Don't Fear the Siem Reaper

At 5:55am, March 11, I boarded the train from Bangkok to the border town of Aranyaprathet where I would cross into Cambodia. I had read online to watch out for scams at the border.  From the train station, tuk-tuk drivers will take you to a building where you can pay a hefty sum of money to fill out your visa application.  Or you can do what I did, and what you should do, is if they drop you off at this building, avoid it altogether and walk to the actual border and exit Thai immigration. Once you've gone through Thai immigration, it is then that you pay $20 for your Cambodian visa at the official Cambodian office.

I found myself going through customs with two Australians, a man and a woman in their forties. They were very friendly and together we figured out going through the procedures together. After crossing into the Cambodian border town of Poipet, I ended up in a minibus with them and six other foreign travelers. I really liked everyone in the minibus, but man did some of them complain. When we had to wait about 15 minutes for the minibus to come, when it ended up being around $2 more than we were promised to take the minibus, when the air conditioning didn't work, complain, complain, complain. I would find this to be a reoccurring theme in my travels where I would meet some really cool foreign travelers and then would find myself grow increasingly more irritated by as they complained about every little thing. At one point the Australian lady expressed her dislike of Cambodians, "the whole lot of them." We had barely been in Cambodia an hour and had only dealt with immigration officials, ticket sellers, and bus drivers, that's hardly a representation of an entire country's populace.

Besides that though, the minibus ride was fine and I arrived in Siem Reap in mostly good spirits. I stayed at the Garden Village Hostel where I got a single room in a bamboo hut for $3 a night. Not a bad deal. The next day I hired a tuk-tuk driver to visit some temples. Since I'd been to Siem Reap before I had seen Angkor Wat and all the main temples. So I tried to see some less visited temples. I visited Banteay Samre and a few other temples and realized I had seen them all before. Oh well. I spent the rest of the day hanging around Siem Reap eating food and getting fish foot massages (where you put your feet in a tank of water and fish eat the dead skin off it).

For me, being in Siem Reap and visiting the temples elicited the same feeling I experience when I watch an engaging film in a room full of people having loud conversations or talking on cell phones. Lots of charm surrounded by lots of noise. It's a nice town infested with tourists.

Tourists aren't necessarily bad though. I did meet some cool people. That night I hung out with a Cambodian staff member of the hostel and we played a game of pool against two German travelers. I later ended up having some beers with them and two other Swedish travelers. They had been in Siem Reap for a while and had some interesting insights. During our game of pool one of the German guys leaned next to me and told me to pay attention to how the Cambodian staff members played pool. They were incredible players but would always perform badly at the end of the game because it would be rude to beat guests. We all ended up going out to Pub Street later in the night, the main hub of Siem Reap nightlife, but by that time I was pretty tired and I had to catch a bus early the next morning for Pnomh Penh so I didn't stay out too late. Siem Reap had been good but I was looking forward to getting to Pnhomh Penh where I would meet my friend and fellow KBC bandmate Nate Klink and hopefully stray some from the tourists spots.

The Farang Way

When I arrived in Bangkok during the weekend of elections therefore so establishments weren't serving alcohol. Little drinking occurred in those first couple of days but there was lots of city exploration. Haven and I took a ferry down the river and walked around back-alleyways. One night we even ended up hanging out with some Vietnamese people who had been living in Thailand for awhile. It was a funny interaction with Haven speaking broken Thai and me trying to remember Vietnamese.

On Tuesday we caught a minibus to the coastal city of Sri Racha and from there took a ferry to the island of Koh Si Chang. Ko Si Chang is a small, quiet, and beautiful island. There's no nightlife to speak of but that was fine with me. The landscape is incredible, the people are very friendly, and there are few farangs (foreigners). Haven and I spent most of our time eating awesome food and riding on motorbikes shooting videos (Haven was also a film major).

Haven's former English teaching partner/roommate and fellow Goshenite, Julian works at a resort on the island along with his girlfriend Vaughn. Julian was gone most of the time we were there but he returned on our last day on the island. He showed us around the resort where he works. It's an amazing secluded place with bungalows, zip-lines, cave exploration, and cliff jumping. And it's nearly empty. We saw very few guests there which was honestly nice for me but probably bad for business. Part of Julian and Vaughn's work at the resort is to help promotion and marketing so maybe soon it will be less vacant.

The only sore spot about the island is that it's surrounded by what appears to be one hundred or more huge cargo ships. It gives the island a somewhat erie feeling. It's tropical paradise engulfed by monstrous industrial machines. At night when the ships' lights are on it seems like the island is in a constant threat of siege.

