Wow, feels like it's been a really long time since I updated this thing! Since the last post, we haven't really moved much... we've simply been exploring Bangkok... and we love it! We both agree that it's one of the coolest cities we've been too, and neither of us would have a problem living here if we needed to for one reason or another. It' s huge... we didn't even realize how huge until we got here. For comparison, New York City comes in at about 8.3 million people right now.... Bangkok comes in at 8.1, so they're very similar. We've covered quite a bit of ground here, using taxis, tuk-tuks, buses, minivans, and the famous Skytrain (think the subways of London, but above ground).
Probably the most eventful thing we've done lately is Christmas shopping. Shopping in Bangkok is a thing to experience. We started by going to "The Mother of All Markets". It's a market that's only open 2 days a week, and it's 15,000 stalls of everything you can imagine. Over 200k people visit it per day, and you can absolutely get lost walking around it. They sell everything from food to clothes to antiques to electronics (real, stolen, and fake). We got most of our shopping done there, for budget reasons. After that, we headed to the Siam Square, which is the most impressive mall complex I've ever seen. It's divided into 3 separates malls, each between 5-8 floors with bridges crossing in between over the streets. Ice Skating, a massive aquarium and restaurants are everywhere, and Lamborghini, Porche, Bentley, Audi, Lotus, and Maserati all have showrooms filled with ultra-expensive cars. Anyway, cool stuff.
In 2 days we are heading to Myanmar! We don't really know what it will be like, and are very anxious to find out. We've read that cell phone access doesn't exist, and that internet access can be hard to come by. What's more, being in that it's an oppressive military government, internet access is extremely monitored. Some basic websites such as Hotmail are often blocked, so if we don't update anything for awhile don't be surprised!
Oh, and we haven't seen a drop of rain since Nov. 16th. The dry season here is DRY.
Since we are back in Thailand make sure you check the Thailand link on the right side for new pictures, all of the ones we took in Bangkok are posted!
That's probably about all for now. Merry Christmas!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Finishing up Cambodia
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Rabid Monkeys and Salesmanship
Well we're pretty much killing time now. We were originally supposed to leave Phnom Penh a week ago, but then found out that getting a Burmese visa takes 7 days and that'd we'd get it on Friday the 4th (yesterday. However, as Michelle noted in the last message, I got bit by a monkey, which has made things more complicated. I e-mailed a western doctor in town asking if there was any risk from the monkey I 'met', and also did a lot of searching for information on the rabies threat specifically within Phnom Penh. I learned that rabies kills more people here than Dengue Fever and Malaria combined, and the doctor responded immediately telling me to come in ASAP. I visited him on Thursday and started the 5 shot vaccination plan. You have to get the shots on certain days, and Phnom Penh is the only city in the whole country you can do it, so we're going to have to stay here a bit longer to get the first 2, go to the beach for a few days, and then head to Bangkok where we can get the rest right before we fly to Myanmar. I'm fine though, insurance covers most of the vaccination (after you're bitten, they won't cover anything preventative), and we're both glad I'm not taking the risk by skipping the vaccination.
We've tried to illustrate in some of our previous blog posts how aggressive and numerous the salesman are around here. Be it for food, taxi rides, books, or anything else, we seem to be under constant assault (as westerners) from these good people who are trying to scrape out a living. In an effort to give a better picture of just how many of these people there are, yesterday I counted how many offers we got. This came about partly of boredom, but I thought it could be interesting too. The offers I decided to count are ONLY for transportation services such as taxis, motorbike rides, and tuk-tuks (a kind of 2 wheeled carriage hooked to the back of a motorbike). When walking the city these drivers will ask if you want a ride, and if you say no they'll often start shouting out the names of tourist destinations, presumably hoping to hit one that interests you. Anyway, the grand total for yesterday was 103. In about 4.5 hours of walking, we got offered a ride 103 times, not including duplicate offers from the same people. This also doesn't include the infinite number of offers for drinks, books, restaurants, pot (very common for me), cocaine (rare), opium (even more rare) or just general begging on the streets. [Note: we don't any drugs, period]. We've known we get asked a lot, but eventually you just learn to ignore it and you start to forget how often it really is.
