Earlier this week, I was chatting with my sister and brother-in-law on Skype, and the question came up: "So why did you choose Cambodia?" It was a good question to be asked. Why travel to Cambodia for a week early last month and not, well, anywhere other than Cambodia?
Part of the answer was as simple as the fact that it's the country to the east of Thailand, so it made for easy overland travel. Another part of the answer is that many favorable impressions of the country from my expatriate peers in Chiang Mai left me anxious to explore it also. Another part of the answer is that it was a great opportunity to travel with someone who had journeyed a long way for a visit.
Below is Day 1 in Cambodia. It's a long-winded version of the day's adventure recalled to the best of my memory. I think the long-winded version is worth telling for purposes of literary entertainment for friends and family, as well as a note of advice for any fellow travelers heading in that direction.
Friday January 2
Our goal for the day was to make it from Koh Chang (Elephant Island) on the southeast seaboard of Thailand all the way to Phnom Penh without any hassle. Looking just at that goal, it may have been a failed day, but in the end it wasn't all too bad of a day.
We maneuvered our way through three songtaew (a public pickup truck transportation) rides and a ferry ride to get ourselves from the island to the Cambodian border at the Had Lek / Koh Kong checkpoint. It's a very small border crossing traversed by relatively few tourists. Maybe that's why the corruption by the Cambodian officials is able to continue.
I knew enough to expect it. Before traveling, I had explored various websites for travel tips into Cambodia and read about the many travelers getting ripped off crossing from Thailand into Cambodia. I knew how much the tourist entrance visa was supposed to be, both in Thai baht as well as in U.S. dollars (which is used just as frequently in Cambodia as their own currency, the riel). Still, it made my blood boil as the woman working behind the little window said "1200 baht." That was 500 baht more than visa was supposed to cost!
I asked the woman an array of questions. "Can't I pay it in U.S. dollars like I'm supposed to be able to?" No, she would only accept Thai baht. "What if I would like to pay in riel" (that was a bluff on my part, as I didn't have any riel yet)? She closed her little booth window for a minute while I stared her down.
I looked for help from the local taxi drivers waiting for me to finish (hoping we'd get a ride from them), but they just shrugged their shoulders with a hint of retired sympathy in their expression. I asked him in Thai language if everyone gets ripped off here or if she would eventually ask for the real price, but he gave a confused look and made no reply. He either did a great job of pretending he didn't know Thai, or he truly didn't speak Thai language. I asked him in English, and he said that was the price that everyone ends up paying.
I knocked back on her window. I again asked her how much. "1200 baht." No budge yet. Me: "I would like a receipt made for the purchase of this visa please." Almost without hesitation she replied, "No receipt." Me: "That's because you know if I have a receipt I will show the authorities what you're doing." She closed her little window again after that one.
About ten feet away from this immigration officer's window was the window for the immigration police. Maybe I could get some support from them. Knock, knock. They opened their little window. "Excuse me, I'd like to know how much the tourist visa is for your country." The two men in their little office looked at each other for a moment. They knew that I knew I was getting ripped off. "I don't know, it's not up to us to decide. You have to ask over there." "YOU DON'T KNOW? WHAT IS THIS?" They shrugged and closed their window.
I walked the ten feet back to the immigration officer's little window. Knock, knock. She opened the window. Me: "700 baht." She closed her window. Knock, knock. She opened her window. "1200 baht." Me: "No, that's not the price of the visa!" There was a moment of silence, neither rushed nor extended. "Okay okay, 1000 baht."
I couldn't believe it...for a couple of reasons. One, the tone of her voice made it sound like I was the bad guy. And two, who has to bargain for something as official as a visa? She would have had a lot more going for her if she would have just stuck with her first price of 1200 baht. At least then I would have maybe believed that there was a last minute increase on the cost of visas or something.
I took another look at one of the taxi drivers standing by to see if I could decide what my next move should be by the look in his eyes. It seemed like his indication was that I should be happy to have the "discount" that I got. So, what chess piece to move next? Actually, it didn't feel like a chess game. It felt like I was in the Wizard of Oz, at the part where they just arrive into Emerald City and the guardsman keeps opening and closing the tiny window before eventually letting them into the secured city.
In a sense we were in just as much of a limbo land as Dorothy and company. Stamped out of one country, but not yet stamped into the next country. We couldn't return to Thailand without having been stamped into Cambodia first (not that we wanted to return to Thailand anyway, but it's not that we wanted to get ripped off either). The question remained: would we get in for the cost of the visa, shall we continue to play the bargain game, or was the best idea to pay into the hands of corruption, suck it up, and move on?
After a few more words exchanged (and another closing and opening of the little window), I grudgingly handed the woman 1000 baht for a visa. In terms of time, we were wasting it there at the border. In terms of money, it was a waste but it wasn't going to put us in jeopardy of not having enough to travel through the country. In terms of safety, I felt I had pushed the case to the point I felt comfortable pushing it. The cards were definitely in their hands: we, not them, were the ones who needed to get stamped into their country and couldn't leave until we did so. So we obliged, but in the end I did get in a very angry look that indicated to her that "you should be ashamed of yourself!"
First impressions mean a lot, and my first impression of Cambodia was thus one of CORRUPTION and HASSLE. Now, the next step was from getting to the border into the actual city of Koh Kong. After those stark first impressions of the country, could I believe what the taxi drivers (who don't have real taxis, they're just using their cars) are telling us? Is there really not any songtaew or bus from the border to the city? Is 300 baht really as low as they can go for the price? Did all the buses really leave already from the city to go to Phnom Penh? Are we really going to have to either stay in the tiny town of Koh Kong for the remainder of the day until the next morning's bus unless we ride your taxi all the way to Phnom Penh?
I was a bit reluctant to believe the validity of all those claims, but they ended up being as true as the truth could be in those circumstances. If that's going to be the way it has to be today, then so be it. We made the most of the rest of the day: getting advice from the Welch owner of the guesthouse we stayed in; eating our first Khmer meal (luklaek) and getting our first sip at Angkor Beer; sampling the rambutan in the local market; and getting friendly "hello, how do you do's" from the hordes of little children who all seemed to be wearing pajamas.
That was the first taste of the rest of our time in Cambodia, filled with meeting extremely personable people and learning about a country still trying to regenerate its livelihood after its tragically awful holocaust. These will be the stories for the next blog update, so stay tuned.
-Eric
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