OnTheRoad

So, I'm now in Siem Reap, location of the Angkor Wat setup, many hardcore touts and a surprisingly large number of expensive, massive, luxury hotels.

Getting here was one of the more exciting experiences of my trip though, involving an hour and a half sitting in Thai immigration due to a slight misunderstanding... for which they wanted to charge me 15,000 baht (about $NZ750).

You see, a minor mistake was made by the immigration official when I arrived in Thailand. Instead of giving me the official 30 days visa, he managed to stamp me for 61 days. Which is not allowed. But I saw 61 days on the visa, so I stayed for 61 days. Then at the border, it almost slipped past the eyes of my immigration official signing me out. Then he pulled out a big "cancelled" sticker and stamped it over the signout stamps he'd already put in. Curses... After some initial negotiations which seemed to go nowhere (me protesting that it wasn't my fault and that I did not want to pay, them insisting that if had to pay, that maybe I should go back to Chiang Mai and have them fix it there, me saying ok, will do, taking down the official's name and saying that if Chiang Mai didn't fix it, I'd unfortunately be forced to call my embassy, them suddenly sitting me down in an aircon room while they called Chiang Mai for me, Chiang Mai being on holiday on that day, them taking a statement off me and getting me some surprisingly decent coffee) they suddenly restamped my passport and shunted me through, no fine. Satisfying, all in all. Must learn the Thai word for embassy, evidently it has power!

Following that, I was held up in Cambodian immigration because of my foolish desire to pay dollars not baht for my entry fee. The fee is $US20 or 1000 baht. $US20 = slightly less than 800 baht. So it's easy to see which is the better call here. First up they told me, quicker with baht. I said, pay dollar. They said, oh, here, near border, only baht is used. Can't use dollar. I said, not true. I pay dollar! That may have caused some offence, even though we both knew that they were lying, it probably would have been best if I hadn't pointed it out... Anyhow, the two minute visa stamping took me 40 minutes, as punishment for my arrogance. That said, I had a very large book, so the wait was fine :)

Next, Poipet (Cambodian border town) to Sisophon to Siem Reap. It used to be (as recently as March, I'm told) that it was easy to find pickup trucks going to Sisophon, they all left from the bus depot. Somehow this has changed, and they leave from... well, as far as I can tell, anywhere. I wanted to go cheap, so I wandered along the main road, asking where any pickup trucks were going. I don't speak any khmer (then... I can count to ten thousand now, say hello, thankyou, how are you and ice now... more to come) but folks near the border seem to speak passable Thai and I can ask where they're going, find out how much and express my desire to come with them in Thai fine :) So I managed to hook a lift up pretty quickly.

These pickup trucks, however, are not like the fancy shmancy songteaw of Thailand, or the likewise fancy shmancy Hyundai of Laos. Those flash vehicles have a cage and shelter, with built in seating. These Cambodian variants are just a pickup. With large piles of bamboo/fertiliser/food/everything else and almost innumerable people on them. When I left Poipet, we had a pile of luggage and goods, with 17 people on the back and roof of the pickup. There was, I think, at least six more people in the cab. 23 people, one pickup, where's the guiness book of records when you need them?

Anyway, I arrive in Sisophon to be immediately swamped by touts trying to take me to another pickup so that they can charge commission. Literally, 6, 7 people surrounding me on all sides trying to take me places. I'm used to more touts, but not all giving me 1 on 1 attention - I think that moving the pickups away from the bus station in Poipet (no doubt arranged by the bus companies) has reduced the number of tourists travelling by pickup; I was the only one in the pickup depot there. Anyhow, ignoring them and walking up to another pickup, I got the wrong one. On the plus side, they were drinking laos-laos (Laos spirit, if you recall from earlier posts) and eating fried grasshoppers, which was a plus. They generously shared a few bugs (much better than other bugs I've eaten, actually - small ones are like those cheese snacks, insubstantial and they leave you feeling thirsty. These grasshoppers were quite chewy and had a pleasant flavour) and some laos-laos to wash them down, before I jumped on the back of a pickup that was going in the right direction.

On this pickup there were even more people, but slightly less luggage. I got them to teach me some counting (khmer counting is strange, it's kinda base 6... you go 1 2 3 4 5, then the word for six is 5-1, 7 is 5-2, etc. I makes for long, long words for things like seventeen - duop-bram-pee). 30 to 90 are almost the same as Thai and they use the thai words for hundred, thousand and ten thousand.

Anyway, I think that Laos driving is crazy compared to Thai driving and Cambodian driving is crazy compared to Laos driving; horn use is prolonged and vigourous, the pickupdrivers drive really fast on really bad roads, crowded with children on bikes, busses, taxis, motorcycles with pigs on the back and all kinds of other stuff. I arrived safe nonetheless and am now planning on chilling in Siem Reap for a few days.