Another bus journey to forget in Siem Reap, Cambodia

The coach journey started off slowly as the driver and crew waited for at least half an hour for more passengers to board and all the while with the bus stationery it meant that the air conditioning wasn't working either and it was starting to get awfully hot inside, especially as I was wearing long sleeves and jeans with this being the only way I can ever fit everything into my rucksack.

I had expected the English speaking coach ticket salesman to board as well, but he finally waved us off and we were gone, around 2pm and without me knowing exactly what time we would be arriving in Phnom Penh.

The coach went past village after village and each of them looked poorer that the one before, yet whenever we came across a temple they were always prefectly constructed and probably cost more to build and maintain that the entire rest of the village put together. In this fact they shared a lot with Thailand and yet out here in the sticks there were no tourists, as the towns were too small to be on any map and too recent to be considered historical, so why they bother all for their faith when their families and children are starving and risking catching disease on a daily basis is beyond me.

The coach stopped twice on the route and the restaurants nearby were the very dirty greasy spoon variety and as I had left in a rush I had not bought any good food for the trip so eventually hunger drover me to join them for some rice and undefined meat. This turned out to be a mistake as not only was it cold but it disagreed with me internally as I was to find out tomorrow afternoon.

My friend called me once on the road to ask for a time and location for my arrival, but as noone else on the coach spoke any English I was unable to give her any, but I kept her up to date periodically with text messages saying when I passed any major landmarks.

Dusk came and still we were on the road, which did not bode well, as I had hoped to get back during daylight but ni the end it was 8pm when we finally stopped and unloaded. The station was a darkand unwelcoming place and so I ventrued back towards the main road where I then called my friend for a pickup and ride back to the guest house where she works.

I really think that I should have looked before I sat down, as soon I had red ants crawling all over my shoes and jeans, biting me and looking down I only then realised I must have been literally on top of an entrace to an underground nest. Shaking them off in the light of the nearby shop front was no easy task but thankfully I was not bite any more and then my friend arrived offering a ride and a familiar face.

The guest house where she worked was not too far away and although the did not have internet or wifi, which was a pain for me, they did at least have a warm, comfortable and clean room which was all that I could ask for at such short notice.

Once we arrived I stopped long enough only for me to drop off my rucksack and have a quick shower before we were off to a restaurant which she strongly recommended as a great place to eat. We then made arrangements to meet up the following lunchtime, after her half day work as a receptionist and then she got the tuk tuk driver to drop her off before taking me back to the guest house.

I was a little tired but thought that I had enough energy left to just try and see what the local area had in the terms of bars and clubs, however without a map I did not feel confortable going too far and after walking up and down the main road for ten minutes without seing anything open worth a second glance I gave up and went back to catch a good nights sleep before the morning.

A few photos taken in the baking Ankor Wat morning sun

Although I got an early night it and set my alarm for around 4:45am it required a knock on my door by the hostel receptionist telling me that my tuktuk driver was waiting for me downstairs to finally get me out of bed.

Not that I wasn't prepared once I was awake, my battery was recharged, entry ticket already purchased and as dawn wasn't for almost another hour I had high hopes of getting some amazing shots of the dawn overlooking the central Ankor Wat temple before coach loads of tourists arrived and turned it into a circus. I left my hostel with high hopes but upon arrival this deflated down to no hope as the road was already pretty busy and there must have been well over a hundred tourists already there, milling about and clambering for the best position.

Determined not to be too disheartened I set about taking some scenic shots and did my best in the pre dawn dakness to get around and find at least one spot that hadn't already been staked out with a clear view.

My efforts were rewarded in that although the entry side of the main temple was already cram packed the reverse side was not too bad, and here was the best chance of getting an shots of early morning sunlight hitting the right angles.

I had mistakenly told me tuk tuk driver that I would only be about an hour, which was a rediculously short space of time to visit the central Ankor Wat complex as there are at lesat three large temples in the area and I barely got to experience the main one before I headed on back. This was even more a faux pax as the driver did not want to stop or go back over a place we had already been to once we departed and so a half day tour that should have finished at 3pm ended up being finished before midday.

