about how cool it is in Cambodia and that you should not take a person named VI as a guide
This is a story about how cool it is in Cambodia and that you should not take a person named VIBOL as a guide !!!
In June 2009 we visited Cambodia with friends.
We planned the trip in advance. It took about half a year to prepare.
Everything is as it should be. Read literature. Many sites have been shoveled.
We wrote off and called up with a guide named Vibol.
For some reason, many recommended it (although there were terrible reviews)
But, for some reason, this did not frighten us (as it turned out later, in vain)
About everything in order.
There were three of us. Bought tickets Moscow-Bangkok-Moscow. Fundamentally flew Thais.
I won’t tell you about the delights of a 9-hour flight with them, because there are already a lot of such stories on the net.
From Suvarnabhumi Airport for 2200 baht we drove to the city of Aranyaprathet (this is the border with Cambodia)
We bought Thai sim cards for every fireman.
Crossed the border, in principle, without problems and quickly.
We were checked on the way to the Kmer Visa service for the presence of pig flu.
While we were getting visas, which cost us 25 bucks,
began to call the guide with whom we agreed as I said in advance.
This goat's name is Vibol.
He knew the date of our arrival, but at the appointed hour he was not there.
When he picked up the phone and heard our indignation, he said that it was nothing terrible,
you yourself will come to Siem Reap, and there I will meet you. Well, that's okay.
Having received visas, we moved on to immigration.
There we were sealed and we ended up on the territory of Kampuchea.
Eeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhh cool.
Indescribable smells, a bunch of great photos.
We were immediately picked up by some local lads, and said,
that you need to go first to some kind of bass terminal, and from there only by taxi.
On a dead big bus, we were taken to the bass terminal for free.
Approximately 5 minutes drive through the "beautiful" city of Poipet.
At the station, they began to push us to buy a taxi.
Bidding started from $120. As a result, after 20 minutes we were already driving an old Camry
for $60. the road turned out to be just great.
We stayed at the Victoria Hotel. It was looked after beforehand. The price tag is $100 per day.
Thai sim cards did not work, so we had to call our type of guide from Russian sim cards.
It was already 5 pm.
Guide Vibol arrived at the hotel after 2 hours, although he said that he would appear in 20 minutes.
Good thing the hotel has a great restaurant.
We met at the hotel reception, Vibol was just drunk, although he denied it in every possible way. He came with a can of beer.
But, we turned a blind eye to it. We agreed with him that tomorrow at 5 am we will leave for Angor.
The program was ready for us. Therefore, we set the conditions for Vibol.
By the way, Vibol's Russian language leaves much to be desired.
He only gave us a price tag of $55 for a day of his work and $30 for a car.
Although, when we called him up, the prices were 50 and 20. He explained everything by inflation : ))
At 5 in the morning we stood in the hotel lobby in full readiness. At 5.30 no one came for us and did not answer the calls.
Iy decided not to wait for Vibol. We caught a tuk-tuk passing by the hotel and took it to Angkor for $5.
Bought tickets for 3 days for 40 dollars (Vebol said they cost 50 ha ha ha)
With this driver, we agreed that he would be with us all day.
The guy spoke decent English and knew a few words in Russian.
The first temple we planned was Ta Prohm. Just awesome. A bunch of photos and impressions. There is almost no one in the temple
it wasn’t, we and a few other Chinese seem to be.
The next temple is Ta Keo. While we were at it, we got a call from our goofy guide, Vibol,
but we sent him affectionately and continued to examine him.
The temple is not completed, so we did not like it very much : ))
Sitting in a tuk tuk, we went to the next temple, this is the City of Angkor Thom. We looked at the terraces there,
Royal Palace-Baphuon, Pimenakas and Bayon Temple. By the way, in Bayonne,
we saw a small group with a Russian guide. It was a girl and about 8 tourists with her.
Since we had nothing to lose, we quietly joined this group. But they learned more than they could.
She talked about the bas-reliefs on the walls of the temple, which described the life of the Khmers and many other interesting things.
Then her tourists were photographed against the backdrop of the face of the Buddha,
quite original photos were obtained, she gave people some free time,
we approached and talked a little with her. Her name is Natalia and she lives in Cambodia.
After that, we went to the hotel to have lunch and relax.
After falling asleep and waking up late in the evening, we no longer went to the temples.
We left the hotel and our taxi driver was right there. With him we went for a ride on the proud.
Dine in a small restaurant for about $5 per person. We tried the Kmer cuisine, it's just super!!
Returning to the hotel, we saw this Vibol. Then he was already sober and tried to agree with us about something,
telling a sad tale about why he couldn't come in the morning.
He just begged us for an hour that we would take him as a guide for a big circle tomorrow.
We don’t know why, we fell for these drools, which we later regretted.
At 6 in the morning he did not appear, he was late for 15 minutes and again there was a smell of fumes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Until 10 am, he was generally "dead" walking with a can of beer and slightly showing something
By 11 we reached the pink temple of Banteay Srei. This temple just shocked us.
On the way back we stopped to meet the sunset on Phnom Bakheng mountain.
We returned to the hotel around 7pm.
We had to pay Vibol $20 for that day, he himself made such a discount.
We wanted to give him 30, we don’t know why, but they didn’t do it 20, which is already so much !!!
We didn't see him again. Somehow I didn't want to.
On the 3rd day we went to the Phnom Kulen National Reserve, the trip there cost us $ 80 for all.
In the evening we went to Tonle Sap Lake, this place generally left an indelible impression.
On this lake, at a small crocodile farm, we met another Russian guide.
It was a pity to leave, we really liked Cambodia and its good-natured and smiling people.
We found a taxi for $35 to the border. And in the morning of the next day we were already at the border, from where we went to Pattaya.
But Thailand did not give us such vivid and memorable impressions.