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.
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