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.

A train journey to the border

I thought the other day that I was lucky as I had so far been lucky enough to avoid all the crap from the local tuk tuk and taxi drivers, but despite not voicing aloud my relief it would seem that it was stacking up only to hit me this morning, or at least try to.

All the internet and travel guides said that I had two options to get to the border town of Aranyaprathet, a four hour coach ride from the northern bus terminal or a five to six hour train ride from the main train station terminal in the south of Bangkok.

The hotel and their tour information office was not much more help, as they couldnt tell me which one was best, and having heard about coach scams taking forever to reach a destination I plumbed for the train, that and it was only meant to be about 48 baht which is obscenely cheap when you think that its up to a 6 hour journey.

However getting to either terminal means a tuk tuk or a taxi and as it was a bit of a way out I figured that a taxi meter was a safer bet than a tuk tuk who might try and take me to a factory or something and make me miss my train.

It should have been wise thinking, but the taxi drivers in the mid morning sun must have been suffering from sun stroke as they all suddenly thought that a tourist on the way out of town was an easy mark. The first taxi driver refused to go on such a 'short' journey, the second said he would not use his meter and instead quoted me 300 baht for the journey which was such a hopeless overcharge that to even try and haggle down to the 60 that it should be seemed futile.

The next one didn't seem to be in any urgent hurry when I said I had a train to catch and instead wanted to sidetrack me to his friends tourist stop where I could buy a nice air conditioned coach cheap-cheap but I wasnt buying it so I dug my heels in and said that I would buy it myself at the station at which point he said why bother taking a train when I could just take a taxi all the way to the border with Cambodia!

At this stage I am not sure if he was about to collapse with heat fatigue or just enjoyed wasting my time, but if for a ten minute ride in good traffic is 35 baht plus distance making around 60 baht then for a 6 hour journey in possible bad traffic and absolutley no idea if he was going a direct or indirect route would be in the hundreds of even thousands of bahts and once out of the city limites I would be hopelessly lost and at the mercy of the next taxi or tuk tuk driver.

Realising that this was all a waste of time I just did what I always ended up doing, walking away ( after telling him loudy to fuck off and threw his chums hand away as he tried to stop me from leaving ) and then walked to the end of Khao San road where there were plenty of genuine taxi drivers, plus in the night time plenty of high price massage parlour tuk tuk pimps but luckily it was too early for them to be on shift.

Taking a lift from a driver that barely spoke a word of English and relied on me showing him a map and pointing was in the end the best option and once I got off at the end I asked for directions on where to get a ticket, it was indeed 48 baht and this gave me time to check my emails at the station ( for a whopping 20 baht for 5 minutes !?! ) a half hour mini massage and then a bit to eat before standing on the platform with all the others.

There are only two trains a day that run to the border from Bankok, one at around 6am and the other at around 1pm, but only the morning train will get you to the border before it is closed for the day and you will have to spend the night in the town of Aranyaprathet which has a few options and cheap motels, hotels and B&B's.

The train journey was an experience, as it was third class which meant hard seats, only two or three small fans bolted to the ceiling and all the windows wide open as makeshift aircon, with metal grilled shutters that could be slid down into place to shield from the heat, but being metal they heat up and act like radiators pretty quickly so their effectiveness if only really to prevent you from getting sunburn while sitting down.

It was to hot to sleep, I didnt have enough reading material to last for the whole six hours, so instead I read up on a few of the bits in Siem Reap that would come in handy and bought a few of the refreshing ice chilled cans of drinks from the old ladies who travel the train hoping to sell more than 2 cans which covers the train fare and a third means they are in profit. In an effort to keep my bodily fluids up as I was sweating heavily I know for sure that I helped one lady make a profit and I am sure they all did good trade if the plastic bags of empties they left with were all sold by them.

Just when I thought that I could travel through at least one country and not get rained on, it started to rain with thunder and lightening flashing off quite near, though thankfully it was a passing shower and not a torrential monsoon or enough to threaten the train or its tracks.

I also noticed that from the dry fields outside of the train plenty of mini fires had sprung up and I was not sure if this was from the lightening or what, but the local children and farmers didnt seem too bothered by it, happily playing or walking by as small plumes of smoke were smoldering next to them.

Aranyaprathet it only 6km away from the border and as you get off the train you will be swamped by touts offering to take you to the border, but the scam here is that they all know it is already closed before the evening train arrives and what they are wanting to do is take you to see it, then suddenly apologise that it is closed but then offer to help you find accomodation in one of the overpriced and underquality guest houses where they will get their commission.

Knowing this I had already booked a cheaper and more modern alternative in the town itself and just ignored and waved them all away as I made my way on foot to the guest house.

Travelling certainly gets you over the embarrasement factor of asking people for directions or advice and as long as they look semi serious and willing to talk I am now happy to ask in almost any situation.

After I checked in, found my room to be confortable and all in order I went for a walk around the town to see what was going on and pretty soon I walked along a street where a friendly local waved me over, sitting with her friends, and then I spotted a smiling Brit who turned out to be the owner, so I thought that this was a nice enough place to hole up and have a few drinks.

It turned out that Mike who was married to a local for the last few years, had had variuos success with bars and such in the past before thinking that the quality of lifestyle suited him best in the small border town, as it was cheap, relaxed, always full of travellers passing through but never enough to swamp the town and with his first truly british pub he could make a nice home away from home for westerners with honest travel advice for both Thailand and Cambodia.

The smiling lady turned out to be one of the many Cambodians who had fled across the border to safety when the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot started their killing spree and dictatorship.

Her English was not the best but when you consider that the KR killed anyone who had an education ( they went so far as to declaring that all people wearing glasses must be educated ) the fact she can speak any at all is high praise for a life away from home.

I won't dwell on her past, as she herself is trying to get past it and seems to live only for the moment, but after witnessing the murder of her parents and older siblings, beatings, abuse and worse she managed to escape with her three younger siblings across the border to Thailand where she has spent the last twenty years doing all she can to ensure that her younger brothers and sister can have a chance of living a normal future life.

The past will always haunt them, but from speaking to both her and to Mike, the pub owner, while her story is gut wrenching and certainly tragic the worst part for me to comprehend is that it is hardly unique and similar or near identical tales can be told from most of an entire generation of late twenties to middle aged Cambodians.

I spent the remainder of the night in their company, drinking, eating and trading stories then off to play some snooker, going to see a local live rock band before I headed on back to my motel and crashed for the night.

The hotel room area has a very beautiful scenic garden area just outside the rooms but with its water feature it makes quite a bit of noise and although I didn't mind at first by the end of the night I wished that I had asked for a room further away from the waterfall feature.