Now that I’ve developed my fluffy preamble, it’s time to get down to the real stuff. So here is the plan. We fly into Bangkok and take a bus to Pursat. Seems easy right?
Try...
- · Flying in an airplane for 19 hours (Air Canada: you can judge as you wish),
- · Spending 10 hours in airports
- · 12 hours in taxis
- · 16 hours of fighting tuk tuk drivers
- · An allergic reaction and a hospital visit,
- · Countless hours bribing to get over the border,
- · And throw in some hours into suit and tailor shops.
Yep, that sums up the last few days.
May 6 …
We arrived in Bangkok at 10pm and were struck by the thick polluted humidity and the bumping, bustling, beeping traffic on our journey to Khao San Road. Seeing as this had become my home on my last trip out here, I thought I’d show Jamie the Bangkok I grew to love. Sure enough, we were welcomed with music pulsating through the streets, tuk tuk drivers shouting, “ping pong shows”, and thousands of hippy backpackers wandering the streets, buying buckets of beer and pad thai from street vendors. The barrage of flashing lights and the waving currants of people passing by left us in slow motion – dazed.
We arrived at the D&D Inn, showered, and flopped onto our pillows – sleeping over the mumbling sounds of pounding music from the raving party below.
May 7 …
We woke up eager, ready to start our adventure. In the first few minutes of strutting down Khao San Road, we met a peculiar man – Tuk was his name; tuk tuk was his game. Clever eh?
He starts with “you from Canada?” He proudly shows a waving maple leaf pin on his shirt breast pocket.
I gesture to the same pin on my camera bag.
He continues: “Oooo! I love Canada!”
We smile. Why wouldn’t we?
Somehow, in two minutes, he had convinced us to get into his tuk tuk for 10 baht each (about 33 cents). We didn’t know yet, but we had committed to a full morning with Mr. Tuk. He had us joining him on his errands, including a stop at the shop to get a tune up on his tuk tuk followed by 10 tailor suit shops so he could get gas coupons.
The afternoon we spent lazing around the pool on the rooftop of the D&D Inn. My pale, un-freckled skin (lathered in SPF 12000) was no match for the leathery, bronzed travelers, covered in oil, soaking up more sun.
May 8 …
I did not sleep tonight because I had an allergic reaction. Yep, the ginger is allergic to sulfur. Unfortunately for me, it was an element found in one of my antibiotics. Rashes, fever, soar throat and swelling – you name it.
(… Don’t worry loved ones I’m alive and well. Obviously J.)
Luckily for me, the hospital was close by and we whizzed right over in the morning. When we arrived, I was hurried passed the drowsy locals drooping over uncomfortable waiting room chairs, right into a hospital bed. This was upsetting to me, just because many of the people in line had probably been waiting for hours. Here I am, a foreigner, able to pay and getting first class service.
When I went to pull up my shorts to show the male nurse my rash that had crept up my legs, he quickly stops me and says frantically, “Ok, ok, ok, I see!” Blushing, he fumbles with my chart and carries on with his duties. Jamie and I laughed, realizing that showing your upper thigh was clearly private in this culture. When he returned to take my blood pressure, I offered to take my sweater off. I only had a tank top underneath. Once again, there is an anxious look in his eye. “No, no, no…” He takes my blood pressure and gave me a vaccine – all with a hospital blanket and sweater on.
We were in and out in 2 hours – just in time for our complimentary breakfast back at the hotel!
May 9 …
We were a day late traveling to Pursat because of my allergic reaction but today we finally ventured off to the land we would soon call home.
We showed them our volunteer visas and they told us they weren’t valid.
“What do you MEAN these aren’t proper visas? We got these set up for us weeks ago.”
Our excitement and anticipation turned into anger and frustration. All the emails back and forth and arranging of dates with Sustainable Cambodia for the past 6 months to get this visa arranged are now useless?
They proceed to tell us we must pay them a border fee of $30 US each. Jamie’s tone shifts into what we like to call his “big boy voice”. He looks at this “representative” and tells him, “We are not paying. That’s ridiculous. We have been told these visas will work.”
The border rep just grabs our papers clumsily and says he will try and help us at the border. Nothing more was mentioned about paying a fee or the visa being invalid.
(Yeah, that’s right, I’m traveling with this guy… He sure comes in handy.)
Everything was good to go until we realize Jamie forgot his passport photos. The border rep tells us to slip in $5 US and they’ll still do it. So we did and worked like magic. Our visas were approved and we were ready to head to Pursat.
One problem. We had just missed the 2 O’clock bus and the next one didn’t leave until 8pm – we wouldn’t arrive in Pursat until very late at night. We tipped the border rep 10 dollars and he looked upset. He hadn’t obviously gotten the tip he wanted. So we gave him another 10 and sure enough, we are in a taxi shared with other locals off to Pursat within 5 minutes. The taxi costed an extra 700 baht each (about $23 CDN) but we were so exhausted we didn’t care.
We arrived in Pursat and were greeted by Ritana and Sakhun who took us by motorbike to the Sustainable Cambodia Office. We were greeted by smiles and handshakes from staff and swarms of laughing school kids.
After a long, active, and exhausting four days, this was the first time I had felt peace. This place has already become my home.
