There’s such a lot of world to see

“To travel is better than to arrive”.  So said someone, once (I want to say Robert Louis Stevenson, but I’m not 100% sure, so don’t quote me in an exam).  Whoever it was, they have obviously never made the journey between Bangkok, in Thailand, and Siem Reap, in Cambodia.

As I was only in Thailand for two days, I didn’t have a copy of the Lonely Planet (other listings magazines are available), my cheapness overriding my desire to be organised and know what’s where at all times.  Instead, I’d gone into a bookshop in Hong Kong and frantically scribbled down a few crucial details about Bangkok.  Luckily, though, I’d splashed out and bought a copy of the LP for Cambodia, seeing as how I’d be there for a month – that would take a lot of scribbling in the Hong Kong answer to WHSmiths.  I was mooching through the back of the book when I came across a boxed section entitled ‘The Scam Bus’.  This basically warned me about a bus that was operated by the unscrupulous folks on and around the Khao San Road, in Bangkok, and would charge a ridiculously low price for the bus ride all the way to Siem Reap.  This definitely was too good to be true – the snags started happening when they charged you nearly double for you Cambodian Visa, then they drove veeeery slowly once over the border, so you would only arrive on the outskirts of Siem Reap after dark, when you would be deposited at an (expensive) guesthouse that was in cahoots with the bus company, and by which time you would be too tired, disorientated, and intimidated to try to find anywhere else to stay.  However, being the worldly-wise person that I am (stop laughing), I decided, no touts would take me for a foo’, and would do it the local way.

Which meant getting up at 4am, to leave at 4.30am, to get the 5.30am bus (that would take “about 4 to 5 hours” – nothing like certainty, eh? – to get to the border), to beat the hoardes crossing the border about lunch time.  No problemo, I am and always have been an annoying morning person, even here in the tropics.  Even in my sleepy state, my negotiating head kicked in – a sign I’ve been in Asia a while – and I managed to convince a taxi driver to use his meter to take me to the bus station.  Slightly annoying when, on arrival, he didn’t have enough change (a likely story), and I ended up paying the price he’d quoted me anyway.  I was too tired, and too keen to get out of Bangkok, to argue.  Although I did have the satisfaction of dropping my 16 kilo backpack on his foot.  Oops.

Getting a ticket was fine, no problem, and I managed to get to the bay where my bus was due to leave from.  A group of guys took it on themselves to have a barney about which bus I should get on but, because all the buses and bays were numbered, and all buses had destinations on in English, I did my best to assure them I was fine.  And I was!  The bus pulled in, I got on, had a great seat, fell asleep…no problemo.

Shortly before getting to Aranyaprathet, the Thai border town, the bus pulled over and an Army guy, dressed in full gear, carrying a gun (I think – although I had just woken up and it’s possible I imagined it – at any rate, he was the sort of person you would expect to be carrying a gun) and, bizarrely, a dentist-style face mask, got on, and started checking people’s id’s.  He literally hauled a few people off the bus, although I’m not sure why, and asked me for my passport.  Whereupon he started asking me a few amusing questions, and I had to bite my tongue not to give sarcastic answers – it’s the sort of situation that should have been serious, but for many reasons, managed not to be.  He asked me, while he was holding my passport, what my name was (there’s a chance he couldn’t read English, although he could speak it, albeit in a muffled fashion through his mask).  Resisting the urge to point out he was holding my passport and therefore had the information, I just said “Suzanne” rather than my full name.  He also asked me where I was going.  Again, I resisted saying “Aranyaprathet, it’s long been my desire to see this nondescript border town”, so I just said “Cambodia”.  “Why?”  *Bite tongue, must bite tongue* “Holiday”.  He gave me a menacing look and handed my passport back.  Not entirely sure what happened there.

Anyway, the border town was indeed nondescript, although I was set upon by a million touts offering me a Cambodian visa as soon as I was off the bus.  I’d done my research and knew there was a visa office just through Thai passport control, so I shook them all off.  Passport control was no problem – although, for the first time ever, I had my bags searched.  Well, I say bags, they didn’t check my backpack (thank goodness – nothing dodgy, but I’m carrying that much stuff it takes me an hour to wedge it all back in again), but just my handbag, and the main part of my small day rucksack.  Effective!