The next few temples that he took me to was pretty much the same thing, tourists everywhere and it was only with extreme patience, timing and good angles that I got any photos without a head or body appearing into view right when I least wanted any.

I stopped mid morning for a snack and as fortune would have it I bumped into a woman that looked familiar and upon flicking back through my photos I realised that I had taken one of her in the back ground while I was in the foreground. I chanced to strike up a conversation and was happy that was not only half British, thus spoke perfect English, but was friendly and so while we had our seperate breakfasts we chatted away merily for about half an hour.

It turns out that she originally worked for UNESCO but like so many people who have tried volunteer or charity work, she soon became disallusioned when she realised how much was milked by the system and the top bosses, so she quit and now works in setting up luxury hotels for rich tourists in some far out places like, Siem Reap.

After parting company I headed on back to my tuk tuk driver to the next temple, which was all about elephants and yet a litle way off were some great gateway towers all lined up that had almost not a single tourist near them, which made no sense at all as they were very beautiful in their own right especially when reflected in one of the many pools that were in the area.

I don't think that I saw all the temples that were meant to be on the tour, and I was a bit miffed that I had paid for a tour and all I was getting was about 6 mini tuk tuk rides and for the most part I was paying the driver to sit around and wait, which was unncecessary as there always plenty of other tuk tuks around and even a bit of haggling could have seriously reduced my travelling expenses.

After a brief stop at a temple that was impressively high, and had very challenging steps leading up to it, we finally made it to the "Tomb Raider" temple, so called because of the Iconic encrouchment of nature that was so visually spectacular in the film. There were plenty of examples of where nature had defeated structure but here especially the tourists were out in force and wherever you looked you could see them all jumping, climbing or hanging off of part of the temple, all in search of an amusing or genuine photo opportunity.

Once I had got bored of watiing and taken the best shots that I could I moved on and back to my tuk tuk driver. It was a shame as I would have loved to have found a secluded spot and sat for a few minutes in contemplative silence but here that was impossible as there was nowhere secluded or quiet in which to do so.

When I found my tuk tuk driver, which was an effort as he told me to meet him on the other side ot the temple, but of course I had no map and the place was huge and overgrown so I had no idea which exit I came in or left from, but I found him waving at me and then I noticed that there were some paintings of a sight I would have loved to photo, being just the large heads overgrown with moss either side of a river where elephants were crossing.

Of course I didn't expect to get lucky with the elephants but the rest was great stuff, only the tuk tuk driver and the girl selling the painting told me that I had already seen it in one of the earlier temples.

Bemused I said that I certianly didnt recognise anything like that, only to be told that it had been changed and no longer looked like that at all, so what was almost the perfect photo was now impossible to capture.

With this news and the unrelenting heat I felt all templed out, so I told the tuk tuk driver to take me back to the hostel where I would work out what to do next, and when I got back I found that my friend from Phnom Penh had been calling and was eager to meet me.

And so, as I felt that I had seen the temples that interested me most, and I was short of time in gettting back to the UK I made the decision to press on to PP as sooon as possible, which turned out to be in less than a couple of hours as a bus would be leaving shortly if I was that desperate to reach there today.

The experience also humbled me a little, as it was only after I left the young female market seller that I realised she was speaking to me in English good enough for me to understand, but she is also totally fluent in Cambodian, Thai and with a little Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and French enough to complete a sale and all without being able to write a single word, not even her name.

While it is true that she started young and her need for foreign languages is born from a desire to sell, to make money and to live, this only makes it more admirable when you consider that she is a street child, living in a wooden hut and all her learning in done in real time as and when she can get the tourists to talk to her, thus without any structured lessons, college tuition or self help books. Her formal education may be non existent but anyone calling her stupid would be incorrect and ignorant themselves. 

