Leaving Laos

At 4:30am Nick and I head for the truckstop. Goodbye Ramsey, So, Sutlaw, students and school.

Early dawn; in the truck headed for Pakse.

Crossing the Laos Cambodian border is a bit of a hassle. There are lots of semi-official ‘corruption’ booths that collect a lot of extra money from you on top of the visa you have to pay to get into Cambodia. A few tourists are quite pissed off at this, and a couple says they’ll never be back in Laos again. In total each of us was taken for an extra $8 on top of the $23 Cambodian Visa.

On the 4 hour minibus ride I get the entire back seat to myself and hang up my damp clothes and runners in the hopes that they won’t go moldy.

The ticket (~$50) we bought in Pakse is supposed to cover land transport to the border of Laos and Cambodia, and then to Siem Reap which is where Nick and I will stay while visiting the Temples of Angkor. When we cross the border we are quickly shoved onto a 35 seater bus. As the bus begins to move away I notice that there aren’t enough seats for everyone. That means that I and another passenger (this young Israeli guy) have to either stand or sit in the aisle along with our bags for the next four hours. During this time I vary between standing, sitting, lying down (and falling a sleep sometimes), and finally with an hour left to go a couple of people offer me and my aisle buddy their seats.

The natives (the tourists on the bus) get restless as we are being shovelled a whole bunch of misinformation by the Cambodian operator of the bus. At some point he says only an hour more of riding, then two hours pass, then he offers us deals for quicker land transport if we each decide to pay an extra $5. Then we completely pass by the drop-off point where half of the passengers are supposed to stay for the night. The bus keeps on going for another hour. The tourists are getting very agitated and we feel like we’re being led to slaughter. Then the bus stops in the evening and we’re told to get off if we want to go to Siem Reap and that there’s another bus that will take us. Half of the passengers get off (Nick and I included) and I have no idea what happened to the rest of the passengers that stayed on the bus and in what Cambodian meat dish they may have ended up in.

The bus gets into Siem Reap at 2am in the morning and the bus operator says that all the hotels are closed at this time of night except for one that he knows. We are tired, but Nick and I don’t believe him so we take a tuk tuk and try to find our own accommodations. Almost all hotels turn out to be open. The tuk tuk takes us to a few Lonely Planet recommended ones but none work out for one reason or another. Then the tuk tuk takes us to one hotel of his choice. It only has one room and Nick takes a look but doesn’t find it clean enough. We are about to leave when the manager rushes out and says that there may be another room available. After a couple of minutes he asks Nick to take a look. Nick gives the okay and we pay for the room and we begin unpack all our stuff. During this time I notice that there is no toilet paper or towels, the garbage can has not been emptied and the beds have blankets but no sheets under them. I tell Nick that we just paid full price ($16USD) for a used and uncleaned room. We’re pissed and Nick and I decide to pack up and leave. Nick goes to get our money back but the manager gives this story about how the owner has already taken the money for the night. He says that it was our responsibility to look carefully at the room before accepting it and in essence we agreed to an uncleaned room at full price. Nick is not very happy with his explanation. Nick tells him he will be back tomorrow to collect the money from the owner and we will not stay the night.

As we leave we pass by the same tuk tuk guy and tell him that we won’t be needing his services anymore since he took us to a scambag hotel. He apologizes and said that he would take us around Siem Reap for free until we find a hotel we like. We get in the tuk tuk. I am very tired and in a bad mood. After taking us to several unsuitable places, we settle for a room in the Sydney hotel with two twin beds with air con, minifridge and private bath for $15. It’s 4am before we sleep. It’s been almost exactly 24 hours of non-stop land transport – blech.

I’m pooped, I don’t think we’ll be doing any temples tomorrow.