I woke up at 5AM, nearly missed the bus to the border a little after 6AM. Finally I got off the bus at the dirty border, walked across after some paperwork. It is the first time I’ve had to walk across a country border instead of flying over or taking a train or boat.
Inside Cambodia, I went to the Visa office and filled out more paperwork, gave away a passport sized photo, and paid $20 in my saved US Dollars. If you pay in Thai Baht, it is $36.
I hate to do it, but I had to take some kind of motorcycle taxi since the next town was pretty far away. I had to pay 3x the normal price, but at least it wasn’t 10x. There was a toll bridge we had to go over too and he wanted me to pay for that too. I got off the motorcycle and told him to pay the toll or I’m walking the rest of the way. That got him back in line.
By this time it was after 8AM and the ferry to Shianoukville was supposed to leave at 8. I was surprised to be the very last person to board the boat at nearly 8:20AM. The $20 ferry was more relaxing since I didn’t have to argue over a price for a slow bus. The boat is actually faster because there are four rivers without bridges yet, so the vehicles have to go on ferries.
After 4 hours, I made it to the beach town of Sihanoukville. I was thinking oh no, I have to do another kind of taxi to get near any hotels or guesthouses now. I did my research and I do have some kind of idea what the correct price is. A motorcycle taxi first quotes me 10x the going rate. A couple other people are trying to get a taxi too and offer me to go with them. But I got the motorcycle taxi driver down pretty low after going between both of them. We noticed the car taxi the other guys took and I wanted to go to the same place, so I said follow the car. But then the motorcycle guy seemed to be going slow, almost losing the car on purpose. So he ended up not taking me where I wanted to go, but instead to his preferred guesthouse a lot farther away. So then the price I got quoted was invalidated, we got there and he teamed up with some other Cambodian guys to get me to pay a higher price. I was also concerned about change since the smallest money I had was a $20 bill. The driver was lying about the distance traveled, saying how Cambodia is now a rich country (what, since last week?), how he won’t lie to me. Finally we agreed on a price and of course the change he gave me was incorrect, because he was trying to rip me off again and again. So I finally got to pay close the agreed price.
I tried to find a place to stay and ended up finding “shack” accommodation for $2/night. So I decided I’d try my world record lowest price for paying for a room so far. I saw there was electricity, so I thought good enough. Not the cleanest place, but it was right next to the beach.
Cambodia is the poorest country I have visited so far. It is possibly the most dangerous too. There’s land mines, malaria, and robbery. And right now I’m alone so I’m really on guard.
Another interesting thing about Cambodia is that US Dollars is pretty much the official currency. Change under $1 is the Cambodian Riel. Also everyone seems to speak English well so far.