Planning for survival

Hi again,

For all you Swedish guys out there, especially you who have partied in Stockholm. Imagine this situation:

You have had a few beers and enter the hottest club in town. Everyone has prebooked tables with a bottle of scotch and are having a good time. Going in you share some glances with some pretty chick in there. She glances back…and her boyfriend comes up to you. Now imagine, that he invites you to their table and starts pouring up one drink after another to you and your friend talking about the advantages of Swedish girls…

No.

That just would never happen. That was the way Bangkok greeted us though. We stayed at Khao San road which is some backpacker paradise in Bangkok with a street full of restaurant, bars and cheap hostels. As mentioned, we went out, had an awesome green curry (oh, that Thai-food!!) and found a bunch of Thai guys and girls that we partied with. After the club closed we took a drive to a nearby restaurant. Probably my second most stupid thing I have ever done (the driver could barely speak and I am not talking lack of language skills here, they normally increase with alcohol). A mental picture here again: you finish off clubbing in Stockholm, you are hungry, you drive to a nearby restaurant, you order: A. Hamburger B. Kebab C. Chicken feet.

After sucking those chicken toes dry we kept on, for some particular reason it gets a little bit blurry here but went on to a couple of bars and then cafes. When the sun had been up a few hours and the vendors started putting up their stands we decided to close up and end this incredible night out in Bangkok.

Short story of what happened after that. Woke up, fell asleep, woke up, drank water, ordered bus tickets to Cambodia, fell asleep. Went to Thai-boxing (cool, however not awesome) and finally the day after we went to Cambodia, mostly to see Angkor. That’s when we experienced the Bus Scam. Gunilla and Yvonne should probably stop reading now.

The Bus Scam is clearly described in the Guide (Lonely Planet) and it goes something like this. You buy a really cheap ticket in Bangkok to Siem Reap. The bus is supposed to leave at 8 and arrive at 18. The guide on the bus is really nice and helpful and give you lots of good advices. You stop at the border, they handle the Visas and advice you to cash out before coming to Cambodia because of the lack of ATMs there. You stop by at a place to exchange money and another place to have lunch. Once onm the bus again you get the news that the roads are bumpy because of the rainy season so you will probably be late, meaning you have to stop at another restaurant and guesthouse, all chosen by the bus company. This way they can get commission at the lunch restaurant, the visa, the exchange of money, the dinner restaurant and finally the guesthouse plus you arrive to late.

We figured out that this was about to happen somewhere in the Cambodian rural areas, i.e. after the border but before the dinner restaurant and knowing that you were getting F’d in the A it was of course a frustrating situation. We started passing around the guide to inform our fellow passengers and made up a plan. So when stopping at a larger village around 17.30 we told the driver that we need to get off. Hopped off and took our bags…oh…you should have seen their faces! Beatiful!! So, eight of us jumped off in a small Cambodian town in the middle of nowhere.

We were completely stared out, it was not every day that eight white guys with heavy back packs stopped in their little town. We instantly started looking for taxis/buses/drivers/bicycles/horses…anything that could take us the last 100 km to Siem Reap. It did not take us too much time to figure out that this was not so easy, no one spoke english and the few ones with pickups did not want to drive 3 hours in the wrong direction. Finally we found a guy though, offering him about 2000 Baht (400 SEK or $60) which is about three months salary. He agreed but in the very last minute some other guys showed up, we tried to bargain a better price using them but rapidly felt that the other guys were no nice guys to drive us. We agreed to the higher price with the nicer guy and drove away, only to be stopped by the other gang while leaving the city.

A big argument started between them and suddenly “our” guy changed his mind and told us to go with them. Appearantly afraid of the other gang and their creepy looking leader named Wan. He drove a brand new 4WD pickup and had some nice bling-bling on his fingers (in an area where they probably does not only grow rice so to speak). Now, it started getting dark as well and we really did not feel like going into the rural areas with the other guys but it was a dead-lock. Instead we tried to walk to a hotel but was not left a meter out of sight of Wan who instead tried to help us to the right hotel. We agreed on going to one he chose for us, knowing that he would know exactly where we stayed and knowing that we would not be able to leave the hotel without hm knowing of it. Four of the group left to look for other hotels only to find that they were “full” and surprise, surprise, who had gotten there before them? Wan…

So we all checked in to the same hotel, had some crackers and beer for dinner and started planning how to get to Siam Reap safe and sound. All ideas we came up with ended up with that we probably would have to trust that Wan-guy hoping that the easy money for driving us there would outprofit the risk of…doing something bad to us. It would be so easy just drive to some shady place, however.

Our best plan was to get up really early to at least look for alternatives around the city at daylight. At sunrise we got up, went down in the lobby, only to find…Wan. (Have you seen the movie U-turn?)

This is however where the story ends, to our benefit. Wan had done what every smart guy would have done after receiving 3 monthly salaries, plus tips and commission for a hotel. I.e. partying all night. He handed over the driving to some 50 year old guy who took us safe and sound to Siem Reap (a pretty nice drive I have to say).

Bonded by this experience, Oskar and I together with the Dutch, Germans and Austrians we drove with, got a hotel to see the ruins of Angkor.

About this truly amazing (and safe) experience I will write about next time.

Ciao

Christoffer