Poipet-Battambang-Siem Reap, Cambodia
Poipet, Cambodia arrival scamsAnna's entry:
We got off the train in Thailand to cross the border in Aranya Prathet. The scams have begun. First we were offered a ride to the border by tuk-tuk. Normally, we refuse any tuk-tuks (we hate them), but the price offered was the same as a bus fare, there was no bus in sight, and we would have to walk about 8km to the border. So, we took the tuk-tuk. About 2km before the Thai border, the driver took a sudden turn and we ended up at the Malaysian Consulate. The driver motioned us to go to the Consulate. "Why?" I asked him, "we can get the Cambodia visa at the border". "No, no, you have to do it here," he replied. "I don't need to do it here, I don't want to do it here, take us to the border, or we would walk", I said. The tuk-tuk driver continued insisting we go to the Consulate, but we turned around, took our backpacks of the tuk-tuk and began walking away. We haven't paid the tuk-tuk yet, so hey, at least we got 6 out of 8 km to the border for free. A minute later, the tuk-tuk rushed to us, "please get back, please get back, I will take you to the border". We told him that was his last chance to make things right. He cooperated and took us to the border. Later on, we found out that the visa processed by the Consulate vs. by at border was an over-charge - naturally, tuk-tuks were a part of the deal. They would bring the unaware tourists for over-priced visas, they would get a commission - that explains the reasonable price quoted for transportation to the border. That did not go well with us - traveled too long, have seen too much of the tuk-tuk crap.
We walked across the Thai border with no issues, and entered the Cambodia border only to find out more scams were to develop. A guard at the bridge motioned us towards an official looking building reading "Border Police" to get our visa issued. As soon as we entered, one of the officials grabbed our passports and began filing some forms. Another guy looking like a tout began speaking with us in English, and quoting us a visa price. "Who are you?" I asked. He avoided my answer giving me some b.s. line. In either case, we were quoted a price for the visa, that seemed a little higher than it should be to me. I told them it was too much, and I wanted a better deal. Rob was looking at me as if I'd lost my mind. We were sitting at the border, in the police building, our passports were taken away, and I was bargaining a better price? I began thinking myself, what was I doing? But, a minute later, were were quoted a new reduced visa price. So, I guess it was OK this time to bargain with the corrupt Cambodian officials. We got our visas and passports, and began walking towards border passport control. The tout kept following us telling he was part of the tourist assistance, we told him we did not need any assistance, and wanted him to stop following us, but he would not leave us alone. We knew there was a free shuttle from the border to Poipet town, but we could not loose the tout. We disappeared for a few minutes, but he caught up with us again. We asked the tout to please stop following us, but he just laughed. "OK", we thought, "Welcome to Scambodia!" Eventually, the shuttle came, we got on it, but wait... so did the stalking tout! A few minutes later, the shuttle stopped at a so called "tourist lounge", and the same tout told us that that was the bus point towards Battambang (the city we were heading out to). Having learnt by now, that touts bring us to the places they are paid commission, we wanted to check our bus options, something just was not feeling right. We began walking away from the "tourist lounge", the tout ran ahead and blocked our way. "What do you want?" he asked. Feeling too tired by now, and having gone through too many scams in the past two hours, I looked straight in his eyes and told him "I want you to go to hell". That seemed to work. He looked back at me with anger (probably thinking I wish I could hit that b..ch"), but stayed behind, and no more stalking followed. I must say, that I am a polite outgoing person, and try to be an exemplary Ambassador to foreign countries, but my patience and approach towards lying stalking touts is very thin. I give them three polite no-thank-you's-with-a-smile, which normally works just fine. After that I do not feel obligated to be polite about being harassed.
Going back to our bus options to Battambang. We walked further to town along the muddy washed out streets, and came to the real bus station (not the one we were shoveled to by the tout). We found out that buses to Battambang depart only in the morning, and that we would need to spend an over-night in Poipet (we are wondering now where other tourists ended up at that decided to follow the tout's offer and take a non-existent bus to Battambang). Rob went to look around town for a possible place to stay, and I found a place to sit down with our back-packs under a big house roof, thinking it was either a school or some other public building. When I made myself comfortable, a couple of young ladies walked out of the building, they looked at me with a question mark, but we exchanged smiles, and they proceeded with their business at the table next to me. Then one of them ran to a store, and came back with some food. They offered to me a few treats, I thanked them with a smile, and told them I was OK. Then, a big expensive looking care pulled over. A well dressed man came out of the car, exchanged greetings with the girls, asked something about me, gave me a smile, went towards the building, and returned on a stylish motorcycle. I finally realized, I was at someone's home... It wasn't a school, or a public area, I just made myself comfortable without being invited to someone's private residence (which explains that one of the dogs was growling at me, while other two were wagging their tales). OK, I thought, business as usual with Anna, Rob has been gone for about an hour now, and I have already managed to trespass the residence. Rob eventually came back, I energetically thanked the girls for letting me stay there without an acquired permission, and we walked away. We found a nice somewhat posh room (only $5) to get away from all the touts for the rest of the evening, and from now on things went a lot better. We negotiated a good price for the bus next morning, and headed out to Battambang the next morning.