Assuming everything goes smoothly, our next post should be from the beach!
We've tried to illustrate in some of our previous blog posts how aggressive and numerous the salesman are around here. Be it for food, taxi rides, books, or anything else, we seem to be under constant assault (as westerners) from these good people who are trying to scrape out a living. In an effort to give a better picture of just how many of these people there are, yesterday I counted how many offers we got. This came about partly of boredom, but I thought it could be interesting too. The offers I decided to count are ONLY for transportation services such as taxis, motorbike rides, and tuk-tuks (a kind of 2 wheeled carriage hooked to the back of a motorbike). When walking the city these drivers will ask if you want a ride, and if you say no they'll often start shouting out the names of tourist destinations, presumably hoping to hit one that interests you. Anyway, the grand total for yesterday was 103. In about 4.5 hours of walking, we got offered a ride 103 times, not including duplicate offers from the same people. This also doesn't include the infinite number of offers for drinks, books, restaurants, pot (very common for me), cocaine (rare), opium (even more rare) or just general begging on the streets. [Note: we don't any drugs, period]. We've known we get asked a lot, but eventually you just learn to ignore it and you start to forget how often it really is.
Assuming everything goes smoothly, our next post should be from the beach!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Still in Phnom Penh....
...but heading to the beach on Saturday! We've been hanging out waiting for our Burma visas, which should be ready on Friday. I'm totally recovered from Dengue, but Jason got bit by a monkey in the city so we're keeping an eye on that. It doesn't appear to have broken the skin, but we're still aware of the risks it could pose. We were visiting a Wat in the middle of the city that was surrounded by trees, and there were a bunch of monkeys all over! It was pretty crazy to be so close to them, they didn't seem too bothered by the people around. Jason was sitting taking some pictures and a very small one walked right up to him and bit his arm.
Today we visited the Killing Fields, which is one of the mass grave sites that the Khmer Rouge murdered and buried people. After being imprisoned at Tuol Sleng which we visited last week, truckloads of prisoners were taken out to this area about 15 km outside of the city. The centerpiece is a large memorial stupa, which is filled with skulls, clothing, and other bone fragments of victims that were found at the site. We could go inside of it and the skulls are actually out in the open, not behind glass. It got to me a bit being so close to over 5,000 human skulls. Outside of the stupa are markers indicating where mass graves were discovered. The largest had 450 bodies, another had 166 headless bodies, and another was 100 bodies of women and children. There are countless small pits in the ground that were smaller graves. Over 8,000 people were killed and buried at Choeung Ek, which is the site we visited, and the largest of the Killing Fields. When walking around the area there are still remnants of clothing sticking out of the ground, as well as bone fragments scattered in different places. A sign marked a tree that was used by executioners to beat children and babies against, and a pile of bone fragments laid beside it. The whole experience was really overwhelming, and I'm glad we didn't go on the same day we went to Tuol Sleng. It's just so hard to understand how something like this could happen, and has happened many times before, and continues to happen today. I always wonder about the Cambodians I see that are old enough to have been alive during the Khmer Rouge regime--did they work under the Khmer Rouge, were they forced into labor or tortured by them, were there families killed by them? Jason said it would make an interesting book to go into the city and talk to people about their experience and role during that time.
On a lighter note, on our ride back to the city from the Killing Fields we drove past a motorbike that had a whole pig sliced open draped across the back of it. It was so disgusting; its hooves were dragging the ground, and its insides were totally exposed. It looked like it was probably alive this morning! We got a picture of it so hopefully it will get posted soon.
