I was in a rut post-Koh Phangan. I know you’re thinking, give me a break, poor you, where to travel, so many options, blah, blah, blah. But honestly, sometimes it just gets really tiring having to constantly be making plans and decisions. Where and when to go? Where to stay? Where to eat? When to get visas? What bus/train/ or boat to take? How much are they all? What to see when you get there? The list goes on. I knew I needed a way to snap out of it. And as I had a dwindling number of days left on my Thailand visa, I decided that a visit to Angkor Wat in Cambodia would be just the thing to snap me back into motivated backpacker mode.
I ended up having quite a long trip to get there, complete with complete and total visa and bus trip scam as predicted by the Lonely Planet (I hate being predictable...). But in the end I did reach Siem Reap and then spent a great few days temple-roving. Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples are an impressive sight to see and realize they have survived so intact for hundreds of years. It's also amazing how easy it is to roam fairly freely without too many barriers relatively speaking--one can only wonder for how much longer this will hold true.
So, back to the scam...I hate being predictable. I really do. But boy, was I ever. In the Lonely Planet there is a section that addressed the “Siem Reap Scam” for travel from Bangkok to Siem Reap, the base town for exploring the temples of Angkor. They advise, “make travel the adventure it was supposed to be, book a bus to the border and go it alone from there.” However, that did not sound so comforting to me. Instead I shopped around, found the travel agent offering the cheapest price for a minivan all the way through to Siem Reap for about $12. Little did I know that I was being cast of to a sketchy company that would make sure to put ever aspect of the aforementioned scam to the test.
I went to meet the van off Khao San Road, the insanely backpacker-centered area of Bangkok. I hopped into the minivan that had a few other people in it, including a nice German girl who said she had done this trip before and it was fine. This time she was just doing a border run, not carrying on all the way into Cambodia. We then spent a good hour and a half driving around Bangkok picking up various others until my impatience of yesteryear returned and I was nearly beside myself. But then we were finally all put in another van which met us on the side of the road and whisked off towards the Thai border. However, then the real scam set in as a couple hours later we were not taken directly to the border, but to a holding restaurant/office area where the orchestrators said they would help organize visa issues so that they could speed up the process at the border—only charge an extra 100 baht ($3) for the service. Having read my Lonely Planet diligently (or so I thought!) I said, “no thank you” to which I received more than a few angry glares by a petit gentleman who claimed that I was “difficult” as I was the only one asking “all these questions” and I could do whatever I wanted while saying it might take me hours at the border and maybe the bus would leave me or I’d make everyone else on the bus angry as they would have to wait for me. I’ll take my chances I said.
An hour or so later, we arrived at the border and sure enough, there was no problem with my getting the visa myself. After a confusing group shuffle though to the Cambodian immigration post, It took me the exact same amount of time. But here lurked part two of the scam. I was please with myself for having avoided the “helping surcharge” no matter how small (it’s the principle!) but then ended up handing over double the cost of the visa to the friendly immigration officer. First I was told they did not accept US dollars (false I now know) and only 1200 baht ($40 as opposed to the official $20 which is even, irritatingly stamped on the upper corner of the visa!). Pride goeth before the fall. But everyone else around me was paying the same amount so I just thought that’s what it was. What a fool. My blood still curdles over that one. Part three of the scam involved being told to change money at the border for Cambodian riel as there are not many ATMs and banks would still be closed for the next two days due to the lingering Khmer new year. False. I only changed about $30 at an appalling rate fortunately, while others around me willingly handed over hundreds and lost a good 20% of their money. Ugh.
What followed all of this goodwill was an extremely bumpy ride. Yes, as bad as the roads in Uganda I would confess, although the vehicle was much more comfortable as in there was at least some padding in the seats to cushion the bum. Five hours later, part four ensued as the bus pulled up to a guesthouse in Siem Reap as the sky darkened and were told they had good rooms and if we wanted we could stay there. I had had enough. I was not going to just be fed right into their trap of making the journey so long that you are tempted to collapse in the first guesthouse you see—namely, the one they get commission from. I took my bags, shrugged off the pleas of the bus staff, guesthouse, and numerous tuk-tuks and motos and walked down the highway to a hostel I had booked. And from here my time in Cambodia, after a dreadful beginning, was on the ups. My guesthouse was really nice actually, and I had my own double bedroom and bathroom for $4 a night. The town was quite pleasant with lots of bars and shops, a few of which would have even been at home in New York City trendy spots.
The first day I had a moto drop me at Angkor Thom, a huge walled complex for several different temples and terraces. I intended to walk that day. Ha! I didn’t get to far, let me tell you. The areas between the tem
ples are huge, but my attempted walking did give me a new found respect for the enormity of the space and layout of the whole area. I saw Bayon first, which remains one of my favorites with it’s numerous huge Buddha heads towering up to the sky. Next I walked along the Elephant and Leper Terraces with intricate carvings still quite visible. And fortunately, while scrambling up some very steep temple steps, I met a girl from California who was also travelling solo, we hung out a bit, grabbed some lunch and agreed to meet up at the end of the day to make plans to share a tuk-tuk tour the following day. I then began a loooong walk over 
to a temple that really didn’t look so far away on the deceiving map. But luck struck again when I met some other Americans (so many for once!) who were also heading to the same temple for the sunset and managed to grab a ride in their tuk-tuk. Sunset was me, the guys, the girl Leah, and everyone else at the temples that day who had flocked in droves to seethe sun cast mellow light on the towers.
