Cambodia-

The road from Poipet (the border town in Cambodia) to Siem Reap (near the temples of Angkor) is famously bad. Much worse than you'd even expect, given Cambodia's extreme poverty. The fact is (or rumour has it) Bangkok Airways, which has the only contract to fly between Bangkok and Siem Reap, is paying the government a bribe to indefinitely stall the upgrade. The work is going, as slowly as possible, and the road is TERRIBLE! And it's a 3.5 hour trip. So once their contract finishes and other airlines are able to fly that route, the construction will presumably be completed. So please boycott Bangkok Airways for this low-handed corruption.

One of the countless detours we went through.




While in Bangkok, we met a guy named Viroth, who owns a restaurant and hotel in Siem Reap. He told us we should only pay around $30 per taxi (max 4 people) to get from the border to Siem Reap. However, once we got into Cambodia, we ran into another neat little setup.

Once through the border, we boarded what they called a "tourist shuttle bus" which took us, for free, to where we could get a taxi. Once there (with a couple of German guys who crossed the border with us) we agreed on a taxi. However, the cheapest they could offer was $60. And when I asked about the price I'd been told by Viroth, they gave me a story saying that price was only private drivers, not companies, and that the police cleared out all the private drivers early in the day, gesturing to the uniformed man sitting in the corner. So we had the option of going off looking for another cab (just Yoshi and I; the Germans didn't want to bother) and maybe getting one for $30. Or just going in the cab with 4, and still paying only $15 each. So in the interest of not rocking the boat, we agreed on the $60. On the way, I figured out their deal. The "shuttle bus" was not a free service for tourists, it was that company's bus, which is why they only brought us to that particular taxi company. And the "policeman" was just another guy on the payroll to offer some support to the story. He may have even been a policemen; in these countries, they all have their price.

So we got to Siem Reap, passing by 3 hours of mostly flat, mostly flooded, countryside. The road was under construction most of the way, with repeated detours around half-finished bridges. Children swam in the flow of the culverts passing under the road, and cows and water buffalo roamed freely. At one point, we had to slow to a crawl to make our way through a herd of cows wandering down the road.

In Siem Reap, we were dropped on the outskirts of the city at a tuk-tuk stand, where we transferred to 2 separate vehicles to take us the rest of the way into town. They were very helpful; took us past 3 different guest-houses before we finally found the one we wanted. It was a simple place, about a 5-minute walk from the main downtown. 2 single beds, basic bathroom, cold-water shower. But it didn't have very good ventilation, and by the end of our 4 days there, Yoshi had a nagging cough that I suspect is from the musty smell (and maybe the pesticide we sprayed every night to ensure a mosquito-free night). Picture: Yoshi in our guesthouse

Our first day, we wandered around the town, got some dinner, shopped for some necessities, tried to use the internet (with little luck) and met up with Viroth (the Cambodian guy we met in Bangkok) for some tips for our temple tour the next day. It's slow season in Siem Reap, so there are hundreds of tuk-tuk drivers sitting around trying to get a fare. Everywhere you go, you hear, "tuk-tuk, sir?". It seems like the national greeting...

Picture: Yoshi at Viroth's restaurant