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Hi All,
Thank you again for all the emails/comments/messages that you have sent to us over the last few weeks since our Thailand blog. Ending our last blog I mentioned we were about to cross the Thailand/Cambodian border. Prior to booking our bus we googled this crossing & words such as dodgy, shocking & extortion are mentioned… & let me tell you it lived up to all those & more. Without writing a novel on this one particular day, our crossing went something like this:
Sar & I paid for a large air-conditioned bus to take us from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia. On the way our large bus transformed into a squashy minivan, it stopped at a random café & we were told we had to purchase our Cambodian visa here in order to save time and avoid corruption at the border, of course for a ridiculous price (I think not, we had read about this scam and knew better!!). We walked the last 1km to the border & went to purchase our visa’s when I was told by none other that the customs official that US currency was not accepted (lie) & that in order to enter
Cambodia I needed to give him the equivalent of $30 US pp in Baht (that’s $10 US over the visa price) or I could forget about entering Cambodia (it appears corruption is alive & well). Our mini van disappeared on us & we were told we had to wait 2 hrs for the public bus, which after no aircon, a 35 degree day & a shocking 6 hr bus ride over pot holes & dirt tracks we arrived at a random guesthouse in the middle of nowhere, about 5 kms from our destination. We were all tired, hot & not in the mood for this & when a lady, who looked like the Russian World Wrestling champion, stood up & started calling the bus driver and guest house operator F*cking Mafia Pricks, Sar & I knew it was time for us to hightail it out of there. After a hellish 15 hrs, we finally arrived at a guesthouse in town & couldn’t believe the day we had just experienced.
The next day we walked around the town & found that the local people of Cambodia were nothing like the customs officials or our dodgy bus driver. They were extremely helpful
& happy people & both of us knew that we were going to enjoy Cambodia. Siem Reap is a major tourist attraction for the Angkor Temples & what a spectacular sight these were. Our favourite temple was Ta Promh, which had massive trees growing through the large stone walls & looked amazing (no wonder Tomb Raider was filmed here). We also loved Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom which were out of this world. Before heading south, our last night in Siem Reap was spent in the pub with Drew & Caz (A couple from Melbs & Wales that we met at the border & travelled with them throughout Cambodia) watching the 6 nations Rugby Union final between Ireland & Wales. It was a cracking game & ensured that we stayed until the early hours, only to see the Welsh defeated 1 minute from full-time (sorry Caz). The next day we arrived in Phnom Penh where we visited Tuol Sleng Museum (S21 Prison) & the Killing fields of Choeung Ek, which were both very sobering experiences. While here we also visited a local orphanage which Westpac Preston has assisted over the last 9 months (thanks to Sue’s dedication). We had a
fantastic night with the kids, filled with lots of singing (not by sar thank god), dancing, smiles & of course cheap beer. We continued south to Sihanoukville & took a snorkelling tour around the islands. On the tour we met another 2 English lads, (Oly & Rob) & proceeded to give them a lesson on the beach volleyball court, however despite Oly being shown up by Caz in the beach soccer, the English/Cambodian team came away with a 3-2 victory!! Apart from the tour we basically just chilled out on the beach, having fresh BBQ prawns, squid & barracuda for dinner every night for the bargain price of $3 USD…. tough life this travelling. From here, we headed east to Kampot (famous for it’s pepper), where Sar & I spent one night & organised our crossing into Vietnam for the following morning. So far there seems to be a continuous theme in our travels & this crossing is no exception. It was only opened up approximately 1 year ago & even the famous Lonely Planet couldn’t shed any light on this crossing… so either Sar & I were going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere or we would
end up in Vietnam….. To Be Continued……
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Ben
non-member comment
Happy Birthday Sare
Hey Sare, just want to make sure you had a great day on your birthday, where ever you were. I hope your both loving your trip and keeping well. Cheers Ben