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Published: October 31st 2009
For fear of not being able to fit into any form of transportation after three days of lazing by the pool and eating we pulled out all stops to head from Khon Khan, Thailand to Siem Reap Cambodia. Anyone who has read the blog understands that (unlike many other Western people?) we find Thailand a little tricky to navigate and getting out of Nong Khai then Khon Kaen to Siem Reap has been no exception.
We are unsure as to why we have difficulties, perhaps we forget that Thailand is a South East Asian country and let our non-English speaking guard down, perhaps it is that we have headed to places that while certainly not off the beaten track, are not the typical tourist route, or perhaps it is as several travelers have said, Thailand is not what it used to be. Regardless of the reason, finding a bus out of Khon Kaen was like finding a baby elephant in a market, hilarious but painful.
Mitchy (travel planner extraordinaire) tried in vain to organise Nong Khai to Siem Reap using internet, guide books and people power but to no avail. In hindsight we would have done the tourist trail,
Nong Khai to Bangkok (night train) and Bangkok to Siem Reap (bus), but such was our reluctance to find ourselves back at the DD House it was an avoid at all costs approach. With no luck in Nong Khai we took refuge in the luxury of the Pullman to plan the exit strategy.
Mitchy thought he’d try the personal approach and headed to the bus stop to sort things out. The ticket office said platform three, platform three said try platform six, no-one at platform six, back to the ticket office, try platform nine, yes a bus but no price or time, come back tomorrow. The next day we headed to the Tourist Authority of Thailand to see two lovely Thai ladies who played with the kids and told us travel times but that we needed to go to the bus station for anything more. So the next day, with the fear of our waistlines expanding further we packed up and headed to the bus station at 8.00 only to be told there were no tickets, four tickets, a whole bus full of tickets, ooops 5 minutes later, no tickets!
So, after over an hour (and one elephant,
truly, at the bus stop) of trying to sort out bus tickets a guy with a double cab utility taxi upped the anti to get a job and offered us a fair deal back to Aranyapathet opposite the border to Poipet the “armpit of Cambodia”.
It meant one day of ‘squooshiness” (Mac) in a five hour trip rather than two days of bus rides and accommodation to make it to the same place. Our driver was great and the trip was beautiful through amazingly beautiful countryside and friendly locals.
We prepared ourselves at the beginning of the ride to make an attempt at coming all the way to Siem Reap but were prepared to bail out should the need arise. We were all fairly weary arriving at Poipet but a successful (we are so travel wise and cool!) run in with a scammer gave us the energy to go on (thanks Lonely Planet) and we made it across the border…and straight into the arms of the next scam!!
We were assisted by a guy from the Cambodian Government tourist services to cross the border and book a taxi to Siem Reap, a seamless process and we found
ourselves in a taxi and on the road within an hour. The taxi was to drop us in the centre of Siem Reap so as to avoid being dropped at a guesthouse for the driver to receive a kickback. So ten hours after leaving the hotel we found ourselves dropped off in the dark for a free tuk tuk ride to our hotel (we should have known), greeted by two tuk tuk drivers, two young Dutch fellows, and a Khmer guy who was the chief negotiator wanting us to take a tuk tuk to a particular guest house and have us book with him to go to the Temples. Needless to say by this stage we were not in the mood for any nonsense.
The Western guys were apparently wanting to tell us some information about Cambodia on the way (that is: they had run out of beer money and were on a kickback somewhere). Mitchy nicely explained to the Khmer guy that we had a hotel already and would not commit to a temple booking but we would take his number. When the softly softly approach didn’t work he became a little firmer (Mitchy is now thinking the
guy is still trying to translate “#!!!@@ we are not falling for that $$%&*!! so you can &*^%%^&&*”). I was annoyed that two Westerners would be involved in the deal and said “you, out of the tuk tuk” in my best ‘don’t mess with me mother voice’ which worked way better than it does on my own kids and we were off!!
All was sorted with the (very apologetic) tuk tuk driver and Mitchy negotiating a win-win situation and we now have a great, cheap driver who we can rely on at a moment’s notice. We were really disappointed that for other people a welcome like this might really influence their perception of the Khmer people.
The kids had such a long day but managed to survive with the thought of having dinner back at the Khmer Kitchen and meeting Ara the waitress who they adored last visit. After we settled from our trip we headed into town to the Restaurant but alas, no Ara! Olivia and Mac sat quietly while we tried to work out why she didn’t work there any more and then both promptly burst into tears. Luckily the staff knew how to contact her
Douk
Land Mine Victim - Siem Reapand there was a very excited reunion the next day. The kids were also very keen to see Savuth and Pul, the tuk tuk drivers from our last visit and we caught up with them the second night. Up until then the kids had all been on the look out in every tuk tuk we saw. The boys went running up to them for a big cuddle and Mackie said, “I am so pleased to meet you again!” Enough to bring a tear to our eyes.
