the cambodia i hate

we're in cambodia! getting here was a little piece of hell... from the thai/cambodian border area to the town of siem reap, every single person you meet is trying to extort money from you. including the official border patrol, who require a bribe to obtain a visa.

on the books, cambodia charges $20 US for a visa. at the border, they charge 1000 thai baht, or about $30 US. at the border crossing - after getting our exit stamps from thailand but before entering cambodia - there is the cambodian visa building, and in big block letters above the border patrol official is the sign "VISA - $20 USD". this, the border patrol official explained to us, was an old sign. the new sign will say 1000 thai baht. when are they getting the new sign? oh, new sign... maybe next year.

here's some more info on the thai/cambodian border crossing.

we were able to split the difference and give him a smaller bribe. corruption is rampent in cambodia. there's a story circulating about how bangkok airways - the sole airline flying bangkok to siem reap direct - had a 10 year bribe going with the cambodian government to ensure that the road from thailand to siem reap was not paved (anyone find a story about this online?). the road is infamous. i took it 5 years ago and it took us 7 hellish hours. this time around, the road is now mostly paved (the 10 year moritorium on road building ended this year) and it took roughly 3 hours.

that was the cambodia i hate. however, after arriving in siem reap, things have been peachy. its a great town and a seemingly wonderful country. we met a bunch of good locals and travelers - mostly through engineers without borders. they're doing a reservior project over here that i'll write more about later. and today we did day 1 of 3 biking around angkor wat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_wat). pics on the way.