Scam-bodia

Everything in Cambodia is a scam. In order to succeed in not getting scammed in Cambodia, you must cautiously enter knowing that you will get scammed and from there whittle away each miniature scam. In other words, there are degrees of scamming, and you must play the right game to end up on the good side of the scam stick.

I knew this going into Cambodia and reading about it in various books, so I felt pretty confident and knowledgeable about what to do. On a scale of one to scam I probably was only moderate.

The first test is money, because while the official Cambodian currency is the riel, the pecking order consists of first the US Dollar, second the Thai Baht, and then third the Cambodian Riel. I made sure to check the exchange rates online before I left to find that 1 US dollar was about 4140 riel, making 1000 riel about a quarter.

We took a bus from Bangkok's northern bus station to Aranya Prathet around 5 am. The only time I have seen the streets of Bangkok empty and desolate has been the crack of dawn. We caught a bus to the border town. Unfortunately we didn't realize that the bus station is conveniently 7 km from the actual border so we had to take a tuk-tuk to the border, which meant we had to begin the scam within Thailand. The tuk-tuks which were supposed to take us to the border took us to 2 km from the border where we came to a covered building with tables and chairs and visa forms. Without many alternatives, we complied, filled out the forms paid about $5 probably too much and got our Cambodian visa hassle free. There is a way to get the visa at the actual Cambodian government visa office, but all transportation odds work against you, if you can't provide your own transportation. The tuk-tuk drivers already cut a deal with the visa people who already planned out the rest of your trip. A man from the "faux" visa station escorted us across the border where we walked a 1 km strip of no-man's land that contained three huge casinos and lots of pickpockets. Retrospectively, it may be worth it to have the "faux" service because there is a guy who is escorting you across. We passed the fever scanner and took the "free" shuttle to the bus station of Poipet (the Cambodian border town). Our lonely planet guide suggested that the buses going to Siem Reap (the main town near the temples of Angkor) stop many times and take 5-6 hours to get there so that you don't have time to go to any sights the first day and you have to stay at one of their favorite guesthouses. Since there were seven of us, we shared two taxis and it was fine except our driver was a little crazy. He nearly merged into a motorbike sighing relatively non-chalant "ohhh, no good, I can not see." We nearly hit a kid standing in the middle of the road and we were in the wrong lane facing oncoming traffic. Suddenly there was a truck there so our driver thinks it's a good idea to speed up rather than brake and then he said the same thing "oh oh oh no good no good." We only stopped twice at his convenience stores, and made it in about 2.5 hours.

Border

Aug 13, 2009

My first impressions of Cambodia varied, the one* paved road in all of Cambodia seemed more like an agitated body of water with different objects moving through the road at the whim some higher being. Cars floated across diagonally, bikes roamed about, people, carts, and cows dotted the side. This two lane concrete line bisected a vast expanse of flat rice fields with nothing in sight. The country fits the description of a country struggling to develop with the lingering side-effects of a genocidal regime in the 1970s. Modernity and technology moves forward within a backward infrastructure. Computers, the internet, and cell phones permeate throughout; they just exist in small straw shacks, huts, or among dusty roads. Definitely the poorest country I have been to--although I haven't been to many countries, but perhaps most noticeable isn't the poverty itself but the distinct gap between the rich and the poor. Even the cows are skinny. After a monotonous yet surreal ride through the countryside, the taxi dropped us off in the hands of some tuk-tuk drivers, who would be our drivers for the next couple days to take us to the temples, which are about 10 km away from most accommodations. We negotiated a bit with the drivers, we told them we wanted to go to a specific guesthouse that was in our Lonely Planet book, but they insisted on taking us to two guesthouses they were in cahoots with first. We saw them, they were fine, but we still wanted to see the original one we initially suggested. The drivers kept telling us we would not like the "Dead Fish (name of guesthouse)" because it was under construction, etc. We ended up staying at the Dead Fish despite our tuk-tuk's efforts for us to go elsewhere because of its proximity to the night market and center of Siem Reap, which is actually more of a small town. Ironic in name too, Siem Reap literally means Siam Destroyed (Siam is the former name of Thailand). We ate food, lok lak, a Khmer stir fried beef specialty, but not as tasty as Thai food.

