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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 … <\/p>\n