Apparently their monopoly ends in 2009, and there was a lot of bridge builiding work going on, so who knows? I wouldn't be too surprised.
So the roads are terrible, it's getting dark, and we stop for dinner. The previously charming and smiling tour guide then comes to all our tables and tells us that the bus will be stopping at the guesthouse he works for, so we can stay there otherwise we can get a tuk tuk into town. No biggie. He then, however tells us that if we do not stay at his guesthouse it is likely that we will get mugged, and he will not help us if this happens. Charming.
So we get back on the road. About half an hour in, we're stopped by two huge trucks who have become stuck in the huge piles of mud on the ridiculously bad road. The engine stops, and it appears we may have to spend a night in the bus - no great drama, there's a good crowd, a bottle of vodka gets passed around, the guitar comes out, it's all rather school-camp like. The guide then comes on and tells us that he's going home, and that he can maybe call some tuk tuk driver friends of his to come and get us, if we will pay them handsomely. The idea that a tuk tuk could make it through these roads, and the thought of being stranded in an open sided tuk tuk minus the security of being in a group is not an attractve option. We ask what will happen to the bus tomorrow and the guide tells us that maybe it will go, maybe it won't, but if we don't help him he doesn't care and that he's off to bed. The whole episode is such a farce at this point that everyonés actually in very jovial moods - despite the borderline threateneing behaviour of the innocent faced guide.
Eventually, a tow truck arrives and pulls the trucks out, and we're able to get through. We arrvive at Mr tour guides aforementioned guesthouse about 11pm - 15 hours after we left, the last 7 spent covering the tiny distance of about 120km. We all get the hell out of the guesthouse and find a lovely one in town (without being mugge on the way, surprisingly). a bunch of us from the bus then met up for many a pitcher of Anchor beer and some games of pool in a little bar in town - a great night to end an otherwise ridiculous day.
Soooo........we are now in Siem Reap, having moved to a much cheaper guesthouse in light of our new money situation which, in the cold hard light of day, is probably worse than we actually suspected. But Siem Reap is lovely, and we're off to explore Angkor Wat tomorrow, so there's not much to complain about. I did sleep like a baby though, after that day.
Well there it is. Sorry to bore you all with the minutae of our travels, but somehow writing it down puts it into perspective and now the whole thing just seems like a huge comedy of errors.
Angkor Wat tomorrow! I know you're all jealous...especially you Girly (both of you, actually)

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