Battambang to Siem Reap
Anna's entry:
I wrote in the Malaysia blog that while exploring Perhentian Islands, we met Jeremy (from France) and Phally (from Cambodia). When they found out that we were planning to visit Cambodia, they invited us to their engagement party in Battambang, Cambodia. We liked the idea, and made sure we would include a visit to Battambang, which turned out to be one of the best memories for us. The engagement party was actually the wedding party, in a traditional Cambodian style. We had such a great time - Phally's familiy were so nice and fun - we ate a lot, drank a lot, danced a lot, laughed a lot, all in a Cambodian style. Phally's relatives send a couple of relatives on motorcycles to pick us up, so we had a nice fast ride to Phally's village. The wedding was colorful, with exceelent traditional home made Lao food, followed by a lot of dancing till midnight. Besides Rob and I, there were a few other Westerners, Jeremy's friends, who are currently working as archaeologists in the Angkor Wat area. Later on we got together for another re-union party in Siem Reap. I loved Phally's Cambodian family - so sweet, friendly, hospitable, with a good sense of humor - not everyone could speak English, but we understood each other just fine. Phally's cousin sitting next to me at the table wanted to make sure we had enough food and drink, so needless to say we were very well taken care of. Another Phally's relative loved Rob's dancing, and he kept asking Rob for a dance, shaking his hand, and would send Rob occasional air kisses. At some point, Rob had to hide away from him. Phally insisted the relative wasn't gay, he just loved good dancing, we think maybe too much bear, it doesn't matter - we all had a great time. We also had a trip record room price in Battambang, only $3. The room was located on the very roof top with sweeping views over the city. The roof terrace had hammocks swinging in the wind surrounded by exotic potted plants - it was very relaxing and peaceful. We found a few local ladies that sold home made delicatessens for a good price - we skipped b-b-qued frogs, but soups were great. I am still nostalgic over sweet-and-sour fish soup with pineapple and fresh vegetables, as a matter of fact my mouth is watering when I am writing this.
We decided to take a boat from Battambang to Siem Reap, our next town stop for an access to the famous Angkor temples. The boat ride was about 8 hours, and the boat was over-loaded with passengers, but the scenery for me was striking. It gave an excellent chance to see the life of a real genuine Cambodia, without any tourists. We passed through so many villages built on stilts. Imagine your house built over the water on stilts, your school on stilts, your work place on stilts, your playground on stilts. The houses were very basic, I would call it primitive, but kids looked so happy. They would swim and play in the muddy river waters, they smiled and waived to us, and kept shouting hello for a long time after the boat passed... People would spend their entire lives on the water - moving their belongings in the boat, fishing, selling fruits and vegetables from the boat, living on the boat, etc. That social perspective was very fascinating for me, the images were so striking that I don't think I can ever forget. Our boat reached Siem Reap eight hours later - uncomfortable, but fulfilling eight hours later... With a minor, but suspicious adventure on the road from the boat dock towards town (which deserves a separate entry), we finally reached Siem Reap, from where we would be exploring the temples of great Angkor.
Anna's entry:
I wrote in the Malaysia blog that while exploring Perhentian Islands, we met Jeremy (from France) and Phally (from Cambodia). When they found out that we were planning to visit Cambodia, they invited us to their engagement party in Battambang, Cambodia. We liked the idea, and made sure we would include a visit to Battambang, which turned out to be one of the best memories for us. The engagement party was actually the wedding party, in a traditional Cambodian style. We had such a great time - Phally's familiy were so nice and fun - we ate a lot, drank a lot, danced a lot, laughed a lot, all in a Cambodian style. Phally's relatives send a couple of relatives on motorcycles to pick us up, so we had a nice fast ride to Phally's village. The wedding was colorful, with exceelent traditional home made Lao food, followed by a lot of dancing till midnight. Besides Rob and I, there were a few other Westerners, Jeremy's friends, who are currently working as archaeologists in the Angkor Wat area. Later on we got together for another re-union party in Siem Reap. I loved Phally's Cambodian family - so sweet, friendly, hospitable, with a good sense of humor - not everyone could speak English, but we understood each other just fine. Phally's cousin sitting next to me at the table wanted to make sure we had enough food and drink, so needless to say we were very well taken care of. Another Phally's relative loved Rob's dancing, and he kept asking Rob for a dance, shaking his hand, and would send Rob occasional air kisses. At some point, Rob had to hide away from him. Phally insisted the relative wasn't gay, he just loved good dancing, we think maybe too much bear, it doesn't matter - we all had a great time. We also had a trip record room price in Battambang, only $3. The room was located on the very roof top with sweeping views over the city. The roof terrace had hammocks swinging in the wind surrounded by exotic potted plants - it was very relaxing and peaceful. We found a few local ladies that sold home made delicatessens for a good price - we skipped b-b-qued frogs, but soups were great. I am still nostalgic over sweet-and-sour fish soup with pineapple and fresh vegetables, as a matter of fact my mouth is watering when I am writing this.
We decided to take a boat from Battambang to Siem Reap, our next town stop for an access to the famous Angkor temples. The boat ride was about 8 hours, and the boat was over-loaded with passengers, but the scenery for me was striking. It gave an excellent chance to see the life of a real genuine Cambodia, without any tourists. We passed through so many villages built on stilts. Imagine your house built over the water on stilts, your school on stilts, your work place on stilts, your playground on stilts. The houses were very basic, I would call it primitive, but kids looked so happy. They would swim and play in the muddy river waters, they smiled and waived to us, and kept shouting hello for a long time after the boat passed... People would spend their entire lives on the water - moving their belongings in the boat, fishing, selling fruits and vegetables from the boat, living on the boat, etc. That social perspective was very fascinating for me, the images were so striking that I don't think I can ever forget. Our boat reached Siem Reap eight hours later - uncomfortable, but fulfilling eight hours later... With a minor, but suspicious adventure on the road from the boat dock towards town (which deserves a separate entry), we finally reached Siem Reap, from where we would be exploring the temples of great Angkor.
posted by Rob and Anna @ 1:30 AM
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