If there had been much else to do in the city I might have booked an early morning bus for tomorrow and headed on out to see what else could be seen, but all the internet and guide books had said was a cultural heritage centre, some blind massage therapists and the main attraction being Ankor Wat, I felt that I was not really missing much and an extra day saved here and there will pay great dividends for if later on I love a place and want to stay longer.

Arranging it with the hostel I paid another US $10 dollar for a bus fair to Phnom Penh, with dollars I had grabbed from the ATM just moments before, and then headed on out on a bus that I hoped was right as the number wasn't the same and neither did anyone speak any English, yet my tuk tuk driver assured me it was the right one.

Pre-dawn and first light Photos at Ankor Wat, Cambodia

Ankor Wat in Cambodia at Dusk and a Traditional Dance Show

When the taxi finally reached Siem Reap, after passing mile after painful mile of dodgy dirt roads and about a million straw huts raised on stilts, we were given a free moto service from the taxi drop off point to our hotels, as the taxi driver was not a local from Siem Reap and also could not speak any English.

Although this seemed like a good thing it was all part of the con, as once I arrived at my hostel the moto driver would not give my bag back til I agreed to use him as a guide for Ankor Wat for the next few days, at a price we had yet to agree, and he demanded that we fix a time for us to meet the next day. Prepared for this I agreed whole heartedly and said that we could meet up around 8 or 9am the following morning, already knowing that I was going to be long gone from the hostel and be on my second or third temple by the time he showed up at the hostel.

There is a lot of contrast in Siem Reap, as there were some fabulous looking luxury hotels that we passed, like a Raffles where they had vintage cars on display, possibly as a taxi service, whereas across the street and down the road a few yards are shops and stalls so poor that a years salary would barely get them a couple of nights accomodation in their neighbouring hotel.

The hostel owner was friendly as chatty, agreeing to arrange a twilight tour to see sunset and then a full days trip staing before sunrise tomorrow for me, plus a meal and traditional dance show for the nights entertainment all just adding a few dollars to my bill for my convenience, and when I mentioned wifi he said that this too would cost but possible down in the main reception area.

I am getting fast fed up with having to pay to use my own equipment and despite his smile and friendliness after the day I have had I am starting to not like Cambodia or Cambodians very much.

There was just enough time for me to grab a shower before my tuktuk driver arrived and whisked me off to the ticket booth near the entrance to Ankor Wat, where a moments insanity grabbed me and even though I could see tonight and tomorrow on a one day pass as the time was past 4pm, I asked for a 3 day pass and ended up paying US $40 intead of only the $20 I should have.

The tuktuk driver then took me to the bottom of a hill and said that I had to climb up in order to get a good view of the sunset, but this meant navigating my way past hundreds of other tourists and once I did the sun was in the wrong place for a nice sunset over the main Ankor Wat temple.

What it did give me was a nice view over the area and a chance encounter to meet a group of exchange students from Singapore who were here taking a weeks jollies and after chatting for awhile, it all started over my camera gorilla tripod, we arranged that if I had time I would meet them at their hostel and together we would all go out together for the night.

I did my best to take a few photos but the summit was so packed full that in the end I barely got to take any good photos before giving up and heading back down where my tuk tuk was waiting for me. On the way down I passed a couple of elephants used as transport up the hill, which only took about ten minutes to walk, and for the US $20 that they were charging it was a total rip off.

That is the other problem with things being in US $, they may be small, but as you are being hassled every five minutes and never get any change it all adds up to a lot in no time at all. At one stage one of the many guide book sellers came up and tried to sell me a guide and when I waved the one I was using in his face to prove I didn't need one he totally deflected it and said that yes, I had one but that his was different. What womderful logic ... he honestly tried to sell me a second guide book just because it wasnt identical to the one I already had !!!

Heading on back to my hostel I could feel a headache start to come on and so I was doubting if I would be able to meet the others later on, but the decision was settled when neither my tuk tuk driver nor anyone at the hostel knew ( or admitted to knowing ) where the Siem Reap Hostel was, as this was where we were meant to meet up at 9pm.

