Cambodia: Seam Reap to Phnom Penh

Dear All

There is a scam coming out of Bangkok that can burn through the pockets of tourists as they head for Seam Reap - the city that connects to Angkor Wat. This scam is well documented in the Lonely Planet but is still often fallen for. The ticket to Seam becomes very cheap, the rumor is that it is better to get your visa at the border of Cambodia so you jump on board thinking you’ve got the best deal going. At the border, a man walks onto your bus claiming the processing for the visa will cost 1300 Baht instead of 1000 Baht or US$20 as is the normal price. Then, as your are down by 300 Baht the bus crosses the border and slowly makes its way to Seam Reap, stopping often especially at the Saxophone intersection (for Battabang and other places) and then arrives in an awkward time in the middle of the night at a guesthouse which you must stay at seeing as though it is impossible to get anywhere else at that time of night - losing more money and the freedom of where to stay as well as needing to move again the next day. Knowing this and with a lot of inspiration from Kent and Wakako, I set off to do the trip on my own power.

In SE Asia, it is sometimes cheaper to do the hike from one city to another using the “tourist bus” system and sometimes it isn’t. It’s a back and forth game of penny pinching vs. effort vs. time. This equation gets played back and for those long term travelers who know that a dollar saved today is a free meal tomorrow. This time was the time to do it myself so upon returning from the hedonistic playpen of Koh Pha Ngan (using a tourist bus system), I found the cheapest agency to get my Cambodian visa and waited the two days for it. The advantage to having a Khao San Area is that you can bump into old friends without much effort and this time it was Kent and Wakako - the super travelers from Japan who have crossed the entire Eurasian continent where I met them first in Hsipaw, Myanmar and now again here in Bangkok. They laid the plan on me. Take a train from the central Bangkok station and head to Aranya Prathet and sleep the night. From there, we cross the border by ourselves and then hire a taxi-truck to get us to Seam Reap. Sounds easy enough.

The train takes 5 hours and for the 48 Baht is cost to cross to the border town, it was a deal of a century. Half the work done without sweating. The trains in Thailand are quite good and the seated 3rd class is very cheap. Kent and Wakako had left the day before - they say that the Japanese love border towns and so there were heading down early to get a day in. I met Kent at the station and he directed me around until we found the cheapest hotel in the city - well not so cheap about 150 Baht for one person but I am still up on the ticket from Bangkok. The border city of Aranya Prathet is a mega city compared to those that are passed along the way. From tiny village with houses made from plank walls and corrugated metal roofing with dirt roads comes this town of concrete, ATMs and enormous border market selling goods ranging from army uniforms to cheap toy junk. A relatively uninteresting city but large for a border town. There must be more happening here that meets the eye.

The next morning, we arrived at the border crossing. The market rolls right to the edge of the city and as the few tourist walk to the border, swarms of children approach begging for money as the touts try to grab your attention to get you to their taxi-pick up to take you wherever you need to go. The children are obviously Cambodian. The amputees I have so often heard about become more prevalent as the border crossing station comes into sight. The area is swamped with people walking in and out. Cambodians mixed with Thai mixed with white Western backpackers are crammed up against the windows of the arrivals and the departure buildings, each on their own independent sides of the road. We walk through the doors to approach a huge queue of people waiting to cross. I finally get my turn but in a moment that lacks reason, I lay down both my passports - my new one with the Cambodian visa in it and my old one with the valid Thai entry stamp. I feels a sense of beurocratic doom as the stamp officer sits and wonders why I have two passports presented to him. He sits and shifts through the two books and I show him the reasons why I have them both. He gets out of his wooden box home and directs me to the arrivals section and a door next to it where stuffy button down non tie wearing officials sit bored as their teller type counterparts frantically deal with the manic traffic of exciters waiting to be processed. The man I am set in front of disheartenly puts his newspaper down and begins to recopy my details onto a paper, took a passport photo of me and charged me 20 Baht for photocopying my passport details. As I paid it laughing inside as the red tape of Thailand has done their best to squeeze that little bit out of me. I return to the queue for the departures. Sweat is running down my forehead and back and is soaking the area of my shirt which touches my bag. It is a hot day and the bright sun doesn’t help the wait. The queue this time to depart is longer than when I first got there and a third desk has magically opened so that the queue doesn’t push out the front door. I finally return to the main desk and though the officer still tries to connect his left and right eyebrows together in a statement of confusion, the pieces eventually come together and my double passport ordeal is finally over after over an hour of waiting. Wakako and Kent have been patiently waiting for me at the other side - that being the no mans land between countries where there is huge casino taking advantage of the lawless border. We walk, still followed by touts and past some landmine victims to the Cambodian side.

