February (Friday the 13th lived up to expectations) OR Bangkok-Siam Reap

I am writing this entry from the relative space and comfort of February the 14th. Had I written this entry yesterday, it would be rated 'R'for use of excessive foul language.

February 13th dawned insanely hot. We ate a quick breakfast and began our major challenge of this trip: traveling from Bangkok, Thailand to Siam Reap, Cambodia.

I don't consider myself a seasoned veteren of international travel, but I'm not green either. Cambodia will be the 12th country I've visited in the last two years, and I'm not counting lay-overs and drive-thrus. However, the Thai-Cambodia border was the first border I've crossed on land (except for EU borders, which they don't check).

It is a DOOZY of a border.

Every sweaty step of the way is a scam to squeeze more money out of tourists. The biggest scam is travel agencies selling tickets directly from Bangkok to Siam Reap. These tickets are invalid. The bus will take you as far as the border, and dump you.

Our Ko Samet friend, Peter, had bought one such ticket years ago. Consequentially, he spent nine hours in the flatbed of a pickup truck with fourteen other people in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Fortunately, we were aware of this scam, so we:

9am :) Insisted on taking a metered taxi to the bus station, which was half as expensive as the tuk-tuks being pushed on us.

9:30am :) Bussed from Bangkok to the A.P. bus station

2:30pm :) took a tuk tuk from A.P. bus station to the border (at a reasonable price)

2:45 :( were taken by tuk tuk to a small visa office before being taken to the border. We bought our visas there because we had no idea what was going on. We would have saved 6CDN each had we bought our visas at the border.

:) Did NOT fall for other scams at said visa office, including a too-cheap taxi-ride to Siam Reap

3:00pm :1 (neutral) left Thailand, walked 200m across border, entered Cambodia

3:40 :) took a free bus from border to bus station

4:00pm :( were pressured into exchanging our baht into riel at a poor exchange rate

4:10 :) found a taxi to take us to Siam Reap

7:30 pm :( were dropped off at a tuk tuk stand just outside the city. Not knowing what else to do, we paid the tuk tuk driver a slightly elevated price to take us to our guesthouse.

:) AVOIDED the scam of taking the ride for free, thus being beholden to give the driver a job the following day.

:) AVOIDED allowing the driver to take us to HIS prefered guesthouse, where he would have received a commission for delivering us.

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Does this sound as tiring as it was?

It's EXHAUSTING. You always have to be on your guard, fending off scams left, right, and centre. And they know just how to hustle hot and tired tourists who have been traveling all day.

Although...on the flip side, although their tactics are annoying and inconvenient; who's going to cry buckets of tears over poor local people getting a few extra dollars out of relatively rich foreigners? Didn't they write a book about that? Robin Hood?

On the other flipside, from the time we left our hotel in the morning, to the time we got to our hotel at night, we spent twelve hours on the road. During this time period, we ran from bus to tuk tuk, never taking a break in the 40C heat. We didn't even eat, we didn't have time.

When we got to our guesthouse in Siam Reap, I couldn't remember why on earth I had wanted to go to Cambodia in the first place. I was HOT in a way I can't adequately explain, so tired, and SO hungry. I was dizzy, nauseous, covered in sweat, and (Lord forgive me) wishing for a plane ticket back to South Korea to fall out of the sky. I went to bed in a MISERABLE mood.