Thus, even though I had time to do both, in the end I just went to the meal and dance show and then returned. The restaurant was a lot further away that the hostel guy said it would be, which barely gave me 25 minutes to eat before the show started.

I do not mean to mock the ancient traditions of either Cambodia or England but when I saw a group of them dancing with each other at first I could not help but compare their actions with our own Morris Dancers, and the similie would be even closer if you exchanged coconut shells for beating sticks. The only real difference I could see was in their clothes and backing musical instruments used.

The main dance was more to my liking as it was a demon in red trying to seduce a princess or queen without luck but at least this looked more classical and their movement seemed more oriental in origin.

The final show I stayed for, before heading on back to my hoste with a massive headache, was a love dance between what seemed to be a female rice planter and a lobster fisher boy, with the boy stealing her basket and teasing her before she turned the tables and walked away refusing his attempt to return it to her til in the end they kissed just as their friends arrived to see them.

Although it was only about 9pm I could not help but struggle with the continued heat and even with a fan and air conditioning unit going full blast I tossed and turned for an hour before the paracetamol worked and I was able to rest and get a good nights sleep for the pre-dawn visit to the Ankor Wat.

A day in Aranyaprathet and a break for the border at Poipet, Cambodia

Last night being such a nice relaxing time, drinking, swapping stories with a fellow Brit and meeting new people meant that today I was in no hurry to leave Thailand and I decided that although it was not on my itiniary I liked the small little sleepy border town of Aranya Prathet enough to spend a full day here.

The motel that I stayed in was pretty comfortable considering the price and location and when I wasn't enjoying the chilling breeze from the aircon I was lazing about in the motels pool that was free for guests, which made a nice change as they seemed to charge for everything else!

The other reason for staying another day was that I had just spend a nice few hours with my new Cambodian friend N' and due to her being unable to read or write, never having had any education, this was very probably the last time that I would get to talk to her and so I wanted to make a good impression in case I should ever decide to come back for any reason, plus I always like to leave on a positive.

Being a Cambodian but living in Thailand with no formal visa or arrangements, as they cost, meant that every week she has to go back across the border and renew a weeks visa, one reason why she has not ventured further into Thailand, and also explains why she had to get herself a little moto runabout as paying for a taxi or a tuk tuk the 6 km to the border and back each week would be an high priced weekly expense.

We didn't really fix a time for us to meet up again back in my motel, but she said that she would come back after sorting out her visa requirements and so with it being a fairly sleepy town I decided there was little reason in leaving the motel til N' returned.

Once N' came back, we went out to try and get some movies to watch and get a meal, however the market stalls often close early due to lack of customers, and so all we could find was a dvd hire place and as their selection was pretty small we didn't bother in the end and just settled for a meal.

I have no idea what possessed N' to do so, but she took it upon herself to try and show me a few sights of the town at night, even going to a fancy restaurant a few miles further from my motel and it was probably the most expensive place to eat in the whole town while by English standards still affordable.

Either she had eaten before she came over to see me, or she wasn't feeling too hungry as she didnt order anything herself and barely helped pick at mine, despite it being a huge fish, before it was too late to do much else but drink and chat so she puttered me back to the motel before calling it a night.

Totally unexpected, the next morning she woke up early and offered to run me over to the border crossing before she had to start her shift in her salon, which was a very welcome invitation and one that saved me time and hassle, so of course I accepted and thanked her.

At the border the line for immigration was lining up outside the building with only a minor shelter for protection from the heat. I was glad that N' had helped me over, and also that I had obtained my Cambodian E-Visa in advance as it meant that I could avoid and ignore the "helpful" locals who were falling over themselves trying to get me to follow them or take their advice in how best to cross the border.

The border is quite lax and I am fairly sure that a person could just walk through if he did it subtly during a busy period, but of course should anyone ask to see your passport afterwards at any point then you could find yourself being facing more that just a few harsh questions.