For those using this as a tool to help them with their travels, know that the border doesn’t accept US dollars, that being the cheapest option to pay for your visa so instead you must pay US$25 but as Thai Baht (i.e. 1000 Baht). It is better to get this visa in Bangkok.

Speaking of visas, there are some new rules that will add a considerable extra cost to my trip. Laos has eliminated their 15 day visa policy. For Canadian who pay the most for their 30 day visa, it makes more sense to get two 15 day visas instead of one 30 day visa - though it does mean returning to Khaosan Area which was the original part of my plan. This means that when I get to Hanoi, I will have to decide on what is the cheapest way to get back to Bangkok as the visa for Laos is now US$45 at the border instead of 30. I’ll deal with that bridge when I get to it.

We finally make an agreement with some touts to take us to Seam Reap, non-stop for 150 Baht. For 200 Baht, Wakako and Kent chose the inside air con cabin of the truck while I decided to ride like the locals in the back with all the vegetables, fruit and sacks of rice which eventually gave me a glorious sweet spot to lay and watch the sky. It felt like a magnificent throne, comfortable and fascinating. With my back against the direction of driving and my hat to block my face from the sun, I eased easily into the trucks open mouth and watched the scenery go by. The differences between Cambodia and Thailand become obvious right from the start. The wooden planks and corrugated metal housing become bamboo and thatch huts. The road stops becoming paved and turns a deep red dirt path similar to that of Australia’s outback. The road is littered with potholes and there is garbage lining the side. I am brought back to memories of the subcontinent - the filth that the Indians live in and the touting that it resembles. These are probably some of the worst roads I have been on for a long time. The dust fires out from the back tires of the truck in front as their exhaust mixed with the red dust to produce this dark red poisonous soup that burns your eyes and tickles your nose. After an hour of so of driving we arrive in Sisophon - the intersection we insisted on skipping in our deal with the tout. Remember, non-stop driving. We knew of this intersection and we wanted to pass it but the communication between the driver and the tout broke down somewhere and no matter how angry we got with the driver, we knew we couldn’t win. We switched trucks - our truck heading back to the border and the new truck heading to Seam Reap but as we hadn‘t paid yet we needn‘t pay more. Now instead of lying back and relaxing out cool I was sitting upright and holding on for dear life as the potholes became worse and the driving more sporadic. The dust flew even higher now and, to add to the issue, up ahead was a rain storm. It was a beautiful sight to see a storm in the distance, watching the rain border as is faded out from areas of deep downpour to full sunshine. We, that is two Swedish girls and I as Wakako and Kent were in the cabin again, watched the storm while under a clear sky but eventually the storm creeped up on us and the rain fell in giant drops caking the red polluted dust to our clothes and skin. We landed in Seam Reap, laughing at ourselves and our state at a pleasant little guesthouse just south of the city.

Seam Reap is the clearest example I have ever seen of a tourist trap. Broken down shacks and dirt little villages are replaces instantly with five star hotels with well groomed gardens and golden trim that leads to wonderful full comfort rooms. It is a twisted contrast of the rich and the poor - an unfair distribution of wealth where the ignored must deal with their dust roads and the blessed get to drive smoothly. The city is filled with bicycles and motorbikes and the occasional car. Seam Reap has significantly more motorbikes and bicycles than cars indicating that there are a substantial number of poorer people who live and work in this city. More cars means more wealth. After a long grueling ride and a well deserved shower, I took to bed early that night. I needed to sleep over a decision.

Before I left Bangkok, I had left a deposit for a flight ticket to Los Angeles to arrive a few days before the Burningman Festival. This ticket costs US$730, the Burningman Ticket cost US$250 and all the other expenses to get down, live, party, fuel etc… would bring the total to US$1500. As impulsive and adventurous as I was feeling at the time of purchase, I began to realize that this is a huge amount of money that could be spend elsewhere though I doubt for a better personal purpose. Thanks to ‘99’, a good friend of mine whom I met two years ago at the festival, I had a way to get to the festival and a place to crash. I sadly made up my mind to pass again this year as I called the agency to cancel my ticket. It is just not economically feasible or reasonable to go especially when I am planning to start a new life in Israel shortly. For any sympathetic philanthropist who wish to get me to the festival, please donate to Send Oren to Burningman (SOB) charity fund. All SOB donations to the cause would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks 99 for all your generosity and I will hopefully see you next year.

