Fun at the Thai-Cambodian border...?!

Friday 2nd January 2009

One funny thing over here in Asia is that if you book a bus ticket to go anywhere they ask you to be at your hotel for pick-up about 30mins before the actual departure time. This trip to Cambodia is no different! Departure time is 8am and they have asked me to be ready for 7.30...so I arrive at 7.30am. There are lots of other people waiting for the same bus...we wait & we wait...at last a bus arrives at 9am but it seems to take them another 45 mins before they can set off. So the so called 8am departure is now 9.45am! Its comical but a very common occurrence.
The bus driver has agreed to get our visa's sorted at the Cambodian border so as he put it "we can relax and have something to eat"...its all at a cost though. The Visa cost is usually about 900baht and he wants 1200baht for the service...its a lot easier to pay up and let him deal with it all so we all pay up and hand over our passports. Its a nice little earner for him when you consider there are close to 30 people on board, 9000baht...almost ?180 0r 200euro, fantastic when you consider what people over here get paid each month!
Off course the stop off close to the border is his mates place (another very common occurrence!) and sure enough all us tourists are hungry so we pay over the odds for some pretty basic food. We are told our visa's will be sorted within the hour. When our driver returns he has some interesting news for us..."I am sorry but there are no buses going from Poi Pet (Cambodian border) to Siem Reap, you either have the choice of staying here for the night or getting a taxi". Of course there is an absolute up roar and the guy is nearly hounded down. The feeling is We have all paid for our trip in full so why should we pay any more..it just seems to be another money making scam. Anyway an argument between the bus driver and a few of the passengers continues. After a good 40 mins a semi agreement is reached...the bus driver will pay half our fair to Siem Reap, $15. Not everyone is happy, which is understandable...at the end of the day we are all been done out of money. So off we go to the border crossing in the hope that that's the end of all the hassle.

Crossing the border into Poi Pet is a little bit of a shock to the system having spent 4-weeks in Thailand...its like a seen out of the wild wild west, all it needs is the tumble weed blowing down the street! It almost looks as if a bomb has hit the place, parts of the road are ripped up, there is sand/rubble everywhere and the place seems to be covered in a haze of red dust.At this point we are approached by a guy who asks us do we need a taxi and of course we say yes, I am with three others at this stage. He asks me how much I am willing to pay so I ask him how much he's going to charge us. $45! He says. No chance, I'll give you $25 and that's it, I say! He gets a little angry and starts coming down with the usual chat..."you should help Cambodian people, $45 is nothing for you...cheap cheap"! Then its the usual, "where you come from?" "what do you do?" etc you seem to get this everywhere in Asia. When I refuse to take the guy up on his offer he continues to walk with us down the street as we search for another taxi. Its not that I wouldn't pay $30 for the taxi, which is the going price and if anything slightly more but the guy is getting aggressive so no way do I want to give me a penny never mind $30. As we approach another taxi the guy shuns the taxi off saying something in Khmer, the same thing happens for the next 2-3 taxis. We now realise we're never going to get a taxi while this guy is with us so we split up into two groups in the hope that he follows one of us and the other group gets a taxi. Luckily, or unluckily, the Khmer follows me while the other group go in search of a taxi. A few minutes later the guys manage to get a taxi and shout at me down the road. When the Khmer guy sees we have got a taxi he radios his mate who arrives faster than fast on a motorbike. He takes the Khmer guy to our taxi where an argument breaks out between him & the driver...basically we were his business and no one elses. The argument continues for about 10mins and at this point we are just thinking we'll never get out of this place. While they are arguing we sit in the cab and refuse to get out. A few minutes later the Traffic Police arrive to see what the matter is, a few words are said, he gives our taxi driver a clip around the ear and we are aloud to leave...how mad is that!

At this point its all just a laugh and when we see the journey ahead of us its a good job. The road is basically a dirt track for most of it. You wouldn't imagining doing 15mph back home on them but these boys are doing 60+. The dust thrown up from the cars limits visibility to to about 10 meters at times. There are rocks out in the middle of the road, cows, people on push bikes you can hardly see...sure all you can do is laugh!
The last 10km to Siem Reap are like heaven compared to what we've been on, tared roads! We were really expecting something similar to Poi Pet but this is very different. Because of the Temples in Angkor Wat Siem Reap town has had a lot of tourist money flow into it...that doesn't mean its a well off place by any means...you venture out side of the town centre you really do get a feel for the real life around here.We arrive in Siem Reap about 8pm, there isn't much time to do anything other then get some food and plan a few trips for the coming days. These Khmer people are a mad bunch...