Today we visited the Killing Fields, which is one of the mass grave sites that the Khmer Rouge murdered and buried people. After being imprisoned at Tuol Sleng which we visited last week, truckloads of prisoners were taken out to this area about 15 km outside of the city. The centerpiece is a large memorial stupa, which is filled with skulls, clothing, and other bone fragments of victims that were found at the site. We could go inside of it and the skulls are actually out in the open, not behind glass. It got to me a bit being so close to over 5,000 human skulls. Outside of the stupa are markers indicating where mass graves were discovered. The largest had 450 bodies, another had 166 headless bodies, and another was 100 bodies of women and children. There are countless small pits in the ground that were smaller graves. Over 8,000 people were killed and buried at Choeung Ek, which is the site we visited, and the largest of the Killing Fields. When walking around the area there are still remnants of clothing sticking out of the ground, as well as bone fragments scattered in different places. A sign marked a tree that was used by executioners to beat children and babies against, and a pile of bone fragments laid beside it. The whole experience was really overwhelming, and I'm glad we didn't go on the same day we went to Tuol Sleng. It's just so hard to understand how something like this could happen, and has happened many times before, and continues to happen today. I always wonder about the Cambodians I see that are old enough to have been alive during the Khmer Rouge regime--did they work under the Khmer Rouge, were they forced into labor or tortured by them, were there families killed by them? Jason said it would make an interesting book to go into the city and talk to people about their experience and role during that time.
On a lighter note, on our ride back to the city from the Killing Fields we drove past a motorbike that had a whole pig sliced open draped across the back of it. It was so disgusting; its hooves were dragging the ground, and its insides were totally exposed. It looked like it was probably alive this morning! We got a picture of it so hopefully it will get posted soon.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!!
It certainly doesn't feel like Thanksgiving here in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia--it was 90 degrees today, and for our big meal we shared a chicken sandwich. But it's nice thinking about everyone at home getting together today!
We arrived in Phnom Penh about 4 days ago and had quite a few things planned... unfortunately however, I got quite sick, so we've been laying low for awhile. The morning that we left Siem Reap I woke up feeling very achy and stiff with a bit of a headache. During the 6 hour bus ride I was miserable--I could hardly move my neck and became very dizzy and lethargic. We got to town and I had no appetite but made myself eat a bit and head to the room for the night. That evening was probably the sickest I've ever been! I could tell I had a high fever, Jason confirmed that, but we didn't have a thermometer so I'm not sure how high. I had really bad chills, and after I had fallen asleep I was woken up (as was Jason) by my body shaking really hard. I felt like I was freezing, even though Jason said I was burning up. I couldn't control the shaking and Jason went downstairs to look up what could be going on. We were both worried it could be malaria, so he found an American clinic that had a 24 hour phone line he called. They said to come by in the morning for some blood tests. That evening I got physically ill a few times and had a lot of trouble walking up the stairs to our 4th floor hotel room(bad time to be so high). The next morning we went to the clinic and at that time my temperature was 102.5, which we could tell was quite a bit lower than it had been the night before. They did some blood work and are pretty sure it was dengue fever, which is a mosquito born illness that is pretty nasty. Fortunately I'm already feeling better! Still not great by any means, but we found a nice hotel (with an elevator!) that is up away from the noise of the streets and very nice (aside from the spider incident; see below). It was a miserable couple of days but the worst is definitely over.
Today we went to the Tuol Sleng museum, which was an infamous S-21 prison operated under the Khmer Rouge. It was originally a high school, but after the Khmer Rouge took over it was turned into a brutal prison. It's estimated that up to 20,000 people were imprisoned here, and only 12 of them survived- it's like the Auschwitz of Cambodia. I had read so much about the place, but actually seeing it was quite haunting. You could almost feel the horrible things that happened there. The Khmer Rouge tortured thousands of innocent Cambodians there, and those that survived the torture were sent to the Killing Fields for execution. The prison still had intact cells and torture areas, and they've done a good job of creating picture and information displays. The pictures consist of mug shots of the prisoners, bodies after torture, and piles of actual human skulls found in the killing fields. There were also skulls on display that had bullet holes and evidence of trauma (hammers, axes, etc). Some of the pictures were of children as young as 5, both men and women, elderly people, and monks. Jason took some pictures which may be posted tonight.
