Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2007
Looking from Aranya Prathet in Thailand to Poipet in Cambodia you could see the enormous casinos in the distance. We had heard about these super casinos which exist because Thailand has banned casinos and it's residents venture to adjacent border towns to satisfy their gambling cravings. What the four of us (Ben, Andrea and ourselves) were not prepared for was the trauma of the next 3 hours and the most difficult and worst border crossing that we have done!
Poipet is described as the cess pit of south east asia by Lonely Planet and for once LP actually got something right. Before we were even across the border a variety of scam artists approached us. Some posing as official immigration officers, others as free advisors for tourists (yeah right!). Having brushed these guys off by Donna smacking her rucksack into them several times we checked out of Thailand by getting a stamp from the now familiar grumpy immigration officers only to be then greeted by the grumpy corrupt Cambodian officials who insisted on either 1000 baht ($30US) or $20US and a 100 baht for the official $20 visa. We strongly use the word corrupt as these officials shouldn't be charging
Lounging for a drink
we stopped at a village...some woman came out and put some cans of pop in a bucket of ice...hung some hammocks up and bob's your uncle this is the result!more than $20US for a visa and anything more is clearly used to line their own pockets. Despite Neil wanting to protest at this extortion, Donna paid the bribe and we soon entered Poipet to be greeted by approximately 500 dodgy looking moto drivers, gangster types ranging from pimps to drug pushers and gambling goons. What a welcome to Cambodia!
The moto drivers and touts were insistent and very aggressive to the point where Neil and Ben had to get aggressive back with one of the touts and whilst on a moving 'courtesy' bus to the local mafia ran bus station, Neil managed to offload one of the most aggressive touts by giving him a strong nudge off the bus whilst going around a bend. Arriving into the mafia cartel ran station we soon realised that the gangsters of Poipet ran all of the transport into and out of Poipet. Our decision to leave Poipet was swift but our ability to do so was delayed by 2 hours because we had to haggle hard with the mafia cartel of taxi and bus drivers for a ride out. Let's just say that during this 2 hour period there was lots
Who ordered the 50 workers in a truck?
one of the random and strange observations during our village tour of pushing people away, swearing profusely and teaching Cambodians what good manners are. It really was one of the scarier moments of our travels and we were beginning to feel trapped. However, we managed to get a taxi for 4 to Battambang for $40US. On leaving Poipet the driver then tried to squeeze another person in between the passenger and driver seat so that he could earn an extra few dollars. We shouted expletives at him (the only thing that Cambodians here seem to understand) and eventually we were bouncing along the dusty road to Battambang with Neil checking occasionally behind us to make sure we weren't being followed by hijacking muggers.
We arrived into Battambang (Cambodia's second largest city) at around 8pm. We found a great little French colonial hotel with air-con, fridge, tv and balcony for $10US. Battamabang was also home to the finest banana shakes Donna had ever tasted for 25p a shake and some of the friendliest Cambodians you will ever meet. Time for a couple of intial observations we made about Cambodia:
1. What seems to disturb a lot of travellers to Cambodia is the lack of street lighting at night time. This
is true even of Phnom Penh giving some of the streets a daunting and scary feel to walk down. In reality these streets are usually very safe and are nothing to be worried about.
2. Pyjamas are the fashionistas choice in Cambodia, many people wear them and it's really odd but funny. to see Cambodians of all ages walking around during the day with farmyard animals and cartoon characters on their PJ's. We were tempted to buy some ourselves as they look so cool (i.e: not hot and sticky) to wear. We managed to acquire a tuk-tuk to take us all to the villages, temples and bamboo train for $10US. The Phnom Sampeau hill temple was a let down as the so-called 'officials' (locals dressed up as policemen) tried to charge us $2US each to simply walk up the hill to which we refused and sadly jumped back into the tuk-tuk. Yes! its only $2US you say but this was so obviously a scam and even our tuk-tuk driver/guide was laughing and shaking his head in the background. We then went to Kampang Pouy dam, constructed during the Khmer Rouge era and where sadly 10,000 people lost their lives
in it's construction. The dam has obviously given life to what would have otherwise been dead land though and it is now one of the most fertile agricultural regions in Cambodia. We were going to take a boat ride on the lake but the boat driver (paddler) could not tell us where we would go, what we could do there or even how much it would cost so we gave up and headed for the bamboo train. We had no idea what the train was and to this day we still have little idea. This is because our tuk-tuk driver did not explain it to us very well but other travellers have said that whatever it is, is great fun! We will never know.
You may think then that this day trip was a waste of time and money but it was in fact one of the highlights of our time in Cambodia. Driving around the bumpy, dusty roads from village to village was excellent fun, with the villagers and their children shouting 'ello' as we whizzed past. They were so genuinely pleased and excited to see tourists. As an example when two sisters sharing a pushbike saw us
Boat hill near Battambang
does it look like a boat to you? Actually called Phnom Sampeau...we think but our tuk-tuk driver was vague... pass, the younger one jumped off the front to run after us and say hello, forgetting in the excitement that her sister was on the back and so the bike fell over with her on it. The poverty was obvious here and was in our opinion 'the real Cambodia' and this genuineness was probably why we liked it so much. Aid agencies were apparant and watching the street kids fight over plastic bottles and tin cans was heartbreaking. Cambodian children are the sweetest, smiliest and cutest kids you will ever meet and those outside tourist areas have an innocent curiosity about everything. Full marks also goes to Battambangs tourist agency representative...a sweet Cambodian who couldn't do enough to tell us about what the area had to offer. Ahhhhhhh....sweet.
We stayed for longer than we intended in Battambang owing to the friendliness of it's people rather than becasue of its day or nightlife which shut down at 10pm and Donna just couldn't drag herself away from the shakes. Arranging transport to Phnom Penh was a piece of cake and for $4US we were bumping along another dusty road to Cambodia's capital city.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0337s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
WanderlustTarrants
Wanderlust_Tarrants
Cambodia
Hi guys, just been reading your travelblogs and loving them. I just got back in January and already planning the next trip. So funny about Poipet.. as awful as it was I was determined to not pay more than $20US even though my partner wanted to do the payoff... I stuck to my guns and 20 min later we were let through! They tried their hardest though! :-) Cambodia really tore at my heart strings. The people were so beautiful and genuine, much nice than the Thais in my opinion! Loving your blogs - Reet xx