During my time in Thailand, I decided, in
my spur of the moment kinda way, that I’d take a couple of days out and head to
Cambodia. This is mainly because I
thought it’d be fairly straightforward. I
have rarely been more wrong.
I managed to catch a private bus from
Bangkok that was headed to the border town of Poipet. And this is where our saga begins…
We join our intrepid, sweaty, and slightly
over enthusiastic traveller on an incredibly hot day, at the side of a dusty
road in the outer suburbs of Bangkok. Can you picture it? Yes? Ok, then: let’s go!
When the bus screeched to a stop at the
roadside and my Thai friend and I were invited on, I realised that it was too
small for the number of occupants. Not
to a scary degree, but certainly nothing that would have eluded a Police stop
and several license points in the UK.
We had 16 passengers on a 12-seat minibus, which was heading on a 4-hour
journey to the east, and had no air conditioning. It was the hottest place I’ve ever been and
never before have I managed to contort myself to fit in such a tiny space.
About two minutes after pulling away into
crazy traffic, I realised that I was half sitting/half standing/fully squished
next to The Incredible Spitting Woman of Bangkok. For the next four looong hours, she cleared
her throat at a quite alarming rate and deposited the contents into a
handkerchief she’d thoughtfully arranged on her lap. Seriously….252km
of hankie chucking. I’ve no earthly
idea what she had in there that needed to come out so bad, or quite so
often.
After finally
arriving in Poipet an age later, I had to work out how to buy a Visa. I managed this by hopping a TukTuk and
paying a visit to the middle of nowhere to speak to a guy who lived in a tin
hut. After a lengthy conversation, of
which I understood very little, I handed over some US Dollars and had my
passport taken. In the midst of a few
minutes of panicking that I’d never see it again and would have to live in
Thailand FOREVER, I got it back. It
came complete with a funny looking bit of paper, which was then glued to an
empty page and thrust back into my grateful little paws. I was
then issued some stern sounding instructions, which I didn’t comprehend any
more than the preceding conversation, and dismissed, with a wave of a hand, to
the direction from where I’d come.
Knackered, and feeling mildly uneasy about
how valid my visa was, I picked up some basic accommodation in the local area
and spent the night at the bar next door. My hosts were fantastic and very friendly and I explained to them about
my trip to Cambodia the following day.
We were warned of the dangers of the town and not to wander too far from
the bar after dark. We didn’t. We were also informed about how fabulous
Angkor Wat was and that made me more desperate to get there.
I spent a fitful night, watching various
insects crawling under the gap beneath the door and realising that the lock
wasn’t particularly secure. I also
made the mistake of opening the curtains to look at the hive of insect activity
that was happening outside my ground floor window. You just can’t unsee something like that and
I slept little, with one beady eye open, swatting away various unseen
creatures. It was a very long
night.
Bright and early the next morning, eager to get away from the new multi legged
friends that had joined me the previous evening (without even offering to pay
their share of the room), we headed to the Cambodian border.
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| Looking as tired as I felt |
After an hour or so of standing around, I was
sent to the front of the queue to be stared at for a little while. My passport was closely inspected and I
probably looked as nervous as I felt.
Surprisingly, I made it through without issue or questioning about where
I got my visa, and stumbled outside to wait for Aiew.
After half an hour, I started to wonder
what could be holding her up. Her queue
was considerably shorter than mine had been and yet there was no sign of
her. After another 30 minutes of me
thinking she’d OBVIOUSLY been marched back to Bangkok and I’d been left,
sitting at the border, on my own, and would have to stay there for the REST OF
TIME, she suddenly appeared. As it
turned out, it was far easier for the dodgy looking British tourist to get through
that it was for the upstanding Thai citizen.
Who knew?
We skipped out into traffic and hailed a
cab to take us to the bus station. Once
at the station, we then haggled like crazy people for an age, before finding a
driver that was willing to take us to the town of Siem Reap for a reasonable
price. We followed him out into the car
park, where he ushered us into the back of a Lada. I hadn’t see one for decades and, having
been the child of a parent that owned one in the 1980’s, I wasn’t sure it would
make the distance. I tried to put my
fears to one side and strapped myself in for the ride.
Ten minutes into the journey and just was
starting to unwind, the taxi started swerving across the road and I was cruelly
jolted out of my sleep stupor. The
driver grinned and apologized to us, saying he was just avoiding a snake. I laughed.
‘I’m sorry, for a moment there I thought you said you were avoiding a
snake!. Clearly, I misheard you!’. Not
so much. In the two and a half hour
journey, we had to avoid many more. And he was right…they were definitely snakes.
I sat, meerkat like in the back of the car,
panicking every time we stopped in traffic, certain that a snake would take the
opportunity to slither up the exhaust pipe at any given moment and choke the
life out of me. I was SO CLOSE to Angkor Wat that I sent out
a quick telepathic message pleading with the Snake King (that’s definitely a
thing) that I wouldn’t mind quite so much if his minions tried to kill me on the way home, just as long as I could
see the Temple first.
I’m thrilled to report that we made it Siem
Reap in one unbitten piece. Siem Reap
is a province in the Northwest of Cambodia and is a well-established tourist
area. It has a wide range of quality
accommodation and is a lovely area to spend some time. It largely owes its success to its proximity
to Angkor Wat, which is Cambodia’s most visited attraction.
We thanked and paid our driver, avoided the masses of stray dogs that were
hanging around the local shops, and headed out, on foot, to cross the moat that
surrounds the entrance to the Temple. We had travelled more than 400km, spent a
total of 6.5 hours in buses and taxis, waited almost 3 hours on visas and
borders crossings, but we finally made it!
And it was worth every single minute.
Angkor Wat is the largest religious temple
on earth, so this might give you a sense of how long it takes to really
appreciate it on your visit. It is
also, rightly, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, given its age, is in
spectacular condition.
Once purchasing a ticket for Angkor Wat,
you are free to wander the site to your heart’s content. As well as the famous temple, even the lesser-known
areas are to such a high standard that it will blow your tiny mind. What I didn’t realise before visiting was
that AW is not the only temple on the site.
Angkor Thom is also there. This
isn’t anywhere near as famous (or as big), but is equally breathtaking.
Cover yourself in sun cream, wear (very)
sensible shoes, try not to think about snakes, and spend as much time in the
area as you can. You won’t be
disappointed. Also, and I can’t state
this enough, absolutely research your travel BEFORE you go.
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| I totally checked this for snakes before sitting down... |
Glorious Angkor Thom
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