On a lighter note.....last night we got back to our hotel room and on the wall was the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen outside of a cage. It was probably about 5-6 inches, and we could see his huge fangs. I offered to go get the guys working downstairs to kill it, but Jason stepped up and took care of things! There was no way I would sleep in there with that thing. He used a big sandal and missed on his first swing, but got it the second time. We posted a couple of pictures of it but they don't even begin to illustrate its size. On a seperate topic, we've noticed that on some of the movie channels there are English movies that are also subtitled in English, but the subtitles are clearly written by someone who is not a native English speaker. Some of the things that end up being written are hilarious and are not even close to what the people said... yesterday I laughed harder than I have in years. The guy said "This chick I'm seeing makes these unbelievable pineapple pancakes." The subtitle said "This chicken makes these unbelievable pineapple pancakes." It may not be as funny reading it but it was priceless.
For now we have to stay here until at least Tuesday to get our Burmese Visa, and I imagine by then I'll be doing a lot better! After that we're heading towards the Cambodian coast which should be pretty nice. I know there are other things to share but I'm still so out of it that I will try to post a more interesting update in a few days! Thanks for all of the well-wishes from everyone, and enjoy your yummy dinners!
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Note from Jason: FINALLY, all pictures are up and we are 100% up to date for the first time in weeks. And FYI, I simply couldn't capture the feel of the museum we visited today (see above)in color, so that's why it's all in black and white.
We arrived in Phnom Penh about 4 days ago and had quite a few things planned... unfortunately however, I got quite sick, so we've been laying low for awhile. The morning that we left Siem Reap I woke up feeling very achy and stiff with a bit of a headache. During the 6 hour bus ride I was miserable--I could hardly move my neck and became very dizzy and lethargic. We got to town and I had no appetite but made myself eat a bit and head to the room for the night. That evening was probably the sickest I've ever been! I could tell I had a high fever, Jason confirmed that, but we didn't have a thermometer so I'm not sure how high. I had really bad chills, and after I had fallen asleep I was woken up (as was Jason) by my body shaking really hard. I felt like I was freezing, even though Jason said I was burning up. I couldn't control the shaking and Jason went downstairs to look up what could be going on. We were both worried it could be malaria, so he found an American clinic that had a 24 hour phone line he called. They said to come by in the morning for some blood tests. That evening I got physically ill a few times and had a lot of trouble walking up the stairs to our 4th floor hotel room(bad time to be so high). The next morning we went to the clinic and at that time my temperature was 102.5, which we could tell was quite a bit lower than it had been the night before. They did some blood work and are pretty sure it was dengue fever, which is a mosquito born illness that is pretty nasty. Fortunately I'm already feeling better! Still not great by any means, but we found a nice hotel (with an elevator!) that is up away from the noise of the streets and very nice (aside from the spider incident; see below). It was a miserable couple of days but the worst is definitely over.
Today we went to the Tuol Sleng museum, which was an infamous S-21 prison operated under the Khmer Rouge. It was originally a high school, but after the Khmer Rouge took over it was turned into a brutal prison. It's estimated that up to 20,000 people were imprisoned here, and only 12 of them survived- it's like the Auschwitz of Cambodia. I had read so much about the place, but actually seeing it was quite haunting. You could almost feel the horrible things that happened there. The Khmer Rouge tortured thousands of innocent Cambodians there, and those that survived the torture were sent to the Killing Fields for execution. The prison still had intact cells and torture areas, and they've done a good job of creating picture and information displays. The pictures consist of mug shots of the prisoners, bodies after torture, and piles of actual human skulls found in the killing fields. There were also skulls on display that had bullet holes and evidence of trauma (hammers, axes, etc). Some of the pictures were of children as young as 5, both men and women, elderly people, and monks. Jason took some pictures which may be posted tonight.
