We all need to get away sometimes (a.k.a. what I did on my vacation)

Photos from this trip can be found on my Flickr photostream

Sometime in the midst of my second Kazakhstan winter I decided that I needed to thaw my bones for a few weeks in Thailand. Actually, the seed for this journey was planted the summer before when I talked to several other Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) from Kazakhstan who had made, and loved, the journey. It was with this that my friend and fellow PCV, Drew, decided that we were going to Thailand, too. And for good measure we’d throw in a little time in Cambodia as well.

After weeks of planning and paperwork we were finally ready to take our trip. Just after celebrating Nauryz, the Kazakh new year, at my site I got on a train to Almaty. Funny thing, we got snow the night before I left. Thailand was looking like a great idea. I had a bit of work to do in Almaty before I left, but it was over soon enough and Drew and I were soon on an Air Astana flight bound for Bangkok.

We arrived in the afternoon in Bangkok. Before leaving the airport, we booked one-way tickets the next day to Trat, the jumping off point for Koh Chang, our beach destination. There were lots of police and soldiers around the airport. We believed it was mostly in case the Red Shirts decided to do anything crazy. We had no troubles getting to our hotel, the Watana Mansion, and not long after dropping our bags we went out to explore the city a bit. We grabbed dinner at a street market. I’m not exactly sure what mine was, perhaps a variant of Tom Yong, but it was incredible. The next morning it was back to the airport and off to Trat.

Trat seemed like a nice place, at least the little we saw of it on our way to the ferry that took us to Koh Chang. All the guidebooks and online travel advice told us not to book a taxi from the airport to Koh Chang, but as it seemed like we didn’t really have any other options that’s exactly what we did. No worries. Worked out just fine. Maybe a bit pricey, but since we never saw any other taxi stands the whole time, I guess it wasn’t so bad.

After taking the ferry to Koh Chang, we went all the way to the end of the island to Bang Bao fishing village. We stayed there in a small bungalow for 3 nights with no AC (or aircon, as the locals call it) and no beach. Cheap, no-frills. Hey, we’re PCVs. We can hack it. First day in Bang Bao we went fishing. This was the one big thing Drew wanted to do on the trip. We got a decent deal. For a few hundred baht per person more than a standard fishing excursion we got to charter our own boat. We did fishing and snorkeling, too. I didn’t really do so great (caught a snake and 3 fish – only one fish was edible), but Drew and our guide, Tiger, caught plenty. Around noon Tiger broke out the kitchen and fried up our fish for lunch. It was incredible! That afternoon we went snorkeling off the beach of a nearby island. Not too bad. Downside of the trip was that we both got nasty sunburns.

The next few days we took taxis (pickups with benches in the back) to other spots on the island and visited some of the other beaches. The last night we went to a different hotel closer to Lonely Beach and stayed there. It was incredible. We were located on a stone beach, but we walked up to Lonely Beach and its great sand earlier in the day and hid in the shade to keep from aggravating our burns.

In both Bang Bao and Lonely Beach we had restaurants that we were regulars at. Bang Bao our spot was a seafood joint on the pier that served, among other amazing dishes, the best Pad Thai I had the entire trip. In Lonely Beach we frequented Sawatdee Restaurant. One of the owners was Marco, an Italian who lived and worked on the island. In addition to the restaurant he also worked as a divemaster for a nearby dive shop. And, yes, I was jealous of that life! Marco made some great Italian food and really took good care of us. Just hearing him talk about the food made me hungry. And his Thai girlfriend, the other owner of the restaurant, had a great Thai menu. She told me that the chef made a great Tom Yong Goong and I went for it. She asked if I wanted it spicy and I said yes. Incredible.

The next morning we took a mini bus out of Koh Chang and towards Cambodia. It took forever to get to Siem Reap and we got caught in the typical visa scam these outfits run (visa is overpriced and they’re in no hurry to get you there. We spent 3 hours at lunch at the travel agent’s office/restaurant). Luckily, though, the deal on the transportation was much better than we probably could have gotten otherwise, all delays considered, and it more than made up for the overpriced visas. We traveled with one person all the way to Cambodia. A lady named Franka who is a Swiss banker. Actually, she’s German and Venezuelan, U.S.-educated and now works for a bank in Zurich. Her father was a diplomat, and since I’m hoping to head down that road it was interesting to hear her stories.

Crossing the border was an adventure. Some guy tried to pick Drew’s pocket before we even hit customs in Thailand. In Cambodia, the border city was even worse than the worst descriptions of it I’d read online. Needless to say, we were feeling quite skittish by the time we got dropped at a random tuk tuk stand in Siem Reap.