Haven and I took a bus back to Bangkok. My last night in Bangkok was spent on Khaosan Road, known as the "backpacker ghetto". The street is filled with cheap accommodations and lots of pubs. I wanted to experience it just once because it seemed like a backpacker hub I should at least know about.  It's basically a bunch of street vendors, some young, hip Thai people, some beggars, and a butt-load of drunk farangs running into each other and creating sometimes interesting and sometimes painful (and many times both) interactions.  I did talk to a lot of cool people that night but I was happy when I finally escaped the madness.

This next morning I left Bangkok for Cambodia via train. It was great hanging out with Haven in Thailand. I'll be seeing him again in little over a week when we embark on a motorbike trip in Northern Vietnam.

Bangkok, Passed Midnight or My First Travel Mistake

After 27 hours of planes and airports I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand around 11:30pm, about an hour later than was originally scheduled.  I had made plans to meet my friend Haven who had just finished a school term teaching English. My original plan was to take the Skytrain from the airpot downtown where I would meet Haven. I had told him I would meet him around midnight, however by the time I had made it through customs and gotten my luggage it was around 12:30. The Skytrain closes at midnight so I needed to take a taxi into the city.

I went to a pay-phone and tried calling Haven. However, after talking with some Thai officials it soon became apparent that he had mistakenly left out a digit in the phone number he gave me. Luckily, I was able to access the internet in the baggage claim and left him a Facebook message saying I was going to catch a taxi to the train station, hoping to God he would check the internet this late at night.

I went outside the airport and was approached by a man asking where I was going. I told him the "Central Station." He said, "Ok, I know," and helped put my luggage in the back of his car... which was not marked as a taxi. Never take an unmarked taxi car. You would think that after living in Southeast Asia for one year I would know this, but people do stupid things when they're flustered. (Travel Tip #1: If you find yourself in my position in Bangkok, take a metered taxi. A metered taxi should cost around 250-400 baht or around $10 give or take.) Once this car had driven me about 15 minutes away from the airport it stopped in a remote area where apparently the taxi "office" was and where my driver told me the price of the trip. It was $100 to take me into Bangkok.

I told him absolutely not, I was not going to pay him $100. I didn't even have that much money on me. However, since they had driven me to the middle of nowhere I couldn't just get out and call another cab. I ended up paying him that amount of U.S. currency I did have on me, $40.

So which train station did I want to go to? The "Central Station." The driver told me there are two train stations in Bangkok. Did I know the name? I did not. All I knew is that it was the station where the Skytrain went to.  The driver said, "OK," not too assuredly.

It was around this time that I began thinking I had really screwed this trip up.  For some reason I had thought I could just go to Thailand and things would work out. For one, I didn't even know if Haven had gotten my Facebook message or if he thought I had gotten a hotel and therefore went back home to bed. It was around 1:30am, one and a half hours after the time I said I would meet him. Two: I didn't even know if I was going to the right station. Three: I was paying way much money way too soon, at this rate could I make it two months in SE Asia? I kept trying to think of a Plan B. Were hotels even open now? I had no idea. I knew nothing about Bangkok. I had not planned ahead to say the least. (Travel Tip #2: Buy a book about the place where you are traveling to, it is always worth it.) Worst case scenario I would have to sleep on the streets in Bangkok.

The drive from the airport into Bangkok takes around 45 min to an hour. Especially at night it was difficult to tell how far into the city I was. At one point we stopped at a red light and looked over and saw a red-head with earbuds in looking out into the traffic. I frantically rolled down the window and yelled out "Haven!" I opened the car door and Haven saw me. I can't remember the last time I've been more overjoyed and relieved to see a familiar face.  The taxi pulled to the side and we got my luggage out. Haven had decided to go to an internet cafe after waiting for me at the train station.  It was then he saw my Facebook message and came back, catching me just in time.

My trip could only get better from there.

New Name, New Places, and Some Familiar Faces

From August 21, 2010 to July 19, 2011, I lived in Hanoi, Vietnam. It was an incredible year to say the least, one I will remember for the rest of my life. Of course I wasn't in Hanoi the whole time; I would occasionally travel to nearby cities and I also made trips to Cambodia and China. However, my experience, while incredibly immersive, was also primarily static. Most of the time I was grateful for this because I was gaining an understanding of the city of Hanoi and the people who live there that I wouldn't have if I had been a backpacker passing through. But there were definitely times that I craved to do some more extensive traveling.

Ever since leaving Southeast Asia I've been itching to go back.  After saving up extensively while living on a shoestring budget, I've finally pulled together the means to return and travel. In March and April I will be backpacking through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. I'm incredibly excited. I will documenting my travels through pictures, videos, and of course, this blog.

You may recall that this blog was once called "Life in the Year of the Tiger and Cat" (among other things). Since I'm not going to just continue tacking on zodiac animals ("Life of the Year of the Tiger and Cat and Snake") I've changed the name to "The Disoriented Outlander." Please let me know if you think of a better name. My travels start March 1. Keep an eye out for blog posts!

Nathan Morrow