Seam Reap isn’t a fantastic city at all and with the humidity and heat reaching unbearable levels here in SE Asia, it was very difficult to go exploring. The same stereotypes follow here as in other tourist traps. There are overpriced restaurants and guest houses everywhere. The restaurants have pictures of the food on sandwich boards whose concept is repeated down the road for every other restaurant. There are travel agents and ticket booths as well as little convenience store for little convenience. There is a market where I bought a brand new LP fake for 2 dollars and other faked books. There is a nightlife scene here but I didn’t discover it. My bones are still crushed from the hours of dancing I put into the Full Moon Party. There is no way to get to Angkor Wat by foot as the main city and the ruins are a fair distance apart. At 5pm, the Angkor Wat becomes free to enter and, in typical tourist style, you buy a ticket for the following sunrise and see the sunset twice. Once at the free 5pm time and again the next day. Hiring a tuk tuk is the only way to do it. In this part of SE Asia, this wat was what I have been waiting for - something of serious interest and awe to amaze me. It did.

Angkor Wat is not just a single wat or temple but a series of reconstructed or dilapidated ruins spanning over many kilometers that can take hours to get from one end to the other. There is a small circle of main temples that can all be viewed in a day and a typical tourist trail that all the taxi drivers know and can take you to without you even saying a word. The day starts the night before with sunset at the mountain temple of Phnom Bakheng. The hordes of tourists that flow onto the mountain side temple didn’t add to the fact that the sunset this time of year is very disappointing even though the postcards promised a glorious sunset of amazing colour. We got a simple smear of red that evaporated almost instantly upon arrival so, with that, we headed back to the hotel to catch the 5am sunrise at the temple which gives the area its name - the Angkor Wat.

I am not going to go into the history of each wat as there are guides and guidebooks that can help you with this but I heard a good quote which helped me decide whether to buy a three day pass (US$40) or just a one day (US$20). He said “They’re rocks. They’re pretty rocks but they’re just rocks. “ He was right. Leaving at 5am and ending the day at 6pm give you a 13 hour adventure and even with a two hour nap during the hottest part of the day, you can still get templed out easily. A day trip is perfect for this place and pace.

Angkor is the sunrise wat and the best place to get a photo of the sunrise is right on the well worn patch where no grass can grow next to the pond. Obviously years of sunrise photo takers has made the spot well worn in and by 6 am the place is crowded even for the low season. The sunrise never happened so we went to get some breakfast.

Even though this country does remind me a little of the subcontinent in the way the touts work, there are some rules that are followed unlike on the subcontinent. The children who sell those ugly bracelets and flutes won’t bother you while you eat, the restaurant waitresses can’t pass a line drawn by the police on the ground to control them running to you to sell their menus items and no one but the bald priest women will tout you while you are in the temple. It is a strange social order that has built up between the touts, tourists and police which made the experience more enjoyable. I didn’t feel distracted at all.

After breakfast, we squeezed our way past the hordes of Japanese, Korean and Chinese tourists to take a look at the Bayon, a beautifully well preserved temple with giant close/open eyed heads, pinched mouths which surround you from all sides. Each turret would have four heads, pieced together from eight other rocks and spotted in a white moss, facing all directions. It gives you the feeling that you are being watched not only from inside the temple but from everywhere you go in Angkor. From there we passed the Terrace of the Elephants, a platform for royal presentation where there are elephant inscription, the Terrace of the Leper King, which again is another terrace but in worse condition and then to the Baphuon and Royal Palace, both pyramidal ruins which you can climb if you want to brave the tiny shallow steps that lead to the top. This place brought me back to the time I was in Bagan in Myanmar.

The two sets of ruins are different and as I walked around Angkor Wat, I began to compare them. Individually, Angkor is more magnificent. The rocks and detail are fantastic though some in Bagan were amazing with lotus shaped tops covered in gold foil. The difference is that Bagan is in a flat plain which, by standing on the highest point, will give you a majestic view with scattering of pagodas everywhere. In Angkor Wat, the temples are separated by dense jungle making it impossible for the average person to see the entire place from the highest point. For this reason, I feel that Bagan is the best set of ruins in Asia and possible the world but I haven’t been to Machu Pichu yet. Hmmmm….

From the Royal Palace we went to Ta Prohm and the highlight of my Angkor experience. Here the ruins have been left for the rocks to lay crumbled on the ground. Enormous trees overgrow through the ruins as their roots look as if they are being poured over the stones and into the soil. The trees skyrocket upwards with their green canopy above a mere spot next to endless amounts of white bark below it. With more inspiration from Kent and Wakako, we managed to find the place where the front cover photo of the Lonely Planet was taken and, to add to the excitement, the man who is also featured there. He is an old man named Tameen. He has aged badly in the last four years and you can feel the dark angel of death patiently playing rubix cube next to him as he waits for the changeover. I called up to him in his semi mid day slumber and asked for an autograph in my guide. He agreed by writing a “grrrrr” like word in the book then, tongue sticking out and open mouthed, he fell back to sleep but not before I could hand him some small money to thank him. I was in an oddly starstruck moment and happy as a schoolgirl. I’m not sure why since I wouldn’t have reacted the same if it was a real star but regardless, we returned to the taxi happily making a unique discovery and took the typical tourist noontime nap.