On a lighter note.....last night we got back to our hotel room and on the wall was the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen outside of a cage. It was probably about 5-6 inches, and we could see his huge fangs. I offered to go get the guys working downstairs to kill it, but Jason stepped up and took care of things! There was no way I would sleep in there with that thing. He used a big sandal and missed on his first swing, but got it the second time. We posted a couple of pictures of it but they don't even begin to illustrate its size. On a seperate topic, we've noticed that on some of the movie channels there are English movies that are also subtitled in English, but the subtitles are clearly written by someone who is not a native English speaker. Some of the things that end up being written are hilarious and are not even close to what the people said... yesterday I laughed harder than I have in years. The guy said "This chick I'm seeing makes these unbelievable pineapple pancakes." The subtitle said "This chicken makes these unbelievable pineapple pancakes." It may not be as funny reading it but it was priceless.
For now we have to stay here until at least Tuesday to get our Burmese Visa, and I imagine by then I'll be doing a lot better! After that we're heading towards the Cambodian coast which should be pretty nice. I know there are other things to share but I'm still so out of it that I will try to post a more interesting update in a few days! Thanks for all of the well-wishes from everyone, and enjoy your yummy dinners!
-----------
Note from Jason: FINALLY, all pictures are up and we are 100% up to date for the first time in weeks. And FYI, I simply couldn't capture the feel of the museum we visited today (see above)in color, so that's why it's all in black and white.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Things that Happen
In the last blog post we were in Chaing Mai, Thailand, and since then we took an overnight bus 12 hours south to Bangkok, stayed a day there, and then jumped on a train to head to Cambodia. As usual, the transportation and border crossings were an adventure (take that how you will). The bus to Bangkok was straightforward... it was a crummy and very uncomfortable (due partially to the people in front of us who leaned their seats back into our laps) but nothing too unusual. We arrived in Bangkok at about 7am, and took a taxi to the local train station. We had heard that trains to Cambodia were dramatically cheaper than buses, so we went to go check it out- and we’re very glad we did. The train to the Cambodian border was about $1.75, and took about 5.5 hours. On the other hand, the bus took 4 hours (supposedly) and cost about $17- the choice was obvious. The train left the next morning at 5:55 so we had a day to kill in Bangkok, which we spent recovering from the overnight bus and miling about the area. While we were hunting for a place to stay, Michelle ran into an interesting situation. She walked into an old guesthouse and asked about rooms and asked to see one, and the man working it said ‘OK’ and told her to leave her bag there and he’d take her up to see it. She said it was OK, she didn’t mind carrying the bag upstairs (leaving all your worldly possessions in an unknown lobby is not a good idea) and he blew up on her... started yelling that if she didn’t leave her bag she couldn’t see the room. Not sure what he was trying to accomplish out of that, I assume he would know that if he yelled we would leave (we did). Odd, and an unusual introduction to Bangkok.
Anyway, the train the next day was great. The views were great, it more comfortable than the bus, and we met a couple of people from San Francisco and Brazil that we talked with. Upon arrival we got a taxi to the border, and the driver dropped us off at a little stand where lots of people were filling out visa forms and all the normal stuff. The shuttled us in and gave us the forms which we filled out. He quoted us the visa price in baht, which we paid, but as soon as we did we did the calculation in our head and it came out to over double the price of what a Visa normally is. I asked why, and the guy gave me a reason that didn’t make much sense. I tried to clarify and his answers and responses got even more incoherent, so I asked for the money back and said we’d just try walking up to the border on our own, because I didn’t he was running a legit operation. He refused because he said they were already processing the visa (an outright lie). The people we were traveling with had not paid yet, so we told them not to, which pissed off the border guy who had previously been very nice. We got our Visa, as promised, but it was $45 instead of $20. From what I could tell, this official looking stand was filling out the forms, calling the official border (1/4 down the road) and having them do the visa, and charging us $25 extra for the convenience. I’m sure the official border guards were getting a kickback as well. So we got screwed, but all the people we traveled with got through for the normal $20, and they bought us dinner that night to make up for the lost cash. Nice folks! It is frustrating though, because we are aware of the scams and are very careful, but you walk into them anyway. They really do a good job of screwing people.
