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Published: June 22nd 2017
Geo: 13.4691, 104.041
Our border crossing to Cambodia was an eventful one. We'd heard and read horror stories regarding the bus companies and the border control trying to scam you either independently or as a combined elaborate scheme. This could involve leaving you at the side of the road with or without your bags and belongings or not letting you through the border without paying a certain bribe. We were aware of what could happen. The visa was $30 (US dollars, the accepted Cambodian currency as their own Riel is not worth much) but you could get scammed out of up to twice the amount. As we were aware of the situation, we casually asked the bus company who we booked with about the border crossing and what happens. He told us that they take our passports, fill in the documentation for us, hand it in to border control and we don't have to do a thing. And the visa is $35. Oh yes, they admitted they were scamming us and if they don't scam us "just a little bit", someone else will! So we argued. We know the visa is $30. How about we do it all ourselves and don't pay
the extra $5 each AND don't hand over our passports to some complete, strangers who are openly admitting are crooks!? Well then he said we get left behind. We were wondering how this can happen. Surely if we gave in our own paperwork it'll be done just as quick, if not quicker than a bus load of people? We also didn't have any dollars so would have to pay in Vietnamese dong. They obviously didn't have the latest currency conversion because they wanted the equivalent of $38 each in dong! Our visas have gone from $30 to $38 each in one conversation. We decided to take our chances. As we got on the bus and the man began coming along for passports and payments, the other passengers (mostly Brits) began to realise what was happening and no one was happy. We were hoping we'd have a revolt on our hands! Surely the bus wouldn't go without any passengers! Unfortunately out of fear, one by one the rest of them gave in and handed over their money and passports. We were the only stubborn bastards left. It came to the crossing. Ultimately after reading all the scary stories and standing around
for a very tense period of time while everyone else seemed to go through and we weren't, we gave in at the last minute. But we were angry! Not a very nice welcome into a country. We subsequently found out that the reason they get away with going through so quickly is that they hand in the documents, make everyone go to a local restaurant about 5km down the road while someone waits for the visas to come through and brings them to the bus. We were never going to win that one! As a matter of fact we then picked up some guys who had done exactly that on the previous bus. They refused to pay the extra money, got left behind and had to wait 3 hours and hope that our bus would take them!
Upon reflection and after reading this you may be wondering why the big deal over $16? Well firstly it's the principle. They were scamming us and they were admitting it. After travelling through Asia you become very acute and very wary of scams and you get sick of it! These scams also include loss and/or theft of passports so we were not happy just
handing them over to these people if we didn't have to. We'd been through a lot of borders at this point and have never handed our passports to a 'middle man'. There is no need. Ever. The money also concerned us. At this point we had been travelling for just over 4 months in Asia. The kind of money that they were scamming us for would have been about 3 days worth of food for us. What with Brexit meaning we'd lost about £4000 of our savings, we were definitely watching the pennies!
Anyway... After that not so good welcome into the country we decided to cheer ourselves up with a bit of education about the very recent genocidal history of Cambodia! We began in Phnom Pehn. The capital city of Cambodia. S21 is a school in Phnom Pehn that was converted by the Khmer Rouge (along with over 200 other schools and hospitals in Cambodia) into prisons where they would torture and kill the educated population of the country. The leaders of this regime believed that the future of the country was in agriculture so they evacuated all of the towns and cities and put the people to work
in the fields of Cambodia. Meanwhile, the doctors, teachers, nurses, engineers and anyone wearing glasses or who looked smart would be arrested along with their family, accused of espionage and forced into a confession via torture and then executed. S21 had been maintained as it was left by the Khmer Rouge and transformed into a museum for education and in memoriam for all of the victims of this disgusting regime that continued from 1975 To 1979. It was definitely a humbling experience and we recommend anyone who isn't familiar with this time in Cambodian history to educate themselves.
We moved on from the capital to catch some rays in Otres on the south coast of Cambodia. We spent 4 days eating fresh fruit, sun bathing and swimming in the 26 degree water of the sea. One day while swimming, we saw that there was a thick band of rain coming our way along the long stretch of beach. It felt like Armageddon as we waited for this wall of water to descend upon us! When it did it was amazing! The sea was warmer than the air and the drops of rain were so big they splashed into the sea which
then splashed up into your face. It was painful big drops of rain too but it was definitely an experience neither of us will ever forget! While staying in Otres, We also had some rather interesting and sometimes heated discussionss with our host who it turns out was an all life consuming, active, drunken conspiracy theorist! (We won't go into this as we'll be here a long time!) But we also met the lovely Ben and Paula who somehow managed to work for this lunatic and get out alive! These guys gave us some great tips on New Zealand and we can't wait to catch up over there!
After chilling for a few days we travelled to the main event... Angkor Wat! When you buy a day ticket you're able to go in after 5pm the day before to watch the sunset. Unfortunately they were closing up at around 6pm but we got some amazing pictures as we were being ushered out of the place! The next day we decided we wanted to see it during sun rise. We hired a tuk tuk (complete with driver) for the day to chauffeur us around (foreigners aren't allowed to drive on the
complex. The only other option would have been to hire a bike and ride around in the 35+ degree heat! No thanks!) So off we went at 4:30am to see what all the fuss was about ;-)
The sky was clearing away as the sun came up and the people came flocking in. We chose the right hand side of the walkway to plonk ourselves and watch the magic. It was stunning. The colours changing as the sun rose, the light reflecting off of the building as more and more detail came to light as time went by. We could have sat there forever. When we finally managed to shake ourselves out of the daydreams we were in, we stood up and turned around. That's when we realised how many people had accumulated around us. Hundreds of people were watching this specific sunrise on this specific day on this specific side of the walk way along with us. Then when we walked over to the central walkway in order to see Angkor Wat from the inside, we witnessed the throngs of people on the other side! It must have been over a thousand people! All stood along the banks of the
water, squashed in like sardines trying to get the picture perfect moment with their phones, cameras, tablets, go pros at the end of their arms. THAT was also something extraordinary and fascinating to witness. How many of them were looking at the wonder through a screen? or chatting away about their lives and even playing a game on their phone before getting that “I was there” picture? and how many were actually experiencing the moment?
Then we set upon our day. 'Angkor Wat' as it's known is actually an extremely vast complex of temples with all different features and names and Angkor Wat is the most famous of all of them. It's on the Cambodian flag! We roamed around the temples for a total of 8 hours before we gave in to exhaustion and called it a day. Our pictures probably show our waning energy throughout the day as we started getting bored of posing for photos ourselves and just started making a game of taking pictures of strangers in all manner of poses without making it obvious what we were doing (it was pretty obvious because Sooz couldn't stop laughing the whole time). Anyway, we had a fantastic day and
would definitely recommend it to everyone!
What was the food like in Cambodia we hear you ask? Well we had some amazing noodles and rice dishes in Siem Reap. We also had an unbelievable burrito in Phnom Pehn. And a gorgeous Khmer curry in Otres. But the thing we will remember forever from Cambodia are the juices! They were so simple but so fresh and so amazing (also so laden with sugar) we had mango and passion fruit and pineapple and banana and orange all mixed in different ways with each other and every single one was spectacular!
And that concludes Cambodia! It was a rocky start but overall we had an amazing time. We went from there back to Thailand for a few days where we ate our weight in thai curry and Sooz got a tattoo to commemorate her time at Elephant Nature Park. We then prepared ourselves for Indonesia!
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Christopher Carroll
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Worth the wait! What an adventure and stunning views and pictures. True Sooze and Phil indignation over the visa, i can just imagine the two of you fuming!