By 11am you feel tired of temples. Six hours have gone by and the conversations slip to thanks over not buying a three day pass and that one day was enough. Even half a day should be sufficient for those not archeologically inclined. By noon, the heat and humidity begin to wear into the days aching feet that have been walking the temples for hours and making it back to your bed seems like priority. Though I didn’t sleep, those that would would feel refreshed, the sun would be down slightly and the heat more bearable. Now is the formulaic time to see the Angkor Wat itself from the inside and, for some, it is were you go see the sunset if you want an alternative to the Bakheng.

The Angkor Wat itself is not a spectacular wat from the inside been simple flat floors and stone pillars holding up a boring gray stone ceiling. Again, to get to the third level you must climb dangerously small and shallow steps. On the third level are bas-reliefs, stone wall carvings, depicting Hindu gods battling it out with other Hindu gods. In fact, there is a strong Hindu presence in many of the places in Angkor. Way to go guys.

From outside, the temple is amazing and beautiful in its symmetry and organization. It was definitely worth all the effort and sweat of the day but you do feel like this is enough and with one last desperate attempt at the mountain temple to get a sunset (which never happened again), we headed back home for an early night sleep.

I stayed one extra day in Seam Reap to hang out with Jarrod and Ilana, the twins I met going to Pai, then I left to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Pehn.

When you know you are only going to be in a country for a few days, you don’t want to take out a lot of money and here in Cambodia, all three major currencies, the US Dollar, the Baht and the Cambodian Riel are accepted. There are 4000 Riel in a dollar and 100 Riel per Baht. When money changes hands a huge calculation is made to make sure that all the money is right though it is made easier to know that you can just divide the Riel value by 100 to get the Baht price. As I get Riel I try to spend them right away with the next purchase so as not to be left with too much unnecessary money at the end. It has been a conversion nightmare.

On the way to Phnom Pehn I got the opportunity to try out a local classic - deep fried tarantula. The venom is removed so that you can eat the entire thing - legs head teeth body and all. When you haven’t had it before it is hard to approach eating an arachnoids or insect without a proper system. I approached it by segmenting the legs off the body and eating them first. That first mouthful was the hardest part. The best way to describe tarantula legs is ‘crunchy fry’. They taste like the sauce that is covering them, a sort of salty sweet light barbeque flavor. It was actually enjoyable and I got many stares from a lot of tourist who sat next to me during the lunch break. Next, the head and body which seemed less appealing after mastering eating the legs but with closed eyes and excited taste buds I dug in. The head and body are also somewhat only flavored by the sauce that they are deep fried in except that there is a mashed potato taste and texture. All in all it was good grub and at 300 Riel each (3 Baht) I actually ate three of them. I drowned any potential venom with dark cola which we all know kills everything in your stomach and off were went to finish our commute to the capital.

If Khaosan Road is the Las Vegas strip of SE Asia then Boeung Pak Lakeside in Phnom Pehn is the ghettos of New York. Next to the Lake, there are many hotels and guesthouses and overpriced restaurants but between those is a bumpy unpaved road and many residences showing that not everyone in this area is receiving the wealth of the tourist trade. There are no fluorescent signs and no discos. This is a chill out place where all is available especially marijuana which every second person seems to deal. A decent bag will cost you around US$5 before bargaining but I was also offered E for US$15 and cocaine for US$50 - a basement bargain price. The guesthouses are set up in a way that the central area opens up to the lake where beautiful vines and leaves grow from. This place is a poorer version of Khaosan which makes me wonder where all the beggars are? When you have a well known area for first world tourist stay usually there would be an influx of beggars and in Cambodia, amputee beggars everywhere. I have seen few of the landmine victims on this trip but much less than I expected. I need ask some locals some questions.

The other problem, like in the rest of Cambodia, are the tiny mosquitoes which carnivorously consume your body. You need to spray down every few hours as if the mosquitoes are wiping off areas slowly like peeling an apple to get to the white flesh below. Though I haven’t seen much of the city, I can see that this place is designed for relaxing with hammocks and free movies everywhere. There is plenty to see in this place but that is what tomorrow is for.

Tomorrow, I will do the entire day trip with the Silver Pagoda, 2 museums and a shooting range all set up. Then I will head to Saigon for the start of my Vietnam adventure. Now with no deadline, no schedule and a little extra money since I sadly decided to miss out on Burningman this year, I have all the time in the world.

Be Well



Oren Jalon
World Traveller

This message is brought to you by the sign marked “Careful Elephants!” next to the mountain temple in Angkor Wat.