We had such fond memories of Siem Reap from our last trip and we have visited many of our old haunts, as well as spent lots of time by the pool. We have also talked to many of the people who we saw in February like the land mine victims who sell books on the streets and the children selling trinkets. Our kids were very excited to see the trinket sellers again and the feeling seemed to be mutual and they were all back playing and chatting in the street as if we had never left. The police and security guards regularly move the trinket seller children on and we were a bit
worried when Grace moved along with them!
Ara was thrilled to see the kids and wanted to take us to some of the sites which she takes private tourists to. The Silk Farm was a great place to visit, we had visited a weaving studio in Vientiene but the farm gave us the chance to see the whole real life process from mating (you can imagine the boys), to egg laying, forming the silk cocoons to the boiling of the cocoons, threading of the fibres and then dying of the silk. We were also reminded of the amazingly intricate nature of the work that the women do in weaving the patterns and the very little they are paid for their work.
Ara also wanted to take the kids fishing so we headed out toward the Tonle Sap where the kids fished over the edge of the restaurant with line attached to sticks. Mac was the winner with a total of three fish and the look on his face at his first catch was priceless. Mitchy’s reputation as the least productive fisherman ever stays in tact!
Ara also took us out onto the Tonle Sap which we hadn’t
seen last trip. It is the largest freshwater lake in SE Asia and during the wet season the flow of water in the lake actually changes direction. On the ride out we could see the stilt houses that were high in the air in February now lapped by water at their doorsteps. The lake is beautiful and for tourists there are several different options as far as seeing bird sanctuaries, the flooded forest and floating villages. We saw a Vietnamese floating village in Halong Bay last year but seeing Chong Khneas we were still amazed at how a village on water functions, with a pig ‘farm’, mechanic shop, school, Catholic church (strange but true), basket ball court and anything else you might need. The tourist influx has been catered for with a large floating restaurant complete with fish farm, crocodile farm and (enormous) boa constrictor. Our children adored the snake (and are busily asking which permits you need to get one back to Australia and working out how they can save enough money for one)! A large boat of tourists soon brought the attention of local mothers and kids who paddled over to the boat wanting ‘one dollar’; on closer
inspection all of the kids seemed to have a snake in their boat (or floating washing bowl) to increase the chances of some (desperately needed) monetary gain.
Mitchy and I were both excited when the kids were asked if they wanted to go and see the Temples again and all four excitedly put up their hands. Mitchy was keen to get some more photos with the chance to visit again. The temples are definitely as awe inspiring the second time, and for kids the steep steps remain as appealing although they are also as hot and tiring with kids in tow. Luckily the rain and the monkeys came along in the tuk tuk ride between Angkor and Bayon at just the right time.
On our last trip to Siem Reap we spent a few very relaxing hours at Butterfly Garden Restaurant. Three times a week underprivileged kids from villages around the city bring butterflies to release into the garden and are paid for doing this. This visit we were able to watch the kids releasing the butterflies it was hard to say whether the kids or the butterflies were more beautiful. The Khmer kids played elastics (literally rubber
bands tied together) while they waited to free the butterflies from the homemade nets, wearing their too big, too small, too ripped, too dirty clothes, then were paid for their butterflies and headed off home.
By a lot of co-incidence and a little planning we have managed to be in Siem Reap at the same time as Leonard, an American who lives in Holland. Leonard set up the website (www.angkortuktuk.com) for Savuth’s tuk tuk service. We have kept in touch with Leonard since our last trip and met up with him in Siem Reap which was great. We were a bit nervous about meeting Leonard as from the little we knew about him he was obviously a fairly cool yet passionate guy, he has always given us gentle encouragement to fulfill our travel dreams.
Any nerves were soon dispelled as we chatted and listened to his stories and ideas about living in a way where he makes choices in his life to impact positively on those who have had less privileged lives than us, examples of which can be seen on the angkortuktuk site. The children were ‘on-notice’ not to give away our cool, travel loving, wholesome
family exterior and all went well as they played in the pool until they hopped out and started telling stories about our travels and somehow picked out several of the more dodgy stories. Leonard told the kids that they should write a travel book for children and while Mitchy and I glowed with a ‘how cool’ parental look Grace said, yeah we could tell kids when they get taken to boring places like ‘the Temple of Doom’ (Temple of Heaven, Beijing) then they should run away and play on the steps.
There are so many people in Siem Reap like Leonard who are from other, more fortunate countries in the world who are trying to make a difference, often in very challenging and frustrating conditions.
