| Cambodia is Phnomenal |
[Apr. 27th, 2008|10:08 pm]
Scott
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On my way to the Internet cafe today, a guy on a motorcycle pulled up right in front of me, blocking my path. "Hey," he said. "You need pretty lady?"
"Uh......no," I said.
"How about boy?"
"Uh......" I said, and as a car nearby pulled out I seized the opportunity and ran away from him.
So, yeah. Kind of a sketchy area, Siem Reap is. I'm just happy to be anywhere at all, at this point.
I left Vientiane on the night bus Friday. I specifically asked for a really nice bus, because the last Lao bus I was on was absolutely unbearable. I guess the travel agent interpreted that as a sleeper bus, which was about the last thing I wanted.
Lao sleeper buses work on about the same principle as sleeper cars on trains, but where the latter are a great idea, the former are an abomination. Reason - the beds in Lao buses are about half as wide as the beds in sleeper cars or any other civilized place, and they're shared between two people. I ended up with the top bunk bed, which meant I was about two meters above the ground. I was sharing the bed with a kind of large Lao guy. There was no railing. So I spent the night continually on the verge of falling off the bunk, desperately pressed up against this Lao guy I didn't know.
In case there was still any chance of me falling asleep, the couple in the bed next to me were those people (you always get at least one pair) who somehow think it is absolutely okay to have loud, animated conversations when the lights are obviously off and everyone else in the bus is obviously trying really hard to sleep. These people really baffle me, because I run into them really often and I can't think of any reasonable explanation for their behavior. Maybe they're literal psychopaths, the one percent of the population who are genetically incapable of caring about other people. I don't know. But I'm sure you've experienced these people, and there were some of them on my bus.
We got into Pakse at about six in the morning, and I immediately got onto the seven o'clock bus to Vernkham. Even though it was seven in the morning, I made them promise cross their heart hope to die that it wasn't a sleeper bus, and indeed it wasn't. It was, however, one of those buses where they show a really loud movie blasted from speakers above every seat. This one was about a guy who wanted to have sex with lots of people.
At about eleven I got into Vernkham, which was a shack with a "Welcome to Vernkham" sign on top. Inside the shack was the guy who you talk to about getting out of Vernkham, which is what everyone who arrives in Vernkham wants to do.
I talked to the guy, and he seemed kind of surprised to see someone there. He told me that since I was the only person there that day, if I wanted to get out of Vernkham (and I definitely did) I would have to pay to charter a whole van myself. The alternative was waiting to see if another bus came and taking it back to Pakse.
The guy told me that chartering the van, plus an onward bus ticket to Siem Reap, would cost $70. I had $79 in my pocket, and Siem Reap was two days away. The closest ATM was in Siem Reap. It was either go back to Pakse, or live off $9 for two days. I decided to try the living off $9 for two days, and spent my first dollar for lunch (fried rice, served by the guy in the shack).
Around noon, the guy's friend (who introduced himself to me as Mr. Tong) came in a van. I was, indeed, the only paying passenger. There were two other passengers who were not paying, because they were both chickens. I sat on the seat, and the chickens wandered around the van, pecking at the floor.
Around one, we reached the Cambodian immigration control office, which was occupied by two Cambodians and about ten goats. I don't know why an immigration control office needed that many goats, but they were definitely there. One of the Cambodians scribbled on my passport a bit, I paid the "fees", and I was in Cambodia!
Around two, we came to the Mekong River. The van driver found us a ferry, and me and the chickens got on, as did several other chickens, a guy on a motorcycle with a goose, a few children, a little boy leading a pig on a leash, and the crew. It took about three minutes to get across the Mekong, and then on the other side my driver argued with some people until they grudgingly agreed that I had a ticket that suggested they might have to take me in the general direction of Siem Reap.
So me and a few other passengers (all human) travelled on for a few hours until we came to Kratie, and spent the night there. I used most of my $9 on food, and, completely inexcusably, an hour of Internet access to debate Shirerithian politics. The next day, I took a ten hour bus trip to Siem Reap, with no more mishaps than sitting next to a screaming baby and having the bus break down halfway. On the way, we passed through several unfriendly-looking Cambodian cities whose names would have also been good names for demons in a D&D campaign, like Skun and Chhnag. My favorite Cambodian city name? O Smach.
We ended up at a dilapidated bus station a few miles outside Siem Reap, and I spent literally my last two dollars on a tuk-tuk ride into the city. I was bargaining with the taxi driver, and he kept trying to get me up to three, and I kept trying to tell him I only had two dollars. He was all like "Oh, yeah, I've heard that one before," and so I took out my wallet and showed it to him, with only two dollars in it, and he agreed to take me for two dollars. Thank goodness, in Siem Reap there was an ATM that decided to accept my card, and now I have money again!
So, first impressions of Cambodia. First of all, lots of dust. I hear it's just because this is the end of the dry season, and next month the monsoon will come and it'll all be mud. Still, for now there's an amazing amount of red dust everywhere. It gets into everything and stains anything that has been outside for a while, like buildings, a reddish shade.
The Onion's subtitle for its Cambodia article is "Where The Streets Are Paved With Skulls". I haven't seen the country's famous skull pyramids yet, but I would have to amend that to "Where The Streets Are Paved With Trash". Cambodia has no sanitation system or dumps or anything, so people just throw their garbage on the road or in the fields. All the cities I've seen so far are covered in it, except Siem Reap which is more upscale and touristy. Kratie, which was dirty, full of trash, hot as heck, and full of air pollution was probably the least pleasant city I've ever been in, and just being out on the street there almost made me gag.
In Laos, there was a lot of poverty, but I got the feeling it was the sort of poverty where smiling people in bright clothing live in traditional villages and make handicrafts. In Cambodia, there's a lot of poverty, and it's the normal sort of poverty where people live in horrible hovels and are really unhappy. Or at least that's the impression I get.
There are political signs everywhere. Not like the yard signs in America. They're big, sturdy metal things that look a lot like road signs or billboards. A lot of businesses or houses have them, saying what party they're supporting. Major candidates seem to be Hun Sen from the Vietnam-backed Cambodian People's Party, Prince Ranaridh from the FUNCINPEC Party, and Sam Rainsy from the appropriately-named Sam Rainsy Party. Hun Sen, a scary man with an eyepatch who is accused of eliminating his opponents, is the incumbent. According to the Cambodian guy who was explaining this to me on the bus today, "You know how everyone in America hates Bush, but somehow he keeps winning elections anyway? It's the same thing here."
So that's not good. But I am happy, because I am in Siem Reap, I have a nice hotel, and I have money again. And there is a restaurant that serves python across from my hotel, and I'm considering trying it, though I expect I'll chicken out later.
And tomorrow I am going to see a real live Sid Meier's Civilization IV-approved Wonder of the World. I can't wait! |
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| Comments: |
i could probably make having to sleep next to a stranger on a bus through a strange land funny, to myself, but i think the noisy train groups (i know them, specifically, well) would be it. i would snap and maybe weep a little. you sound to have been very composed, when you write about it, but do you ever panic in these situations -- or, you know, worse? are you just that mellow? i suppose chicken van more than made up for it. would i have been beamed and made tiny clucking noises the whole ride? yes. i would also eat python with gusto, although i would perhaps balk before a plate of dog. in any case, mad respect. i enjoy your logs.
I don't snap. I just get really angry and stew a lot.
There is a restaurant in Siem Reap that proudly advertises "We Do Not Serve Dog, Cat, or Worm!" | |
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