O Cambodia, I guess It was a place I wanted to come to but never thought it would happen this quickly, soon and this easy? I shouldn't say easy, because it aint. traveling in this part of the world still feels like an adventure for the most part, there is constantly the illusion of discovery, like you are the first one to take this road to see this place, but in reality thousands of people do it. also, the type of people that come here and travel here are totally diffirent.. thats for another blog, BUT back to Cambodia, it felt like a total adventure getting there.
We opted for the land route from Bangkok to Siem Reap a 12-14 hour trip with half of it over an internationally renouned road, known for being in the worst condition possible, making for a super bumpy ride. The notourious road is supposadly left unrepaired because Bangkok Airways pays the a powerful Cambodian politician to stop the road from being fixed, forcing most tourists aiming for Siem Reap to fly with their airline since they monopolise the route. for the exception of morning traffic, our ride from our hotel to the Thai/Cambodia border was fine. then we were taken to a strange little resturant/rest stop near the border where our passports were collected and we each payed 1300 Baht (almost double the $20 visa cost) this ofcourse is seen as a service to avoid us any hassle as the border itself. after a lunch (rice) and getting to know some of the other riders (Merv: a professional Rugby player English, Nick: a professional poker player New Zealander, Britton: a student/social servant/teacher who has been living in Nepal for a month and is now traveling / lied about being married to avoid being hasseled by men (althought I don't see why anyone would turn Merv away from their bed) Canadian) we then proceeded to the actual border.
chaos broke infront of my eyes as we cross the border from the Thai side to the Cambodian side. Caroline never filled her departure card for Thailand which delayed us for a few moments but soon the begging children of cambodia attacked. as we enter through a gate decorated in faux khemer style a large billboard to the side has a picture of two cambodian children with a mark above their image that reads "NOT FOR SALE" it was all a bit strange. and the adventure really began. we were at the mercy of the fuckers who are supposed to get us to Siem Reap, so whatever they say we have to do we do it, its the only way to make it. we were told to switch from one bus to another about three times in the course of 25 minutes. then we were taken to a "Money Exchange" where we were told is our only opportunity to change money while in Cambodia. The "Exchange" was a portable vetrine glass box with money stacked inside, complete with umbrella to protect the worker from sun, it was set up on a dodgy corner, it was all so shady and suspicious, but as horde culture works, as soon as one person went to change their money, another followed and then another.. It didn't feel right to me so I only changed a little bit, less than half of what most people changed. Later it was evident that we lost about 10 dollars per 1000 Baht, which is alot of money.
All this and the actually bumpy road hasn't really started, now we were on our way for a really wild ride, leaving your brain turn into a jelly substance by the end of the trip. we saw poverty at its worst on this road, it was a complete apocolyptic scene, burned fields, shacks overcrowded with families, people bathing and fishing in seemingly toxic water, it was very sad. we stop again midway at yet another rest stop then proceed in the dark for the last leg of the trip. its all part of the plan. as lonely planet explains, the bus belongs to a particular guesthouse and thus they try to delay your arrival so that you are completely beat up by the road and are so tiered that you would simply choose to sleep in their mediocre guesthouse. surely enough, as we approach Siem Reap and particularly as we pass the airport, the bumpy road is suddenly velvet, well lit with nothing but oversized five star hotels catering to the high end travelers coming to Siem Reap to see the world's largest religious building. After passing the strip of out-of-context hotels our bus took us to their guesthouse, but we (Merv, Nick, Brit, Caroline and I) chose to leave with a tuk tuk to Popular Guesthouse.
Everything we have seen within the Cambodian border suddenly was met by a complete opposite, this city has money thanks to its tourism and Bar Street had some very nicely designed cafes, resturants and bars that would fit just fine in New Orleans or Miami. The begging children are ubiquitous non-the-less speaking perfect english, french and japanese as young as 6 trained to sell you whatever they have at any cost, so they will not leave you alone until you buy something, then they leave you for two minutes and return again. The children are definetly a staple theme of this country, they are gorgous with the cutests smiles, smart and acting like adults at such a young age, I can't blame Angelina for taking one home. The Tomb Raider is a cocktail drink at most bars, she really has a legacy here.
We went to The Red Piano then Angkor What! and drank and danced in celebration of not being sold into white slavery and surviving the 13 hour road from Bangkok to Siem Reap. the next morning we go to the floating village (a display of poverty and governemnt corruption) and the LandMine Museum, the best display of a story and the relevant objects I have yet to see anywhere, it was very effective.
Day three begins with an early wakeup call at 5 am to go watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat, our tuk tuk drivers picked us up and on the cold ride to the temple we realised that there are many others like us (no romantic fantacy of being alone infront of the temple with the sun rising behind it) it was clear that there will be a couple of hundred or thousand people there doing the same thing. we spent the day temple viewing and headed back exhasted after being out for nearly 10 hours. skipping alot of detail, but for my own records: I was walking along multiple stands selling shirts and souvunirs when I suddenly stopped and looked to my left and said "Is that Tin Tin" and it was! I found this random tintin t-shirt, there was only one. the night before we were having our first Happy Pizza, a Cambodian specialty pizza that is made with grass, I was talling my travel friends about my love to collect tintin items. very amusing.
By now I am totally infatuated with Captin Rugby, I began to withdraw because I was confronted with the feeling that I have no chance, something I refuse to believe is usually the case, its much easier to say No than to be said No to. So my last two days in Cambodia and the one day in Phnom Penn was overcast with my feelings of insecurity and my lust over this fantacy.
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