Our tuk tuk “guide” immediately recommended we go to a different guesthouse than the one we’d made our reservations with. Mind you, this was yet another of the many scams we’d encountered throughout the course of the day and I was over it. I knew the guy was feeding me a line, so I fed him one back. It was a pretty good one because even Drew was convinced I’d pre-paid for our multi-day reservation that we just couldn’t get out of. I lied to the guy. Lied like a dog. And with a Soviet face that Lenin himself would have been proud of. The guesthouse was amazing, so I’m glad we didn’t take our new buddy up on his offer. But our new buddy also wanted to take us to the temples at Angkor Wat the next day. Drew told him we’d go at 9, but after talking to a few people at the hotel we changed our plans and decided to go with another driver and catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

The next morning at 5:30 we jumped out of bed ready for our morning adventure. OK, in reality it was more like we oozed out of bed, got ready and moved downstairs and outside to meet our guide with the enthusiasm of a glacier galloping to the sea. Our guide, Mr. Rith, was ready to go and soon we were tuk-tuking our way to the temples. Our first stop was the ticket office to drop some serious cash on a one day park permit. It was only $20, but we were paying with the local currency so it was the equivalent of $20 plus a bit of a surcharge for using the local currency. Sidebar – I’ve never before been to a country whose own currency was so hard to use! Everyone wanted dollars. Use riel and pay a surcharge. Use riel and get lots of grumbling from whoever you’re buying from…then get change in dollars. The full folly of the riel would be fully realized later on.

After scraping together our entrance fees – it was a feat because we had mostly big bills and at 5:30 they didn’t have any change which is annoying but hardly surprising – we had our pictures made so they could be printed out on our passes. I’ve looked better. It was a rough picture. Who cares, though, I was about to see the sun rise over Angkor freakin’ Wat!

Back to the tuk tuk and our trusty guide, Mr. Rith. He took us to a drop point near the bridge to the Angkor Wat complex, gave us some water and told us he’d be waiting for us behind some nearby cafes. Cool. Drew and I plunged into the darkness trying to find a huge, ancient temple that had been lost for hundreds of years before its recent (in the grand scheme of things) rediscovery. In the dark it was easy to see how it could have been lost in the first place. As we made our way toward the main temple, lots of “helpful” folks began appearing out of the darkness. Immediately I’m trying to figure out what their game is. No one in this country wants to help you. They want to help themselves. But how? Everyone was guiding us to the left. Apparently there was a pond in that direction that reflected the temple and the sunrise and was THE optimum viewing spot for this glorious occasion. As we approached, the game became clear. These people all had food stands nearby and were trying to sell us overpriced breakfast. They also had chairs we could use. I declined the chair and popped a Kazakh squat at the edge of the pond. What’s up now, suckers? That’s right, I know the Asian squat. I’ve practiced in the outhouses of Kazakhstan, and I don’t need your chair! Plus, I’d already figured out that they only let you have the chair on the condition that you buy a small cup of lousy coffee at Starbucks prices.

Drew took a chair, only to have it taken away later because he didn’t buy anything. To be honest, I really was hoping he’d stand up and huck that stupid chair into the middle of the pond. It was early. I was cranky, and I was tired of everyone in the damn country trying to rip us off. And so we waited. And waited. And then waited some more for good measure. Eventually the sunlight began to creep across the sky. I took a ton of photos. Adjusted apertures and shutter speeds. Thank goodness for vibration reduction lenses! After a while, it became clear that the sunrise wasn’t going to be anything terribly spectacular that day. Also, I started to get the feeling that the real best spot for sunrise photography was on the right side of the walkway we came in on. Where we were, the sun rose just to the left of the complex. The angle on the other side would have put the sunrise BEHIND Angkor Wat. There wasn’t a pond over there, though. More importantly, there were no food stands. I started to get the impression that pond was built by the people with food stands after Angkor Wat became a popular destination…. Guess we got scammed again after all.

Then it was off to explore the inside of the temple. In Angkor Wat proper there is apparently an actual, working Bhuddist temple of some sort. Or maybe just a really big shrine for the tourists. I’m not really sure. All I know is that it was at the top and you couldn’t line up and pay (again) to go up there til 8. We weren’t waiting around. There was some sketchy guy loitering around the base of the temple who said he could get us up there. Probably wouldn’t have hurt to do it and pay a little bribe, but since we’re Peace Corps volunteers international incidents are something we strive to avoid. So we made our rounds, took some photos and headed out to meet Mr. Rith and see some more temples.

As we were heading toward the cafes, a Khmer guy walked towards me and started talking to me in English. His first question was, “Do you remember me?” I didn’t. Even if I did I wouldn’t have said so. Seriously, dude, that’s a pretty standard way to start a con and I’m not buying it today. Then he asks if I’m staying at Earthwalker’s guesthouse. I was. He then asks if I remember promising his friend the day before that he could be my guide for the day. Again, thank goodness for the truth! I could honestly say that I had never promised anyone anything (Drew might have, but who cares! The guys were both sketchy as anything and I wasn’t going to let them scam me). He just acted angry and walked away. But for the rest of our time in Cambodia I was afraid they’d be coming after us trying to collect. I had a plan in order: first, argue (loudly) and deny. second, offer a little cash to shut them up and send them away. third, yeah…if that didn’t work I was sure there would be violence and that would suck. I was hoping we’d never see them or get to three. We didn’t see them. Life was good.

