Advertisement
Published: February 20th 2011
Edit Blog Post
The journey to Cambodia was another epic slog, 12 hours long and featuring 4 different buses! Luckily there was plenty of bizarre incidents to break the journey up.
We set off from Bangkok at 7am and even though there's lots of people waiting to catch the bus, some how we end up in a mini bus on our own. We don't complain and make use of the extra leg room. After 5 hours we arrive at town on the edge of the border.
After a lot of waiting we jump on another bus, before making the sweaty walk into Cambodia. The bus company offer to arrange our Visas, however we sorted ours out online in advance. Good job, considering they're charging double the price. The bus company finally manage to scam us as we walk into Cambodia, by asking for a 100 baht 'arrival charge'. I'm pretty sure they made this up on the spot, but it's hard to argue back in Cambodian.
A bus is waiting for us on the other side to whisk us off to Siem Reap. 'Whisk' is probably the wrong word for it, as we drive very slowly, down a pretty ropey country
road. First impressions of Cambodia is that it's a visibly poorer country than Thailand. However it's hard to believe that it's only about 30 years since the rule of the Khmer Rouge and the country has come a long way.
About an hour into the journey we slow down to pass a car crash. The vehicle is completely smashed up and another Brit on our bus later tells us that he looked out the other side of the bus and saw a dead body on the side of the road! I would've felt better if they hadn't told us this.
So, after 4 hours the driver pulls into a restaurant at the side of the road and announces that it's 'Happy Hour'. This is when the 'scamming' begins...there's no reason for the stop, it's just so he can get some business for his friend's restaurant. We get off the bus and are immediately bombarded by begging children, pleading for money. We've been told to ignore them, but it's hard. The driver approaches us whilst in the restaurant and tells us that there is a free Tuk-Tuk waiting for us at the bus station to take us to our
guesthouse. We thank him, with an uneasy feeling that it won't be that straight forward.
Obviously it's all part of their well practiced plan. The bus pulls up at the 'Bus station' (or a patch of land about 1km from the town centre). Tuk-tuk drivers descend on us asking where we're staying. We're unfortunate to get picked on by a particuarly nasty looking guys called Tiger (he's got a big scar around his eye which makes him look like Mike Tyson). He gives us all the spiel about wanting to give us a free journey....as long as we go to the temple with him tomorrow! We have no other option so we get in the tuk-tuk with an older Dutch lady.
When we try to pay for just the journey he gets angry and aggressive. On the way, we stop at an ATM and we insist that we pay him for the journey. He's calmed down a bit and accepts $5 for the journey (it should be $1), however he continues to try and get us to go with him to the temple and tries to get us to go to another guesthouse. There is a moment of
hilarity when the Dutch woman gets back in the tuk tuk and Tiger says 'be careful, as you are fat'. Brilliant.
Thankfully we arrive safely at hour guesthouse....which is amazing! 7 quid in Cambodia gets you a big comfy room, a/c, ensuite and a TV. We speak to the owner of the guesthouse who is really friendly and says the bus scam is a big problem. 'It's a shame that it's some peoples first impressions of Cambodia' he says. He's right. Thankfully the friendly staff at the guesthouse rectify our feelings towards Cambodia! We're happy to head to bed after such a mammoth trip.
Siem Reap is the most touristy of the Cambodian towns and everything centres around the fact that the Angor Wat temples are just down the road. In order to cater for the thousands of visitors that the temple receives each day, there are tons of bars and restaurants all over town.
The next day we explore the town and find out that there's not a whole lot to do if you don't go to the temples. So we head to the bluntly named 'Pub Street', drinking Angkor Beer for 50 cents each! (about
30p). We're approached throughout the day by beggars, many of them landmine victims with missing limbs - landmines are still a huge problem in Cambodia and it's so sad to see. Most of the bars are pretty samey, however we find a place called The Butterfly Garden...which is...a garden full of butterflies!. We head to bed early, ready for the early start the following day.
Our original plan was to hire bicycles and ride out to Angkor Wat, but we were put off by the 35 degree heat and humidity. Instead we get up at 7am and hire a tuk-tuk driver for the day. Our guide is a little man called T (or Mr T) and he takes us around a 'greatest hits' collection of Temples. The man attraction is Angkor Wat, but there are thousands of other ruins for miles around. It's hard to sum up the sight of the temples without throwing a load of overused cliches, but it is breathtaking, awesome and fascinating all at once. We struggle to digest it in one go, as there's so much to absorb. I don't think the photos do it justice but they might give you an idea of
how incredible they look.
It's a scorching hot day, so it's hard going and by the final temple, we're pretty much exhausted and ready to head back. Also, our cameras ran out of batteries so we never got any photos of the 'Tomb Raider' temple. They filmed some of the scenes from the movie here and it does feel a bit like walking through the computer game (albeit a less exciting version of Tomb Raider, where the only threatening thing is beggers trying to sell you bracelets.).
Our final evening in Siem Reap is in a bar that serves delicious Khmer food and puts on a performance of traditional Cambodian dancing. During our meal there is a big parade through the streets. We're not sure what it's for but it looks pretty cool.
I also talk Clio into watching the Everton v Chelsea, FA Cup game in a nearby bar. She calms me down when I start shouting too loud at the TV. Apparently it's rude to do this in Cambodia! The best team win in the end (twice - that goal should've been allowed) and we go home very happy!
So it's been eventful intro
to Cambodia and we're sat on a bus down to Phnom Phen as I write this for more random adventures!
Ali and Clio x
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0457s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb