Well I just had possibly the shittiest travel days ever. So we catch a train at 555 am to go from Bangkok to Cambodia. The only good part was that this train was only 1.50 US for a 6 hour trip. Well the reason it was that cheap is because it was a sit down train and it was PACKED. So that really wasn't to bad, cause it was cheap.
We get to the border, spend about an hour getting a visa and so forth. And right as we are crossing, one of our friends runs into some man claiming he is with the "Cambodian Government". Well he had a pass and he was nice, i was still very weary. He puts us onto a bus, helps us get money out of the atm(which only comes in US dollars cause there currency is so fucked) then he takes us to an exchange place "sponsored by the government" and we exchange our money. "Exchange is 1 US to 3200 Cambodian Rael." He says. We get to the bus depot cause you have to take a 4 hour bus ride into town. It is at this point we are looking at the bus charge and something just isn't adding up. They tell us it is 60 per cab. BUT the Rael rate is more. OK. So we debate going else where to catch a cab. The guy tells us that we have to order a cab here and that there is an "inspection point" only these cabs can go through. So we pay the 60 and get in the cab.
Like i said, ANOTHER 4 hour ride into town. And the best part is that the road isn't paved. It's fucking dirt. So on top of having just gotten off of a 6 hour upright train ride, we are now slamming up and down in a cab across a dirt road.
We get to the border, spend about an hour getting a visa and so forth. And right as we are crossing, one of our friends runs into some man claiming he is with the "Cambodian Government". Well he had a pass and he was nice, i was still very weary. He puts us onto a bus, helps us get money out of the atm(which only comes in US dollars cause there currency is so fucked) then he takes us to an exchange place "sponsored by the government" and we exchange our money. "Exchange is 1 US to 3200 Cambodian Rael." He says. We get to the bus depot cause you have to take a 4 hour bus ride into town. It is at this point we are looking at the bus charge and something just isn't adding up. They tell us it is 60 per cab. BUT the Rael rate is more. OK. So we debate going else where to catch a cab. The guy tells us that we have to order a cab here and that there is an "inspection point" only these cabs can go through. So we pay the 60 and get in the cab.
Like i said, ANOTHER 4 hour ride into town. And the best part is that the road isn't paved. It's fucking dirt. So on top of having just gotten off of a 6 hour upright train ride, we are now slamming up and down in a cab across a dirt road.
And every time we passed a bridge being build, it just irritated us even more. You try sitting in a car bouncing up and down and passing partially built bridges along the way.
Finally we get into town and the cab will only go to the city limit. Great, another problem. We'll the cab just happens to drop us off at a tut-tut stall. "Oh the tut-tut is free". Um, alright. We take the tut-tut into town to our hotel. And when we get there we are asked by the driver "You want to try this hotel right? You want us to drive you around to all the sights right? You want to try this restaurant?" NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Guess what, the tut-tut was only free if we used them for other reasons.We told them to FUCK OFF, seriously to fuck off perhaps the first time in my life i have ever done that and it felt good, that we were told it was free. And the guy left.
To follow up on the story. Guess what we got scammed.
Rael exchange rate is 4200 to 1 US.
Normal cab rides into the city are around 8 US dollars.
And, there was never a check point.
That's it, as you can imagine, i am so pissed off i got scammed. Total it cost me to get into downtown was about 50 bucks. When it should have been 8. SO FUCKING PISSED.
So anyways my guard is up, so far this country has proven to be WAAAAAAAAAAAAy sketchy. Its weird, cause we aren't but 200 miles from Thailand were everyone is so wonderful and nice. The difference i think is that Thailand knows tourism. It is there number one way of making money. So they thrive in it. Things are cheap, there is a good mix of tourism vs people assisting the tourist.
In Cambodia, fewer people come as tourist. Therefore, there are like 20 scams to every genuine good deal. You walk down the streets and 50 people haggle you for money in one form or another. As an outsider looking in, it really is just sad.
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