You know you're in Cambodia when....
From KL To Kunming With Aspen Annie in Sihanoukville, Cambodia on Jan 20 '07
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Back at the bus station in Trat, we found a mini-van down to the border of Cambodia. Three hours later and we were getting dropped off. One thing is guaranteed when crossing any of the borders into Cambodia, and that is the fact that you are going to get ripped off by the border guards. What is supposed to be a $20 visa, they won't take anything less than 1000Baht, about $26. I've crossed the border at Poi Pet a few times, and every time it was 1000Baht, even then they stamp your passport with a $20 stamp. Flying into Phnom Penh over a year ago, it was the same story. At the costal crossing, they wouldn't accept anything less than 1200Baht. I've heard of people who stayed around and argued for 5-6 hours and was finally let across for the correct price. On principle, I would like to do that sometime, but I don't have the patience that is required for that.
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Approaching the exit center in Thailand, a group of Khmer guys approach and try and take your passport so they can fill out your exit/entry forms. I can't be bothered with these guys, no matter how mad they get. I don't much like handing my passport over to the authorities, much less a seedy looking group of Khmer wanna-be gangsters. The whole time we were standing there filling out our forms, we were surrounded by an entire pack of Khmers, all of them invading our personal space to the point where I was ready to start giving out stitches. Unable to make an extra Reil for filling out our forms, now they were all fighting among each other to try and usher us into their cars. We picked one of the guys and hopped into his car for the short ride up to the actual crossing. Across the border, we jumped back into the car for the 15km ride into the closest town that has continuing transportation.
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Ann and I shared the taxi with an older Canadian sexpat we met at the border, and two Khmers in the front seats. Crossing the bridge, the Khmer passenger was pointing out the mountains on the far side of the river. “That mountain grows the marrywanna, that one too!” , he boasts proudly. “My cousin's name is Tat. Like tat, tat, tat, machine gun. He's a gangster.”, he continues, with a smug face that not even his mother could trust. Next time, I would be sure to take some Reil with me. We had to stop at a money exchange, and got ripped off for the second time in less than a half hour. The Dollar was down against the Thai Baht by a good deal. Last year it was 44 Baht to the dollar, and now it's down to 35. When the lady said the exchange rate was 3,400 Reil to the dollar, I thought that it could be right, last year it was 4,000. Once we made it to S’Nookieville, we found out that it's still 4,000 to the dollar, oh well.
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We knew that there was a fast boat that went all the way down the coast, and figured there must be buses as well. The passenger told us that there was a bus leaving down to Sihanoukville any minute and got on his phone to see if they could hold the bus for us. Expecting to pull into a bus station, we came to a guesthouse instead. No busses in sight. Come to find out, there are no buses that go down the coast yet. They want $18 for the 6 hour ride by mini-van. It's either that, or wait until morning and go down by boat. The thought of staying in this little town for the night helped us make our decision a little easier. Shelling out the $18, we were feeling robbed for the third time in less than an hour. We met some other people who were also waiting for their transport. One of the couples had booked one of the tours from Ko Chang, highly unadvisable for anyone who is taking that route. They had paid 2,400 Baht each for a ride to the border, and there was supposed to be a private speedboat that was going to take them the rest of the way down to S’Nookieville. Once to Kong Chong, they found out that their private speedboat was going to have to be a mini-van instead. They wanted to let us us just pay them, and ride with them in their private “speedboat”, but the mini-van company wasn't having any of that. Pay or stay and wait for the boat in the morning. After arguing with the Khmers for a while, we finally grabbed our ankles and paid the money.
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A quick note on taking organized tours across any of the Cambodian borders, coming in or leaving Cambodia…..DON'T DO IT!!! Every single time that I have crossed the border at Arranya Prathet and Poi Pet, I've seen a group of people having a shouting match with some bus driver, because they purchased tickets in Siem Reap all the way to Bangkok. Once they get across the border, they have no bus to take them the rest of the way, and end up having to pay for another bus ticket the rest of the way to Bangkok. It's best to do it on your own, only purchasing a ticket as far as the border, once across, there will be transportation to take you the rest of the way. Even when you feel you are being ripped off, chances are it will still be cheaper on your own. We paid about 1,200 Baht from Trat to S'Nookyville as opposed to the 2,400 the couple we met had paid, for the exact same modes of transportation. Oooooommmmmmmm! Try not to kill anyone! Crossing borders here will always leave a bad taste in your mouth. Fortunately, once you make your way into the country a little ways, it's an absolutely fantastic place.
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The ride to Sihanoukville is made on all dirt roads, with four river ferry crossings. We soon realized why there could be no regular busses. We came to the first river crossing about an hour into the drive. People are selling snacks and drinks on both sides of the river, and we all got out to stretch and wait for the next ferry. The ferry was a homemade jerry-rigged contraption of the utmost Khmer ingenuity. So, a good 85km in from the border with a subsiding headache; pigs, chickens, and naked Khmer kids running around, and about to get on a ferry that even Vegas wouldn't place bets on, I was finally able to take a deep breath and say “It's great to be back in Cambodia!”