After making it past the first border checkpoint, we were approached by people offering us taxi rides to Siem Reap after we crossed the border. This is pretty common. The going rate in the guidebook was $50 US for a taxi (split between all 5 of us), which fluctuates, so we were happy when we got a guy to come down to $35 US for the same thing. He agreed to meet us on the other side of the border and take us the rest of the way. We all crossed over, and then while walking to the Cambodian border (it’s about 1/4 mile between the Thai border and the Cambodian border) we see the same guy who was supposed to drive us to Siem Reap on the side of the road, handcuffed, and getting manhandled by some cops/border patrol. Not sure what happened as we didn’t stick around, but I’m assuming he tried to cross illegally and got caught or something. Anyway, we found it quite hilarious.
After this incident we elected to go take a bus instead of a taxi. It was fun and went smoothly since we all just sat in the back and talked the whole time (felt like high school). We stopped about halfway through the drive, and when backing out of the restaurant our driver ran into a power cable that was hanging down pretty low, knocking it down and causing quite a mess. Just another hilarious daily incident that happens on the road.
Cambodia is an interesting place so far. Siem Reap is a pretty small (200k people-ish) city that is very poor, but also happens to have Angkor Wat, one of the biggest and best temples in the world. Because of this you have massive 4-star hotels lining a road in one area, and then ½ mile into the city you have extreme poverty. There are nightclubs and fancy restaurants in the middle of the downtown area that charge a lot of money for a western meal, and then right across the street (literally) there are local food stalls that serve great local dishes for $1. Consequently, and sadly, this has created a typical situation of haves and have-nots accompanied by the inevitable- begging. The begging has undoubtedly been the worst here of anywhere we’ve seen so far. It’s constant and unavoidable, some people trying to sell books, others little handicrafts, many just asking for money. Lots of people have signs written in excellent English (I’m curious who writes them) that says their name, their situation (poor, orphan, amputee, etc) and that they don’t want to beg for money but they have to. Even within the Ankgor Wat temple grounds we were under constant assault of little kids as young as 5 trying to sell us stuff and telling us how bad they need the money. However, as hard as it often was (especially for the sweet hearted Michelle) we never bought anything. These were kids that as young as 8 or 9 were already dropping out of school to try and make a living hawking stuff to foreigners, and we simple don’t want to support that. We’re sure most of what they were told to say (and most kids said the exact same lines, word for word) was taught to them by the parents, which is where most the money will go, so the last thing we want is to pay someone for taking their kids out of school. Michelle and I talked a lot about it, and we both strongly feel that the government should make it illegal to have kids working (or even adults in some cases) within the park, which is a highly regulated area. They should have designated food vendors and products to sell, and they should be sold only by employees of the park. Jobs should be given out to kids who have finished high school, encoring them to stay in school... these are pretty simple ideas that would probably make a huge difference in the long run.
To exasperate the entire situation, many of the people we’ve seen begging and selling stuff have been disabled. Landmines seem to be the leading cause, and consequently young kids are the biggest victims. Single, double, and even triple amputees are commonplace. I did a bit of research after noticing this, and in Cambodia there is apparently 1 amputee for every 259 people- a ridiculously high number. Not that long ago the Khmer Rouge tore this country apart, and landmines had been placed all over the country by many groups- fortunately, the U.S.A. not being one of them (unlike Laos, where they are mainly ours). Many of the people that approach us and ask for money are in a wheelchair, on crutches, and in at least once case so far have had people pushing them in carts because they have no hands or feet at all. It’s absolutely tragic.
On a lighter note, the currency system in Cambodia is very odd. The official currency is the Riel, which is valued at about 4000-1 against the US Dollar right now. However, about 75% of stuff is quoted in USD, and ATM’s give out USD as well. Even more oddly, there are no US Coins, only bills. If something is 75 cents and you pay with a $1 bill, you will get change in Riel- 1000 of them. It’s a tough system, because breaking a $10 bill can be nearly impossible at some places but you can’t carry around stacks of 1’s all the time just because of the size. It’s a weird, hybrid system that makes price negotiation a hilarious endeavor. No one generally drops their prices below $1, they just start trying to add more stuff.