So, on to the Visa office for Cambodia.  Again, research had told me that the charge for a visa-on-arrival for Cambodia was $20 US.  (Incidentally, Cambodia pretty much runs on US Dollars.  The real currency is the riel – pun not intended – but for various reasons that will no doubt become apparent in my blogs while I’m here, it’s not the most stable country or, therefore currency, so US Dollars have taken over.  And so many things are at the flat rate of $1.  I’m determined to make a list of ‘things I can buy for $1 in Cambodia’.  And won’t that be fun reading for you?!).  There are no ATMs in Cambodia, so I’d changed my Thai Baht into dollars in Bangkok, except a few hundred, and I had my $20 all ready to hand over.  I filled in the Visa form, and some guy who was hanging about and trying to look official said “That’s 1,000 Bhat”.  I didn’t need to do the conversion sums – I’d been in Asia long enough to smell a big, stinky, corruption-fragranced rat.  I asked,

“I thought it was $20?”

“No, 1000 Bhat”.

“Well, I don’t have enough Bhat, I only have dollars”.

“There’s a currency exchange place at the next window” (And I’m sure they’d have given me a dandy exchage rate, as well)

“Well, I want to hear the man behind the counter tell me I can’t pay in dollars”

“OK, pay in dollars, but you will wait 2 hours”.

By now I had managed to work it out.  At the current exchange rate, taking 1000 bhat was taking about 200 bhat extra per visa.  Take into account the hundreds of people crossing the border each day, well, they were onto some sweet little sweetners there.  Still, I hadn’t got up at 4am in order to be taken by a foo’ by some Visa guy.  So I drew on the reserves of patience I built up in India, smiled sweetly and said,

“That’s fine, I’ll wait.  I have no better place to go”.

He wasn’t happy but still, I had my integrity!  I’m no foo’.

It was galling, certainly, to see the people who’d paid the 1000B get their Visas immediately, while the overstaffed, underworked people in the office did absolutely diddly squat with mine, but I wasn’t going to pay up.  I got talking to Jessica and Matt, an American couple who were in the same situation – refusing to pay because of the principle, although, admittedly, as the clock ticked on, it got tempting to give them the money.  But we held tight and, after 45 minutes wait (1 and a quarter hours for them), result!  Three fresh and shiny visas.  At no extra cost.

It was the first time I’ve walked across a border on foot, and got strangely excited – and yes, there’s really a big archway with “Kingdom of Cambodia” written across it.  Through Cambodian immigration, which used an impressive amount of stamps, and we were off to negotiate a taxi to Siem Reap, which is where they were headed, as well – sharing a taxi made sense.

Once across the border, the poverty of this country was immediate, and obvious.  Thailand is such a wealthier country than its neighbour, and it shows.  The lack of infrastructure here, the terrible roads, the amount of children in various stages of undress you see running around – the similarity with India struck me straight away.  Fortunately, because I’d been to India, the culture shock was less difficult to swallow than if I hadn’t been. 

The taxi, as we’d read and expected, cost $40 between us, which was fair, so we set off along an appalling road to Siem Reap.  Allegedly, according to the Lonely Planet writer who lives here, there are rumours of an (unnamed) airline paying an (unnamed) political party a bribe not to sort the road out.  Makes sense.  Imagine riding a bucking bronco for four hours, in high-30s temperature, and you’ll be close.  No wonder our car tyre gave up and was flat, about two-thirds of the way there.  To be fair, Jessica had warned me that on the last three car journeys she’d made in developing countries, the car had got a flat tyre.  Add to this my good luck, including my ‘let’s repair the petrol tank with banana leaves’ experience in Sri Lanka, the burst tyre was only to be expected. 

Still, on the bright side, the delay didn’t last too long (even though it was on a horrible stretch of dirt road), and, even better, I had my first taste of a Clif Bar, as generously donated to the cause by Jessica and Matt.  All I can say is, import these to the UK now!  They are gooood.  Imagine squishy peanut butter, mixed with museli, and…ok, I know I’m not selling it very well, but trust the well-educated palate of someone who eats centipede and dog.

We got to Siem Reap in about the time we were told it would take (a few hours – fortunately the rains haven’t really started here – then, the journey can take all day), and we were surprised at the amount of development going on here, mostly of the huge-hotel-frequented-by-tour-groups type.  Still, admittedly, with Angkor Wat on their doorsteps, the largest religious structure in the world and maybe a world wonder (I’m not sure – if someone could find out for me, that would be great – what do you mean, google it?  I’m paying for this internet by the minute, people!  You google it) – good luck to them.  The town still feels small and navigable, and I like it a lot.  We got rooms in a charming old colonial-style guesthouse, and headed straight out for the sights.

So yes, maybe there is a lot of fun in travelling, but arriving certainly isn’t too shabby, either.

Tags: Cambodia, Thailand, Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 10:56 pm and is filed under Cambodia, Thailand, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.