After that we just checked out more temples. Every temple we saw was impressive in its own way. One was apparently featured in one of the Tomb Raider movies. It was a temple that had been extensively overtaken by the jungle. It was really cool to see all that. The temples were really amazing and unforgettable. There’s really no way to describe how awe-inspiring it was to see them. You’re probably better off just going to my Flickr photostream and checking the photos out. One of the interesting things about the temples is that you were free to roam wherever you wanted with only occasional “do not enter” restrictions. Being able to freely explore all these amazing places was tons of fun.

There’s a lot of restoration being done at the temples. To be honest, I wasn’t a fan. They try to make it authentic and true to the design of the temples, but the restoration work just looks out of place. Newly carved stone is blatantly obvious, not nearly as good as the original and it’s honestly a hideous distraction. Some parts of temples have just fallen after hundreds of years. Sure, I’m all for putting that back together. But otherwise I really think it would be better to simply stabilize structures and preserve them as is. For me, at least, that’s a much more appealing alternative.

The first few temples were fun to explore. Checking out every nook and cranny. Finding shrines hidden in the darkness. But as the day progressed and we began to hit other temples it became less fun. Mostly because finding shrines in the darkness meant that someone was going to jump out of said darkness and shove incense in your face in an attempt to make you pay for it. I found this out after putting incense in a pot in front of a shrine, getting a red string tied around my wrist, having some sort of prayer (it could have been a dirty limerick, actually – I don’t speak Khmer) said and then being asked for money. My only small bills were in Thai baht. After plopping down some cash and making a hasty retreat I realized I’d left about $6 in baht behind. Stupid Cambodia!

Somewhere between noon and 2 we called it a day and Mr. Rith took us back. It was ridiculously hot. We went back, grabbed lunch and a nap and just generally tried to cool off. Eventually, Drew went out for pizza with another Earthwalker’s guest and I eventually went to a different place with some other guys. Later on we all met up at the same club in Siem Reap called “Angkor What?”. It was Drew, me, and a smattering of fine folks from the British Isles. And one Swede. Good times. Drew swears the tuk tuk driver who took us back to the guesthouse (NOT Mr. Rith) was offering to sell us drugs, hookers and God knows what else. It’s interesting – well, the drug part at least – because drug possession in Thailand is punishable by death. What a difference a border makes. That was the first time in my life anyone ever tried to sell me drugs. Hookers, too, for that matter. Is this what the Wild West was like? Good grief. No worries, mom, we declined the gentleman’s gracious offers, and went back to the hotel.

The next day it was back to Bangkok. It took forever to get there, but we eventually made it. Border crossings were miserable experiences in both directions. Mostly because the tour company we used for them (yes, I know you should never use these scam buses, but from Koh Chang we really didn’t see any other options and we didn’t learn our lesson the first time, hence the return trip) had nasty habit of delaying you for three hours at their travel agency/restaurant on the border. The food at the restaurant was crap, too. The worst Pad Thai I ever ate in my life came from that restaurant…in Thailand.
What was interesting about the return trip was how it ended. Rather than taking us to a bus station, the bus just stopped at a roundabout in the middle of the city somewhere and let us out. It took forever to get to said roundabout because the red shirt protesters had traffic clogged to a ridiculous degree. Speaking of protesters, that roundabout was located in what seemed to be the middle of one of their rally sites. We got out in a hurry. Our cab driver wouldn’t use his meter – said it was too far from the hotel, especially with all this protester traffic – so we paid an exorbitant amount. When we got to our hotel in about 15 minutes the guy feigned surprise. It was all I could do not to hit him. But you know, “Peace” Corps and all that….

We stayed at that hotel for two nights. Since it was closer than we really felt comfortable with to the rally sites and since it didn’t have as much appeal as the other place we stayed the first time we were in Bangkok we thought we’d play it by ear. The day we decided to switch hotels was the day we saw red shirt convoys on the street in front of the old hotel. Party’s over – time to bounce.

Back to Watana Mansion we went. Checked out the area, went to a weekend market, generally had a good time. The weekend market was incredible and we found some of the best deals and merchandise of the entire trip there.

Then it was time to head back to Kazakhstan. It was sad to leave the wonderful weather and great food, but I’d had enough of the scams and was ready to get out and back to a place where I at least know the scams. And as soon as we got off the plane we found one waiting – the airport taxi guy! He wanted to charge us $50, then 5000 tenge, then $30, then 500 tenge to start and 500 per kilometer. Finally Drew told the guy that we weren’t tourists and we wouldn’t pay more than 3000 (and that was only because it was night prices). At least we knew how that one was played! With some degree of pride I will note that the taxi in Pavlodar did not try to rip me off. Take notes, Almaty cabbies!

Vacation – it’s good for the soul, but it sure doesn’t do much for your faith in humanity! Everybody’s got an angle. And I appreciate that these folks are trying to make a living, but I don’t care what your circumstances are – it’s morally reprehensible to charge infinitely more than the going and accepted rates just because you think someone can afford it.