Cambodia

Cambodia-ANGKOR WAT AND THE SCAM BUS

Hello everyone,
well, we are still trying to work out how this thing is supposed to work with pictures and everything but we promise you will get some.

So, we arrived in Cambodia on Monday and were thrown into things straight away. We witnessed poverty at worst-disabled people lying on the streets, begging, dirt, dogs etc etc... So we did the only decent thing anyone from a rich western country could do - we upgraded our hotel to include a room with cable TV, air conditioning and hot water. As any socialist will tell you, a growing economy depends on a flourishing small business community. It costs a little more for us, but it's the least we could do.

Actually, we are not so unkind (well Stuart is), we needed to pamper ourselves a little after we found ourselves on something known in Lonely Planet as the SCAM bus. This is a bus which you can't get off and get ripped off along the way. But being well-informed, we would nevere get on that bus, no, we just booked two tickets to get us with an air-con bus from Koh Chang island to Cambodia, due to arrive at 8 pm in Siem Reap, in northern Cambodia, along with all the other optimistic fellow travellers. Thge bus was small, but air-cin, the driver a bit mad and the journey close to rollercoaster which I love... but nothing compared to what happened after that famous border. First of all the visas were upgraded, from a $20 one to a $30 dollar one, so you can enjoy Cambodia and its corruption to its fullest, then walk over the border, guided by people who 'took care'of you and told you to exchange money here before you get ripped off later..no comment. Then you get on the second bus, the air-con has been taken out an sold, so have the bumpers and windows...it was quite an experience, onlz 4 more hours to go, haha. I tried to sleep, but resting your head agaisnt the seat would have been heaven for the next dentist around as you ricsked having your teeth kicked out. If you take the roads less travelled, do not expect it to be with concrete, in fact no. It took us quite a while to figure oput which side of the street they drive on, but apparently its is the right, or any way around the hole that is. Than god we were not on a SCAM bus, we thought, unti we stopped in the middle of nowhere to have dinner for 1 hour, being informed that we would only arrive at midnight. Not to mention that 2 hours later, the bus BROKE DOWN, that is we waited a little bit, let the tourists take pictures of an un-broken down broken down bus, use some tools to move the screw once to the left, once to the right, and off we go again,...thank god we are not on a SCAM bus. One hour later, we were told, out of the blue, that this bus can't go on because of the brakes and we have to change bus (I could have told you that when we got on, but no one listens to me here.... I miss the students) so we changed bus, were separated from our luggage and men (women an children first), so that the women could arrive first and choose the nicest room in the hotel, the only one the brought us to at midnight. Thank God we were not on a SCAM BUS. We love Cambodia and its people, they give you a very nice, eventful welcome, if a bit bumby, things to talk about and make friends here.