In Cambodia!

Written: October 5th '09

Yesterday I arrived in Cambodia and it has already been such an adventure. Ive always found crossing boarders so fascinating; it is amazing to me that every time you cross that invisible line the differences are very apparent. The moment we crossed into Cambodia everything changed; landscape, cost, people, culture, it was all suddenly so different and so captivating.

Crossing the border itself was extremely frustrating. We were warned in advance that the customs officers and police are very corrupt but that was an understatement. Leaving Trat we took a mini bus for a couple hours down a small, rough, dirt road to Koh Kong, the moment our bus stopped we were surrounded by people wanting to sell us this or take us there. The attention, begging, and aggressiveness was quite overwhelming, especially once we stepped into Cambodia. Indeed the customs officers were difficult to deal with. You walk up to this old stucco building and knock on a glass sliding window, I had to double take a few times to make sure we were indeed at customs about to talk to the professionals who regulate who comes and goes out of the country. Our customs officer was a miserable old lady who said nothing to us, not one question regarding why we were coming, how long we would stay, or what kind of work we would be doing, instead she held out her hand and said fifty dollars each. Right away we said no way cause we knew the price was supposed to be twenty five so she asked us to wait while she closed the window to “think” about our counter offer. This went back and forth for almost an hour where we finally convinced her that thirty each would be fair (ten bucks for her pocket). Cambodia is still poorer than both Mongolia and El Salvador and a police officer only makes thirty five US dollars a month so to them five dollars is huge and when they are blatantly talking about how much they get to take home for themselves and whether or not that is worth them letting you in the country then it gets quite frustrating. Needless to say we managed to find our way into Cambodia, a few dollars short, a little down on patients, but very high on excitement.

Cambodia was pouring rain when we arrived and since Koh Kong was twenty kilometers away, we hoped on a couple motorcycles and had a crazy ride into the city. Between the rain, the roads, the mud, the driver, and my big ass bag I had no clue if we would actually make it in to town. I was pleasantly surprised when we did and our driver dropped us off at a really nice, cheap (key word) guest house that had a pool! Koh Kong is supposed to have one of the nicest waterfalls around and I was so excited to have a pool I stayed in all night and all day so I could swim the whole time; you couldn’t drag me out of there, it was just what I needed.

Today we took a bus to Phnom Penh. I really do hate transportation around here. The roads were so bad (the potholes are insane) that we were maxing out at 30 km/h for most the trip. Again, a drive that would have taken a couple hours at home was another dreadfully long day in a clammy bus with blaring loud Cambodian Karaoke music. We finally arrived around dinner and have spent the night trying to get comfortable and learning a bit about the city. Adjusting here could prove to be a bit more difficult than I was hoping but fingers crossed it’s not too bad. I guess the next few days will be spent looking for places to live and trying to find a job…wish me luck.