Often By Land: May 2011

Cambodia is one of the world's most corrupt countries--according to Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, it ranked 154 out of 178 nations. This Forbes article from 2007 quotes a TI official explaining, "In Cambodia, where two-thirds of the population earns less than $2 a month and one-third earns less than $1, a "substantial portion" of the $500 million to $600 million in donor aid each year is "lost to unofficial fees, an informal system of patronage, illicit 'facilitation' payments by businesses and individuals."

And from my very first interaction with the country, when I had to grease the palms of immigration officers, I could see how that would be true.

Ralph and I took the overland route from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia, a few days ago and many guidebooks and websites scared us a little bit in advance... the gist of it was, the trip was going to be an almost-hellish, "epic journey" with people trying to scam us the entire way, so we had to be on our guard.

The five hour bus ride to the border was fine, if not a little hot from lack of real air conditioning. We then had to take a tuk-tuk a few kilometers from the bus station to the actual Aranyaprathet/Poipet border crossing, and the guy tried to drop us off at a fake visa office, but we were aware of this particular strategy and got out of there quickly (that was on the Thai side, so can't count against Cambodia). We had no other problems leaving Thailand and walking over to the Cambodian visa-on-arrival office, but once we got there we had to dodge two attempts at officials overcharging us.

Feeling smug with victory over the obstacle course that is Thai/Cambodian immigration, we sat down to wait for the Cambodian visas to be glued into our passports. But just a few minutes later a uniformed officer came over, handed me my passport back and calmly said "no room, go back to Thailand." Whaaaaaaa? (Not to sound like a huge asshole, but...) My passport had no more official room for a full page visa! It only had two pages at the back that aren't slugged with "Visas" at the top.

It was at the end of the day, the crossing was closing in two hours and a sweaty five hour bus ride back to Bangkok to wait for extra pages to be sewn into my passport sounded like not the most fun thing in the world. My mind was racing around trying to think what tactic would work best on this guy... pity me? bribe him? claim ignorance? And how do you even offer a bribe? I didn't have to come up with the answer on my own... seeing our faces he said "Listen, I help you, you help me." OK! He suggested a "fine" of $10. I'll take it!

A two hour taxi ride later, we arrived in Siem Reap, the gateway town to the Angkor temples, the world's largest religious complex and former capital of the Khmer empire. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the major reasons we chose to come to Southeast Asia. (It is also where Angelina Jolie filmed Tomb Raider and picked up her son Maddox.) I originally thought it was just the main temple, Angkor Wat, but as I researched for our trip, found it was way more than just one building, it contains multiple cities... here is a brief description from UNESCO's website:

Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia. Stretching over some 400 km2, including forested area, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. They include the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations.

We spent two days visiting the temples and I think probably only covered about half the site... every king and empire over hundreds of years wanted to leave their mark! While the scene is hard to describe, two things I did want to note are: 1) when the Khmer Rouge (responsible for the Cambodian genocide) were in control in the 1970's they destroyed nearly two-thirds of the country's temples, but the Angkor temples survived because they were a national symbol that represented the power countrymen working collectively together could accomplish, and 2) the state religion transitioned from Hinduism to Buddhism and back multiple times throughout the centuries, and the intricate carvings and statues around the Angkor complex from both religions have survive to this day... a type of religious sharing/getting-along story I had never heard before.

Overall, Angkor was totally incredible and surpassed all expectations... we were even blessed by two Buddhist monks along the way! Pictures are pasted below to give a better description.

We've been waylaid in Siem Reap for two days longer than expected due to some foodborne illness. We're in recovery, though, and will be heading to Hanoi tomorrow by plane to check out the city as well as our next UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ha Long Bay.