A Rough Start to Cambodia

We knew traveling from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia was going to be long.  It started with an overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok.  The train left a little after 4 PM and was scheduled to arrive in Bangkok at 6:30 the next morning, but actually arrived two hours later at 8:30.   We all had our own sleeping bunks so that was great but I really didn't sleep well that night.  The next step was to get to the border.  The next train was in 5 hours so we looked into taking a bus instead.  We talked to a travel agent and booked a minibus from Bangkok all the way to Siem Reap after they told us it would be a three hour ride to the border and another 2 hours from the border to Siem Reap getting there much faster than waiting for the next train.   That was our mistake of the day!

Seth sleeping on the ride to the train station.  We were tired before we even began the  marathon travel  session.

Jenna at the train station

Inside the train

The minibus had seats for 14 passengers and when we got on there were already 3 other passengers on the bus.  Between them, they were taking up 7 of the seats, which left 7 seats for the 6 of us plus all our backpacks. Our packs were taking up two of the seats, but we couldn't get them to give up any more seats, so we rearranged our packs to take up one seat and a little floor space so we could all sit on a seat.  The three hour ride to the border turned into 5 hours and the three men laughed and talked loudly in a language we couldn't figure out the whole way!

Instead of being taken to the border we were taken to a travel rest stop near the border.  We told them we wanted to go to the border, not sit around at this rest stop.  Rich was called into the travel office where they tried to get him to buy our visas at much higher prices.  Seth was with Rich and he came and got me.  I told the travel agent that we would buy our visas at the border.  She then proceeded to tell us the bus wouldn't wait for us there and we needed to get them from her if we wanted to complete the trip.  I firmly told her we would buy them at the border and we wanted to go to the border now.  So she wrote up some new ticket code sticker and they quickly put us in a van.  I guess they didn't want anyone there who wouldn't play by their rules.  As we got in the van we asked what the sticker was and the driver said it was our ticket for the bus on the other side.  We hoped it was true.

We were dropped off a short way from the border and then had to walk to the Thailand exit office.  That part was easy as there were no lines.  Then we walked the short distance across the Cambodia border to the office where we could get our visas on arrival.  We filled out the papers (by now the kids are all filling out their own), and waited in line to pay the $20 each and turn in the applications. About 15 minutes later we all had Cambodian visas in our passports and then got to stand in a very long line to get our passports stamped. We finally got through immigration and weren't quite sure if we would have a bus on to Siem Reap or not. We got on the shuttle to the transportation station and each took a double seat, one to sit on and one for a backpack. Shortly before the bus left, the three guys from our earlier minibus hopped on the shuttle. There were three seats left and we didn't feel at all guilty to make them take the last three seats while holding their bags.

Sam, Joe and Rich about to enter Cambodia

Once at the station, we found that we did have a bus. We were "strongly encouraged" to exchange our Thai money to Kreil which was actually just another rip off scheme.   We only had a little Thai money left so we didn't lose much money in the exchange, but by this point in the day I had lost all trust in anyone. I felt like everyone was out to scam us in any way they could. We lost maybe a few dollars on the currency exchange, but otherwise we didn't fall for any of the other scams. But it just got tiring having to play the games.  Once in Siem Reap I got money put of the ATM and it was US dollars. It is kind of odd to be in Cambodia and get US money out of the ATM. Rich bought a SIM card and I tried to pay with a bill I had just gotten out of the ATM. The employee looked at the bill and saw a very tiny rip at the top and refused to accept the bill. Such frustrations!

By the time we arrived at our hotel we were all tired, hungry (all we had eaten for 24 hours was some packaged breads from 7-11), and stinky (traveling in the same clothes for 2 days and a night with no shower).  We hoped getting good food and sleep would help us feel better about Cambodia.

We stayed one night in the hotel and then moved to a "nicer" one across town. The kids room had tons of mosquitos, the air conditioner was not working in our room and the internet had issues. I felt like we were at the front desk every few minutes with another problem but I will admit that the hotel was good about trying to fix the issues.  Overall we have not had the best introduction to Cambodia. We are now on day 4 here and I keep thinking it's going to get better.  Maybe tomorrow.