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Published: December 4th 2008
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Everything was great until we got to the border... The Thai/Cambodian border, that is. The Lonely Planet guidebook we are using (like everyone else here, it seems) warns you, in no uncertain terms to NOT NOT NOT buy a bus ticket in Bangkok to Siem Reap, gateway to Angkor Wat, because they are scams. Instead, it encourages you to buy a bus ticket to the border, get the Cambodian Visa on arrival yourself, and buy a continuing bus ticket in Cambodia. We fell for their scams anyway. When we got to the border, we were talked into paying $65 for two Cambodia visas through the bus drivers, instead of the official $20 each. We were also told there are no buses on the Cambodian side. Lies, lies, lies, but they managed to scare us, and to make a long story short, we fell for it along with all the other suckers. Ha Ha! Stupid foreigners...
The road from Bangkok to the border was great. Once we crossed into Cambodia, it was a bumpy dirt road with barricades that you had to go around. Inevitably, our bus broke down, and we stood outside and waited for almost two hours for the
driver to fix the gear box, while mosquitoes feasted on Erin's feet. Supposedly, the reason that the road to Cambodia's #1 (by far) tourist attraction, Angkor Wat, is so bad is because the airline is bribing the local politicians to NOT fix the road. If you spend any time in Cambodia, you won't be surprised by this story. And according to Lonely Planet, you don't buy the bus ticket all the way, because it's a scam to get you to the guesthouse of their choice. Which they did, of course, but at $6 for a large room with a bathroom, hot water, and cable TV, we couldn't complain too much.
All these difficulties were forgotten by the next day when we visited the ancient city of Angkor; a temple complex containing over one thousand temples (some better preserved than others) of classic Khmer architecture, dating from the 12th century that are religiously significant to Hindus and Buddhists. The best perserved and most recognized temple, as it is on the Cambodian flag, is Angkor Wat-- the world's largest single religious monument (because of this, the whole complex is referred to as Angkor Wat). Angkor is a magical place. Each temple
has its own character and style; some have huge faces carved into the walls, some have large tree roots pushing though the puzzle of stones, and some have a beatuiful patina from lychen and moss. Each are peaceful and breath taking in their own way. The Hindu carvings on the walls and Buddha statues in the rooms make them feel like holy places. We took a fixed-line balloon ride over Angkor Wat and could see the huge surrounding square moat and vast forest in all its glory. We spent two days in the complex, only saw a fraction of the temples, and left wanting more. Words can't describe this place, Angkor is the most amazing ancient place either of us has ever seen; it far exceeded our expectations and hopes. It is more amazing and impressive than than Macchu Picchu, more than ancient Greek and Roman ruins.
The Angkor Temples are located a few miles from the town of Siem Reap, which is a modern, Western oasis in a very poor country. You can find any kind of food you want, and some really nice hotels. And, like I said, you can also get a really nice room for
$6 a night. There are so many tourists, though, that we felt like we are not seeing the "real Cambodia". So we decided to spend our last day in Battambang, the second biggest city in Cambodia. We picked Battambang because there is a nice boat ride to get there, and also because we kind of like the name 😊 Well, the boat ride was great. We passed many houses on stilts, villages on the water, children shouting and waving to us, and all kinds of water plants and birds.
The town of Battambang itself was underwhelming. There wasn't much to see or do, and Siem Reap was much more pleasant. Fortunately, we were there less than 24 hours.
We will always remember our time in Cambodia fondly, because of the amazing ancient city of Angkor. However, we didn't like other things about Cambodia that much. It was a lot more aggressive than Thailand. It started with the scamming at the border by our Cambodian "guide" who sold us the inflated visas and bus tickets, and continued throughout our stay; we couldn't walk down the street in Siem Reap without getting hassled constantly, or through the temples without a little
kid trying to sell us postcards or bracelets. "Hello, tuk tuk!" was so common, that we started calling each other "Tuk Tuk" as a joke. We also heard plenty of "Hello, massage!", "Hello, buy something!" They will go to any lengths to sell you something: we arrived at a guesthouse and a guy showed us a room. I noticed the bathroom door was closed and the shower was running. When I mentioned this to him, he knocked on the door and spoke in Khmer. Someone answered back. He turned to us and said, "no problem, employee clean toilet for you." Three minutes later, a wet man with only a towel wrapped around his waist, carrying a toothbrush and bottle of shampoo walked out. Needless to say, we got a room a the guesthouse down the street.
It is hard not to feel sorry for a country that has been through so much. Almost no country in the world has a recent history as tragic as Cambodia's. In the 1970's, a brutal civil war, followed by the Khmer Rouge, who emptied out the cities, abolished money, created an agrarian revolution, and killed all the intellectuals. People were killed for things
like wearing glasses or speaking a foreign language. This despite the fact that Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader, had studied in France himself. When you take a society that is not the most educated or advanced to begin with, and all the intellectuals flee or are executed, the results are pretty predictable.
Anything that is working in Cambodia seems to be foreign owned or operated. All the fancy hotels. The night market was started by a foreigner. A place called Dr. Fish, where fish ate the dead skin off our feet, is owned by a Korean. Koreans are big investors in Cambodia in general. All the NGOs are foreign operated, as are many schools and orphanages. All the nice restaurants and large businesses seem to be foreign. Even in Angkor, all the restoration is being funded by foreign governments. French, Italians, Germans, Japanese, even the government of India. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. Cambodia needs all the help it can get.
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lanegra
La Negra
very interesting!
I recently decided to make SEA a goal for 2010 so I will likely be following your trip. Sounds interesting so far! Have fun!!