A side note of unusual Khmer food that I didn't eat, but saw for sale-

tarantulas
frog (but this is in Thailand too)
turtle
whiskey with a dead cobra inside
lots of catfish, but not so unusual


Our tuk-tuk drivers suggested that we catch the sunset at one of the temples because after 4:30, the entrance fee lasts for the next day as well. We bought a 3-day temple pass and then saw some cool ruins (although it was cloudy so not a great sunset). We went to the night market and then woke up for an early day that allowed us to see many of the sights, including Phra Tom (the Tomb Raider temple), Angkor Wat and Bayon (my favorite). We saw some of the smaller ruins of Angkor Thom, bargained for lunch, and then came back in the afternoon exhausted. We took some naps and planned our next day which included some of the further temples. We ate dinner at a pretty cool but a little nicer than street food cafe/community center called Singing Tree where some of the profits benefit street children and wildlife conservation. The vegetables served in our food were grown mostly at the restaurant in the garden, they used a solar cooker, and most of the handicrafts they sold were made of plastic bags or newspapers. It also helped that the food was pretty tasty. We woke up early the next day, went on a nice 45 minute tuk-tuk ride that was really interesting to see parts of rural Cambodia and then we checked out some of the remaining temples. Not only are the ruins themselves remarkable, but the sheer size of the complex spans a large area, many square kilometers, it doesn't stop.

It's hard to describe Cambodia, because it consists of such random, odd and contrasting things. The stunning Temples of Angkor create a surreal fantasy world that shouldn't still exist. The unrivaled amount of warfare and destruction the area has seen since the 11th century should make it impossible for such structures to remain standing. For all the beauty and sights, poverty is rampant throughout the region. Upon exiting Angkor Wat, children, adults, the elderly, anyone who can sell something will sell something, and anything is for sale. Many of the older vendors who lived through the Khmer Rouge still struggle to survive on their meager daily earnings. At least many are not begging, but the second you step off of the premises of the former temple, fifty different voices screaming "Hey Sir, you buy something, you want something, maybe you thirsty when you come back." Some sell cold drinks, others trinkets or drawings or obnoxious noisemakers. Many of them speak a perfected English vocabulary suited for heckling.

From Aug 13, 2009

Because Angkor Wat is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and considered by some to be the eighth wonder of the world, thousands of travelers flock to Cambodia daily to see the sights who frequent the large amount of luxury trip packages. Then, across from the fancy hotel exists another world, the life of a typical Cambodian, struggling to reaffirm themselves beyond their troubled past. Two hundred thousand Cambodians will fall below the poverty line this year, but really there is a lot of potential that could help create a better standard of living. Sometimes poverty doesn't necessarily equate to a difficult life, but that's not the case in Cambodia, simply because many of the middle aged civilians are living remnants of Pol Pot's bloody agrari-communist experiment...orchestras of land-mine victims played songs for donation at nearly every temple entrance.

From Aug 13, 2009

This isn't to say we didn't have a great time, because I had a lot of fun in Cambodia, and it was neat haggling with vendors, restaurant owners, and knowing that I am helping provide a future meal for their family. The people I met were very friendly and interesting, although I did have a lengthy conversation with one of the bus boys at a restaurant/bar that I went to and probably affected my perception of Cambodia because of his experience working as a bus boy. A funny thing about Cambodia was that I knew probably three phrases in Khmer (sua s'dei for hello, suk sa bai dei for how are you, and aw kuhn for thank you) but when I said even just sua s'dei everyone looked quizzically and confused and smiled a lot and asked how I knew how to speak Khmer. I met a lot of people just by saying hello and how are you in Cambodian, and I got a lot of discounts, and then I asked them in Thai if they speaked Thai and they sometimes could, but the best part was some thought I was fluent in Khmer even though I knew three words. I don't know why they thought I would be fluent, but I think it's extremely rare for a foreigner to speak anything in Khmer so that was fun making some friends. It also helped a lot at the markets, I bought a couple souvenirs and got a lot of discounts, I got a nice quality silk shirt down from 10 dollars to 3, and most everything else for about 1/3 of the initial asking price just by speaking Khmer.

From Aug 13, 2009

From Aug 13, 2009

From Aug 13, 2009

From Aug 13, 2009

From Aug 13, 2009

From Aug 14, 2009

From Aug 14, 2009

From Aug 14, 2009

From Aug 14, 2009

We were pretty tired the last night but we went to a bar called Angkor What?, which was fun after we ate Indian food for dinner (it was good). We went dancing and then woke up early for a 7 am bus that came at 8 am that was overbooked. To remedy the situation, the bus company literally put plastic chairs in the aisle to create more seats. It was packed, and weird. After 5 hours of a crowded bus we made it to the border, ate lunch, and shared a minivan back to Bangkok. Entering back into Thailand felt like coming home, it was nice to say sa wa dee krap instead of sua s'dei (khmer for hello).

The sights were incredible, and a great place to spend a couple days, but I don't know if I will go back any time soon.

So even if it was all a scam, it wasn't terrible.

From Aug 14, 2009

From Aug 14, 2009

From Aug 14, 2009