I went to meet the van off Khao San Road, the insanely backpacker-centered area of Bangkok. I hopped into the minivan that had a few other people in it, including a nice German girl who said she had done this trip before and it was fine. This time she was just doing a border run, not carrying on all the way into Cambodia. We then spent a good hour and a half driving around Bangkok picking up various others until my impatience of yesteryear returned and I was nearly beside myself. But then we were finally all put in another van which met us on the side of the road and whisked off towards the Thai border. However, then the real scam set in as a couple hours later we were not taken directly to the border, but to a holding restaurant/office area where the orchestrators said they would help organize visa issues so that they could speed up the process at the border—only charge an extra 100 baht ($3) for the service. Having read my Lonely Planet diligently (or so I thought!) I said, “no thank you” to which I received more than a few angry glares by a petit gentleman who claimed that I was “difficult” as I was the only one asking “all these questions” and I could do whatever I wanted while saying it might take me hours at the border and maybe the bus would leave me or I’d make everyone else on the bus angry as they would have to wait for me. I’ll take my chances I said.
An hour or so later, we arrived at the border and sure enough, there was no problem with my getting the visa myself. After a confusing group shuffle though to the Cambodian immigration post, It took me the exact same amount of time. But here lurked part two of the scam. I was please with myself for having avoided the “helping surcharge” no matter how small (it’s the principle!) but then ended up handing over double the cost of the visa to the friendly immigration officer. First I was told they did not accept US dollars (false I now know) and only 1200 baht ($40 as opposed to the official $20 which is even, irritatingly stamped on the upper corner of the visa!). Pride goeth before the fall. But everyone else around me was paying the same amount so I just thought that’s what it was. What a fool. My blood still curdles over that one. Part three of the scam involved being told to change money at the border for Cambodian riel as there are not many ATMs and banks would still be closed for the next two days due to the lingering Khmer new year. False. I only changed about $30 at an appalling rate fortunately, while others around me willingly handed over hundreds and lost a good 20% of their money. Ugh.
What followed all of this goodwill was an extremely bumpy ride. Yes, as bad as the roads in Uganda I would confess, although the vehicle was much more comfortable as in there was at least some padding in the seats to cushion the bum. Five hours later, part four ensued as the bus pulled up to a guesthouse in Siem Reap as the sky darkened and were told they had good rooms and if we wanted we could stay there. I had had enough. I was not going to just be fed right into their trap of making the journey so long that you are tempted to collapse in the first guesthouse you see—namely, the one they get commission from. I took my bags, shrugged off the pleas of the bus staff, guesthouse, and numerous tuk-tuks and motos and walked down the highway to a hostel I had booked. And from here my time in Cambodia, after a dreadful beginning, was on the ups. My guesthouse was really nice actually, and I had my own double bedroom and bathroom for $4 a night. The town was quite pleasant with lots of bars and shops, a few of which would have even been at home in New York City trendy spots.
The first day I had a moto drop me at Angkor Thom, a huge walled complex for several different temples and terraces. I intended to walk that day. Ha! I didn’t get to far, let me tell you. The areas between the tem
ples are huge, but my attempted walking did give me a new found respect for the enormity of the space and layout of the whole area. I saw Bayon first, which remains one of my favorites with it’s numerous huge Buddha heads towering up to the sky. Next I walked along the Elephant and Leper Terraces with intricate carvings still quite visible. And fortunately, while scrambling up some very steep temple steps, I met a girl from California who was also travelling solo, we hung out a bit, grabbed some lunch and agreed to meet up at the end of the day to make plans to share a tuk-tuk tour the following day. I then began a loooong walk over 
to a temple that really didn’t look so far away on the deceiving map. But luck struck again when I met some other Americans (so many for once!) who were also heading to the same temple for the sunset and managed to grab a ride in their tuk-tuk. Sunset was me, the guys, the girl Leah, and everyone else at the temples that day who had flocked in droves to seethe sun cast mellow light on the towers.We grabbed some Cambodia amok, delicious coconut and lemongrass curry, for dinner downtown and made plans to meet at 5am for a long day of sightseeing. Our driver, Teach, worked at my guesthouse and for the bargain price of $12 for the day carted us around from sunrise to sunset. It beat walking, that’s for sure. We hit up Angkor for sunrise (once again, us and everyone else!) and then in the best move of the day, hightailed it for Ta Prohm, the jungle temple, while it was still just light out around 6am. We were the only ones!
It was a bit eerie actually. I kept losing track of Leah and would be wandering dumbstruck through the cavernous ruins to emerge at large tree roots asserting themselves in all directions on the grey stone walls. We saw a handful of other temples, and by 10am it felt like we had lived the whole day. We saw one more temple and then headed back to town for some lunch and rest out of the prime heat of the day. Around 3pm we motivated ourselves to go back and take in a few more temples and yet another sunset as well as the view of Angkor by night—quite spectacular.
The following day, I allowed myself a later wake up call, headed to a new ceramics studio in town to see some Angkor inspired pottery, and also visited the war museum where I got a personal and troubling account of life under the Khmer Rouge. That afternoon I visit a small outdoor gallery of miniature replicas of some of the temples which were really impressive, and then went to see Angkor Wat—I had save the best, or at least most famous, for last, and spent a good couple of hours wandering through the many corridors and lingering over the bas reliefs of Hindu gods and Buddhist statues.
All in all, it was just the ticket to remind me of the great perks of travel and pick myself out of a rut.
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