Yesterday we visited Angkor Wat, as I mentioned earlier, and it was awesome. It was a far superior visit than any other I’ve had to old ruins, dominating over even well known sites like the Mayan town of Copan in Central America. However, it was so cool that there isn’t really a ton for me to say about it, and I’ll let my pictures do the talking. I’ve got well over a hundred pics, and the internet here is slow, but I’ll work on it when I can. In the mean time, the rest of the pictures from Thailand should be online now.
That’s all for now, but I leave you with this-
Quote of the day:
Me (brushing teeth in bathroom): What movie is coming on now?
Michelle (watching TV): Umm... “15 and Above”. I have never heard of that, have you?
Me: Uhhh.... that’s probably the rating.
Michelle: hahaha. Yeah.
(It was Silence of the Lambs)
Anyway, the train the next day was great. The views were great, it more comfortable than the bus, and we met a couple of people from San Francisco and Brazil that we talked with. Upon arrival we got a taxi to the border, and the driver dropped us off at a little stand where lots of people were filling out visa forms and all the normal stuff. The shuttled us in and gave us the forms which we filled out. He quoted us the visa price in baht, which we paid, but as soon as we did we did the calculation in our head and it came out to over double the price of what a Visa normally is. I asked why, and the guy gave me a reason that didn’t make much sense. I tried to clarify and his answers and responses got even more incoherent, so I asked for the money back and said we’d just try walking up to the border on our own, because I didn’t he was running a legit operation. He refused because he said they were already processing the visa (an outright lie). The people we were traveling with had not paid yet, so we told them not to, which pissed off the border guy who had previously been very nice. We got our Visa, as promised, but it was $45 instead of $20. From what I could tell, this official looking stand was filling out the forms, calling the official border (1/4 down the road) and having them do the visa, and charging us $25 extra for the convenience. I’m sure the official border guards were getting a kickback as well. So we got screwed, but all the people we traveled with got through for the normal $20, and they bought us dinner that night to make up for the lost cash. Nice folks! It is frustrating though, because we are aware of the scams and are very careful, but you walk into them anyway. They really do a good job of screwing people.
After making it past the first border checkpoint, we were approached by people offering us taxi rides to Siem Reap after we crossed the border. This is pretty common. The going rate in the guidebook was $50 US for a taxi (split between all 5 of us), which fluctuates, so we were happy when we got a guy to come down to $35 US for the same thing. He agreed to meet us on the other side of the border and take us the rest of the way. We all crossed over, and then while walking to the Cambodian border (it’s about 1/4 mile between the Thai border and the Cambodian border) we see the same guy who was supposed to drive us to Siem Reap on the side of the road, handcuffed, and getting manhandled by some cops/border patrol. Not sure what happened as we didn’t stick around, but I’m assuming he tried to cross illegally and got caught or something. Anyway, we found it quite hilarious.
After this incident we elected to go take a bus instead of a taxi. It was fun and went smoothly since we all just sat in the back and talked the whole time (felt like high school). We stopped about halfway through the drive, and when backing out of the restaurant our driver ran into a power cable that was hanging down pretty low, knocking it down and causing quite a mess. Just another hilarious daily incident that happens on the road.
Cambodia is an interesting place so far. Siem Reap is a pretty small (200k people-ish) city that is very poor, but also happens to have Angkor Wat, one of the biggest and best temples in the world. Because of this you have massive 4-star hotels lining a road in one area, and then ½ mile into the city you have extreme poverty. There are nightclubs and fancy restaurants in the middle of the downtown area that charge a lot of money for a western meal, and then right across the street (literally) there are local food stalls that serve great local dishes for $1. Consequently, and sadly, this has created a typical situation of haves and have-nots accompanied by the inevitable- begging. The begging has undoubtedly been the worst here of anywhere we’ve seen so far. It’s constant and unavoidable, some people trying to sell books, others little handicrafts, many just asking for money. Lots of people have signs written in excellent English (I’m curious who writes them) that says their name, their situation (poor, orphan, amputee, etc) and that they don’t want to beg for money but they have to. Even within the Ankgor Wat temple grounds we were under constant assault of little kids as young as 5 trying to sell us stuff and telling us how bad they need the money. However, as hard as it often was (especially for the sweet hearted Michelle) we never bought anything. These were kids that as young as 8 or 9 were already dropping out of school to try and make a living hawking stuff to foreigners, and we simple don’t want to support that. We’re sure most of what they were told to say (and most kids said the exact same lines, word for word) was taught to them by the parents, which is where most the money will go, so the last thing we want is to pay someone for taking their kids out of school. Michelle and I talked a lot about it, and we both strongly feel that the government should make it illegal to have kids working (or even adults in some cases) within the park, which is a highly regulated area. They should have designated food vendors and products to sell, and they should be sold only by employees of the park. Jobs should be given out to kids who have finished high school, encoring them to stay in school... these are pretty simple ideas that would probably make a huge difference in the long run.