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Once the ferry was loaded up to the point where the front end was a good three inches under water, we crossed our fingers and set out across the river. The long-tail motor on the side of the ferry sputtered and gasped a few times, but 5 minutes later we made it to the other side. Back in the van we continued on down the bumpy dirt road. In another hour, we were back out of the van, repeating the whole process on another ferry that looked about as reliable as the first one. Everyone loaded up on snacks and we were back on the move. At everyone of the river crossings, new bridges were being erected, and road crews were getting things ready to pave the way, so in another 5-15 years I'm sure there will be proper bus services for this route, but the excitement of it all, will be gone forever.
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We made it to the third crossing just in time to witness another phenomenal Southeast Asian sunset, brilliant! More pigs, chickens, and kids on the loose. By the time we made it to the last river, the last bit of daylight was being devoured by the twilight. It was just as well, because I'm not so sure that I really wanted a close look at that last ferry. It was rigged up by placing a couple of layers of plywood across the top of three wooden longboats and had to pull in sideways to let the cars on. Once again, they maxed it out, with all three boats about an inch away from taking on water and sinking us all. In these situations, all you can do is have a good laugh, and try and mentally prepare yourself for a long swim in the Cambodian night. Once we made it to the other side, it was another couple of hours drive before we finally made it to S'Nookyville. The driver let us out at Serendipity Beach and we checked into the first place we found with vacancy. Had an order of cashew chicken and a cold Angkor beer and called it a night.
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The next morning we were up early and set out to find some better accommodations, which we found at a place called Markara. Nice rooms overlooking a big garden area for $8 a night. Out on Serendipity Beach, loads of Khmers were out swimming…shirts, pants, kromas and all! After a nice long walk on the beach and a good swim, we headed back to the hotel room so I could pick up a bunch of Flat-Stanleys. I needed to find some kids to color these pictures of a little boy named Flat-Stan for a project that my aunt’s elementary school in South Carolina is doing. They are trying to get kids from all over the world to draw a Flat-Stan and take a picture with them, so I wanted to help out. Walking down the beach, I lucked out and found an NGO that helps out some of the poorest kids in Sihanoukville by getting them off of the streets for a couple of hours everyday and supplying them with art supplies. The kids then sell their paintings for $4 a piece, most of the money going directly to the kids family. I talked to one of the ladies who helps run the place, and before I knew it, I had 15-20 kids making some Flat-Stans for me. I took loads of photos and Ann bought some bracelets and things from some of the children. When we finished up there, I bought a painting…very hard to do when all of the kids were begging me to buy theirs.
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Wandering down the beach, we found a place setting up tables and chairs right at the waters edge and decided to stop for dinner. Khmer BBQ doesn’t have anything on the Thai BBQ, but another whole red snapper was too tempting to pass by. The BBQ was set up on the beach right next to us with 4 cases of fish on ice. In one of the cases, there was some seafood that I didn't immediately recognize. It looked like a cross between a giant prawn and a lobster. When Ann was searching through the cases, the woman told her “10 baby lobsters only four dollars!” We both love lobster and hadn't had any our whole trip, so we decided to try them. When they arrived at our table, we both thought it a little strange that they had these barbed legs, and the front two looked like something that you would see on a preying mantis. Ripping the back shells off, they were filled with a mushy white meat that had something resembling a spine running down the whole thing. Not so much meat in them, and what was there, surly wasn't as delicious as lobster. After we had two our three each, we had both decided that there wasn't anything delicious about them at all, though the Khmers seemed to love them. The next kid that passed us collecting plastic bottles on the beach, we stopped and tried to pawn the rest of them off on him. He didn't seem much interested in them either. A couple of days later, I was showing a picture of the "baby lobster's to a Khmer friend in Phnom Penh, and he started laughing and explained that the "lobster" in my picture was really a type of roach that lives in the fruit trees! Mmmmmmm! The fish arrived not long after, and was cooked with absolutely no spices, very boring after Ko Chang. When we were finishing up, a little kid that couldn't have been more than 8 years old came down to the beach and started spinning fire (Poi).
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Over all, another nice time on the beach. Having one last night stroll down the beach, we came across several Khmer guys running out to the ocean grabbing debris and running it all back onto the beach before going back for more. A closer look and we saw two boats that had been flipped and smashed to pieces near the shore. Guess someone forgot to tie them down right. That night, we decided to catch the bus to Phnom Penh the next morning. A return to one of my old stomping grounds.
Up early, we made our way down to the bus station and jumped on for the nearly five hour ride to the capital.
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