Reaching the Thai town from Bangkok cost only 48 baht and a confortable if not air conditoined train that lasted several hours and the only nuisance was the Bangkok taxi drivers being unhelpful.

The Cambodian side however was totally different and I defy anyone to cross here, not get ripped off and have a smooth and fast trip over to Siem Reap. The town has a few big named hotels but the rest of the place looks so run down, backward and dirty that it was much more the stereotypical backwater asian village.

Just like the Thai side, here in Cambodia people were falling over themselves trying to help, only it was all them. The fruit and water sellers were pushy, the Tourist Information office was worse than a bad joke and in the end I decided how it was going to go down.

A smiling and friendly local offered to take me to the bus stop for just 10 baht, which ended up being a total waste of time as it was only about 200 yards away and when we got off at the other end it was all a big hustle. He took me right past one that looked like it actually had a couple of niceish buses to a place around the corner that was falling down and looking like it hadn't been used for about 30 years. There were no prices, no information or time tables and he said that I should pay 700 baht to ( or £14 ) is friend in the restuarant who owned the bus company even though the bus wasnt due for another few hours.

The more he spoke the more it felt like a huge setup and I was reminded of that gut instinct that told me I should never have got on the camel owned by that guy in Cairo and I ignored it at my cost. So this time, still with my rucksack on my back I said that I wanted to go for a walk and get a bit to eat and shied away from his suggestion that there were plenty of places to eat right here and no reason to go back the way the border crossing way.

Leaving him behind I walked back and stopped off to get a massage in an air conditoined place as everyone I passed spoke to over the last few days confirmed that there was only one bus a day leaving for Siem Reap and it didnt leave til around 3pm and this was stil around 11am. The place had aircon, which was a blessing, and for only US $5 I could have an hour massage.

It is a nasty trick that the locals in Cambodia use, that for a tourist they always quote in US dollars for everything, so the cheapest an item is is a US $1, with possibly 2 for US $1 but you never get any change and you know that the cost has been hiked. Having come across from Thailand I only had baht's which they accepted with an even bigger markup as i was roughly converting the US $ into the Baht and I had no idea what it should have been in the local currency.

After my pit spot I made it back to first mini coach statoin that I had seen only to be told to get the bus outside the immigration office and once there I was told tat I had to board a free shuttle bus to the international bus terminal about 14 km futher towards Siem Reap. One of the bus companys guys tried to convince me that I could pay him the money there and then for the ticket and he would give me a plain white square sticker that said that I had alrady paid, but I trusted him about as far as I could throw him so I declined.

I should have just haggled and got into the first taxi that asked me the second I arrived a few hours ago, as it was yet another scam. The bus takes you to a big building towards town alright, but the place has little or no decoration, finishings, furniture and looks like they only finished the main construction work last week.

Still no signs, no prices, no time tables and even though they were meant to be working for a bus company they actively disuaded us from taking the bus, saying that it was a slow and bumpy ride and that instead we should take a share taxi for around US $13 each instead of the US $10 that the bus would cost. Then they said that as there were only 3 of us that wanted to share a taxi and not 4 that we would have to each pay a share of the 4th seat.

The final kick in the teeth for me was that they would no longer accept thai baht here, so I had to use their exchanges to get some local currency as of course I had not travelled from the US and so had no US dollars, and their exchange rate was so bad it was like losing 30 - 40% of my money, but I didnt figure this out til I got into town as it was converting from Thai Baht to Cambodian Real and at that time I had no idea of the value of a Real.

In the end I agreed, having little or no choice, and then shared a taxi with a French couple, but I am regretting ever getting into their free shuttle, in fact I am regretting bothering to travel overland here at all and think that even with the price of a flight I would have ended up spending less than I had this way, and it would have been far quicker and more confortable.

The roads in Cambodia are probably the worst I have ever travelled on, and at times they were so bad that the bus had to leave the road to avoid construction works that were ongoing for at least a couple of hundred kilometers, and the futher I went I saw that in places they were actually digging up the road, so what is actually going on is beyond me.