To exasperate the entire situation, many of the people we’ve seen begging and selling stuff have been disabled. Landmines seem to be the leading cause, and consequently young kids are the biggest victims. Single, double, and even triple amputees are commonplace. I did a bit of research after noticing this, and in Cambodia there is apparently 1 amputee for every 259 people- a ridiculously high number. Not that long ago the Khmer Rouge tore this country apart, and landmines had been placed all over the country by many groups- fortunately, the U.S.A. not being one of them (unlike Laos, where they are mainly ours). Many of the people that approach us and ask for money are in a wheelchair, on crutches, and in at least once case so far have had people pushing them in carts because they have no hands or feet at all. It’s absolutely tragic.
On a lighter note, the currency system in Cambodia is very odd. The official currency is the Riel, which is valued at about 4000-1 against the US Dollar right now. However, about 75% of stuff is quoted in USD, and ATM’s give out USD as well. Even more oddly, there are no US Coins, only bills. If something is 75 cents and you pay with a $1 bill, you will get change in Riel- 1000 of them. It’s a tough system, because breaking a $10 bill can be nearly impossible at some places but you can’t carry around stacks of 1’s all the time just because of the size. It’s a weird, hybrid system that makes price negotiation a hilarious endeavor. No one generally drops their prices below $1, they just start trying to add more stuff.
Yesterday we visited Angkor Wat, as I mentioned earlier, and it was awesome. It was a far superior visit than any other I’ve had to old ruins, dominating over even well known sites like the Mayan town of Copan in Central America. However, it was so cool that there isn’t really a ton for me to say about it, and I’ll let my pictures do the talking. I’ve got well over a hundred pics, and the internet here is slow, but I’ll work on it when I can. In the mean time, the rest of the pictures from Thailand should be online now.
That’s all for now, but I leave you with this-
Quote of the day:
Me (brushing teeth in bathroom): What movie is coming on now?
Michelle (watching TV): Umm... “15 and Above”. I have never heard of that, have you?
Me: Uhhh.... that’s probably the rating.
Michelle: hahaha. Yeah.
(It was Silence of the Lambs)
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Up to date!
Since arriving in Thailand we've had a nice, relaxing time. We've been to multiple open-air markets, spent many hours at our hotel pool, walked a ton of the town, took an all day cooking class, and even watched the Broncos get stomped by the Steelers on Monday Night Football (Tuesday Morning Football for us). We'll be sad to leave, but we'll probably be heading to Bangkok within the next few days in order to get an advance visa for Myanmar, and then heading to Cambodia for a few weeks.
The reason for the post, however, is that I wanted to tell everyone that the blog should be up to date for the first time in weeks. Every picture we have taken has been uploaded- there are quite a few more from Laos and now a lot in Thailand. As you may notice, the blog format has been updated as well, with a rough itinerary and a map of our travels that I'll try to keep updated as we move.
Thanks for reading!
The reason for the post, however, is that I wanted to tell everyone that the blog should be up to date for the first time in weeks. Every picture we have taken has been uploaded- there are quite a few more from Laos and now a lot in Thailand. As you may notice, the blog format has been updated as well, with a rough itinerary and a map of our travels that I'll try to keep updated as we move.
Thanks for reading!
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