I met a young Austrian girl who was sitting in Pub Street with a big sign she had made asking for money for rice for children at the Cambodian Light Children Foundation, she has been volunteering as an English teacher in the afternoons. The orphanage is just near the Angkor Wat ticket office and we went out to visit after talking to her with a bundle of books and pencils. I knew from
chatting to the volunteer that the orphanage was very poor but I don’t think I was really prepared for how poor. We were greeted by a small gaggle of kids, one who spoke very good English which was good as the ‘mother and father’ spoke very little. The kids were an absolute delight, all happy to say hello and all had a grasp of English. We arrived around mid-day, the children all eating their lunch of white rice and a watery cabbage soup sitting amongst the chickens, kittens and dogs. Our kids were made way for and huge bowls of rice and soup were brought out, the Mitchell kids actually had some meat in theirs, a very humbling meal.
We couldn’t really get the visit out of our minds, so we decided that while it is difficult at the moment for us to volunteer we were able to buy some supplies to make life a little more comfortable for them. Our children were all for this plan and got really involved in what we should buy and why, they were also great at the market on our two visits to work out what we could afford on the budget
that we set. As those who know Mitchy will be aware, he loves a bargain and has far more energy in haggling than me and when there was a very needy cause as the focus of our shopping he was even more passionate about getting a good deal! Our tuk tuk driver was a great help (although he did seem to laugh a lot at Mitchy’s haggling) and we got all that we hoped for for $1 less than our budget.
Piled up in the tuk tuk with sleeping mats, blankets, fresh food, toothbrushes, rice and bubble blowers we headed out to the orphanage with them unaware that we were coming. We were again greeted with huge smiles which became even bigger when they saw that we had some goodies with us. The father had a huge smile on his face and in basic English said “oh, you here to help us”. The whole thing couldn’t have been better, the kids were so grateful and while we all blew bubbles and ate fresh oranges the happiness of both ‘families’ was palpable. We were treated to an impromptu performance of some rap dances by the boys (Mac and Finn included)
and then the traditional coconut dance and the fishing dance which we felt very privileged to see.
There are so many needy people in Cambodia and it is really hard to know what to do and who for. It can either get really complicated as you think the issues through or else the sheer number of worthy recipients for help can be almost paralyzing. In the end we did what we could with the resources and time available to us and while it is an often used cliché, we got far more back than we gave. Finn whispered that he thought it might have been the best day of his life.
(The orphanage has a basic website: www.cambokids.com.au)
We were also in Siem Reap for a Saturday night and Olivia and I were able to go to Beatocello, a cello performance by Dr Beat Richner who is originally from Switzerland, a paediatrician and head (and driving force) of the Kantha Bopha Childrens hospitals in Cambodia. His cello performance is beautiful and he is a very witty and informative throughout the evening. He is passionately driven to provide free, accessible and quality care for the children of
Cambodia. He struggles daily with lack of funds, corruption and differing views with WHO in providing care but has achieved amazing things. At the beginning of the performance Dr Beat says that “from the young people, I ask for blood, from the older I ask for money and for those in the middle I want both. So, its blood and money, now I will play.” Mitchy and I were happy with giving a little of both and headed out on a family expedition to give blood accompanied by Savuth and his daughter. No-one hit the floor although there was a minor uproar that it was the adults who got the free soft drink rather than the kids! (www.beatocello.com)
We believe that we have prepared ourselves well for medical emergencies and now have experience in burns, kidney stones and degloving of skin in bicycle wheels from personal experience, but had not really considered dental mishaps while we are away.
I didn’t listen to the premarital counseling about checking a man’s teeth before marrying and have been caught out several times but this one was the best. Mitchy lost his crown in Siem Reap. The tooth is conveniently positioned next
to his big tooth so he immediately looks like somewhat less attractive and a lot like a pirate.
Mitchy was unfazed by this turn of events and headed off along Highway 6 to a dental clinic he had seen on his travels. He returned half an hour later, lips pursed to keep the suspense, me wondering if we would spend the next two months pretending he wasn’t with us; luckily though a full set of teeth! Eager to give the Cambodian Dental Clinic report, Mitchy said that once you got past the dirt floors it was okay. He then said that it was definitely a “real dentist” because it had a chair that went up and down! All was good though and the re-gluing of the crown for $10 has so far been a success.
Unfortunately now we have no reason to pretend he is not with us so off to Battembang we go!
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Vanessa and Zoe Bate
non-member comment
Another great read
No doubt you're sick of hearing it but what an amazing family you are. Zoe will love reading this episode just as much as the others, no doubt. Travel safe xx