Siem Reap, Cambodia - the new frontier
Trip Start
Aug 21, 2007
1
7
27
Trip End
Dec 20, 2007
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Welcome to the jungle - we got fun and games,
We got everything you want, honey we know the names,
We are the people that can find whatever you may need,
If you got no money, honey, we got your disease,
In the jungle, welcome to the jungle.
(W. Axl Rose) - the other double U
Boy oh boy, what a twisted place this is!
Cambodian petrol station
Next stop was to be Siem Reap in Cambodia, the entry point to the incredible temples of Angkor.
Considering how every theme park in Thailand seems to centre on the Wild West, Thais have no idea how close they are to the real thing from a western perspective. Look no further than to the Cambodian border. We've been dreading this magnet for small time crooks and scamsters since we first set eyes on Cambodia. One has to understand that this is one of the poorest countries in the world, still recovering from the atrocities and holocaust of large parts of the population by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot. The vast majority of Cambodians live below the poverty line and often on less than a dollar a day. Of course anyone that can speak English and has shall we say "flexible" virtues is easily tempted to make a quick buck on gullible tourists. Enter us.
We scanned the web on the most recent scams and I thought we were pretty well prepared, yet I have to admit my pride suffered a serious blow realizing that we were nicely maneuvered into a scam ourselves.
First we had paid an inflated price for the 3 mile trip from the bus station in Thai border town Aranya Prathet to get to the border at Poipet. Here I could only get my visa without a pre-provided picture for a five dollar bribe on top of the visa fee. I was expecting this having read a great deal about the extent of corruption at all levels in Cambodia. We were then shuttled onto a free bus "provided by the government" by a yellow t-shirted man with a 4-letter logo to get to immigrations. Then the same guy complimented us onto another free bus to "the transport terminal" telling us that the government had now regulated transport to one central area to avoid being ripped off by unlicensed drivers. The "terminal" was a rickety shop where we could either get on the bus for 12.50 dollars or take a cab for 15 bucks a head. That's markedly above the going rate. The bus takes 8 hours for 150km. I'll never forget the image of all those westerners we saw sitting there waiting for a bus with an orange sticker attached to them clearly saying "sucker" in hindsight. We were then huddled out the back entrance through rubble into a waiting cab which we shared with fellow travelers Martin and Michaela.
The road was atrocious, but we knew that too. Most other major roads in Cambodia are reasonably ok. There is a credible rumor that Bangkok Airways (the only company to fly to Siem Reap from Thailand) greases government palms to keep them from redoing the road. This works out well as the vast majority of visitors from Thailand fly in knowing about the state of the road. We did encounter a lot of heavy works on the road and hope it may improve in future, but don't count your chickens.
Back to the scam: Our taxi driver spoke no English and was from Batambang, a different town, and did not know his way around Siem Reap when we finally got there. Orientation wasn't important anyway as his instructions were clearly to drop us off at a strategic point so the tuc tuc drivers there could take over and deliver us to a guest house where they get paid provision. I refused outright at the first stop and demanded our driver to get back in, determined to help him navigate through town to our hotel. This resulted in the tuc tuc guy trying to get us out of the car cursing me and wishing me death. Not really very nice. The taxi driver stopped at the next such stop where we were told that there was a police stop ahead and taxis weren't allowed into town anymore. We got out and demanded to be taken straight to our hotel (which was full and we hadn't booked). Of course there was no police stop on the way. It's a shame people around here don't understand irony and sarcasm, so my attempts with the tuc tuc hustler working away at us on the whole ride went amiss. We refused any negotiations with the fast-talking tuc tuc guy trying to convince us to book him and his mates for the trip round the temples and hid in the guest house until the vermin had crawled back to their holes with their sour faces. We then found a haven of peace in this crazy town in the Golden Temple Villa, recommended by Steve and Les.
The bottom line: Tricksters are unashamed liars. Don't believe anyone that mentions the words "government" or "checkpoint". Get your own transport in Poipet and don't pay more than 50 bucks (we're getting a cab back for 27 bucks via our guest house which is still extortionate).
We needed a day to recover from the trip only to see the most stunning sunset on our first trip to Angkor with our tuc tuc driver Kon. Here a tuc tuc is a motorbike with a 2 (westerners) to 10 (Cambodians) people riksha thing hooked to it. A great way to get around.
We then had three days at the temples and I'll write about that in the next installation. Just had to get this rant off my chest.
As I said it's all quite understandable in the light of Cambodia's history and poverty. We have met many honest Cambodians and they are generally very lovely people. Concentrated wealth simply attracts thugs. And that's the case everywhere around the world.
Other bits of interest:
Although Cambodia has it's own currency it runs completely on the American dollar. Also, Siem Reap is on the whole more expensive than Thailand. But that's a supply and demand factor. There are plenty of tourists that fly in without questioning the prices. If you bargain harder you'll be surprised what you can do.
We've found the food to be very good even on a budget, but quality varies hugely. Generally eat where and what the locals eat and you'll find it's on an even keel with Thailand.
Siem Reap is growing by the hour with a new hotel coming up every week. You can find a bed from 3 to 3000 dollars. That and the thugs make it very much like I remember Las Vegas... But that's a place I'm lookingforward tocoming back to!
Today was another day off until we work ourselves towards Malaysia over the next 2 days. Despite the grandeur of the temples and our nice hotel, we'd be dishonest if we didn't admit we're glad to get the hell back out of here.
A further remarkable fact about Cambodia are the 4 Kantha Boppa children's hospitals run by a swiss paediatrician, Beat Richner. He runs these hospitals on a western standard defying the WHO and UNICEF who have the position that third world hospitals shuld run on third world standards. The hospitals cater to 80% of the child population and only have a 1.2%mortality ratefor admissions. That's astounding given the tortuous course many children take via village healers and rickety roads till they finally arrive in shock. Average inpatient stay is 5 days at an average cost of $170 a stay. Annual budget 170 million, largely generated by the Swiss people and tourist contributions. Dr Richner is an excellent cellist and gives a weekly concert in Siem Reap where with the help of an excellent video he promotes his cause and asks old visitors to contribute money, backpackers to donate blood and those inbetween to donate both. We donated both and even got a t-shirt, multivitamin and iron tablets. We're very impressed. Oh, and for those planning to donate blood there: It's very safe, but don't take the multivitamins! Not only do they turn your toe- and fingernails orange, but you also get orange stained sweat that discolours all your light fabrics. And this is irreversible. So we've now had to throw away a few of our ruined white t-shirts...My lovely NZ bone carving is now a nice orange colour, too, despite desperate attempts to scrub it off with my (now orange) toothbrush...
The reason for blood donations is a dengue epidemic in Cambodia: government corruption devoured all the money that was to go into mosquito containment, hence multiresistent Malaria and Dangue fever are rife. In immunocompromised locals dengue can be severe and reinfection carries a high risk for lethal Dengue hemorrhagic fever, where your blood loses the ability to clot, you rapidly develop sepsis and shock, bleed internally and die miserably. Hence the blood donations. Another big killer here is tuberculosis. So far we've done extensive mosquito bite and malaria tablet prophylaxis and only have about 3 bites each. We should thus be ok. So no worries!
Are you still reading this? Shouldn't you have work to do? I'm going to bed! Good night!
What a catch up marathon that was today. Regine was in charge of the pictures. We hope you like them!
Goodbye for now!
