Retiring In Siem Reap

Siem Reap, Cambodia, April 12, 2007
This is a story from my recent trip to Cambodia.

Dennis is from Canada. I met him in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2005. We were both looking for postcards and struck up a conversation. We ended up traveling together for the next month in Thailand. [Read The Story Here]
Dennis was taking a year off to cycle around Asia when I met him. That might not sound so amazing until you realize that Dennis over sixty years old. We've kept in touch since then. Then last year he wrote to say he had met a woman in Siem Reap, Cambodia and that they were going to settle down together. He wants to work in Canada for a couple more years to build up a better pension before retiring in Siem Reap with his sweetie.
Aw and I are here in Siem Reap right now, so I wrote Dennis on the chance he might be here right now, too. It turns out he's back in Canada working. I asked him if he would send some photos of his partner and new baby. His partner's name is 'Kunthea'. What a lovely woman. Dennis looked at the other stories I wrote about Siem Reap and recognizes some of the people we met. He says he knows the restaurants and waitresses shown in my stories here. He also tells me that their home in Seim Reap is only four minutes from where we are right now. And this is their new baby; 'Angel'. Sorry Dennis but I'm just guessing from the name that your baby is a girl, right? Angel will celebrate (her?) first birthday on May 17th. What a great pair they are. Way to go Dennis. This is an amazing step to be making at this time in your life. I wish the three of you, all the best. You're moving to a wonderful City. Many foreigners are retiring here in Siem Reap. It's very inexpensive to live here and the City is showing amazing progress economically. I find it easy to travel for a thousand dollars (CAD) per month in Cambodia. You can imagine from that figure, how well you could do on a pension.

Cambodia Visa

Cambodia Border, April 18, 2006

So here I am heading to Cambodia to renew my Visa for Thailand. I took a luxury bus to the boarder. I thought it would be a boring trip but when I sat down in my seat I found that the man beside me was a friend I met last year at the Bridge on the River Kwai.

This is Henry from Holland. He has been travelling around the World for several years. He gave me great tips on travelling in Vietnam. I promised to email him when I get there.

This is the Cambodia Boarder at Poi Pet. It reminds me of a refugee path as I see the people heading along on this rough dirt path.

One of the most amazing sights I saw, was this group of men hauling an enormous rice cart across the border.

The border crossing itself, is a modern building. The officers here all wear military uniforms but unlike the border crossing at Pnom Penn, they do not have machine guns.

The whole trip took 15 hours from Khao San Road to Cambodia and back again. This is how our whole group felt by the end of that journey.
The secret to having an enjoyable trip like this is the reading material.

I'm reading Wilber Smith's 'Monsoon'.

Thai Prison

I'm writing this incident after the fact Mom because I didn't want you to worry. On Tuesday I looked at my Visa and realized it had expired 11 days ago. I had always assumed the Thailand Visa was good for 6 weeks and I just never looked.

So I immediately phoned the Canadian Embassy to find out my options. A humourless woman told me: "If the police stop you, you will go to prison." Alright, now that she had my attention I asked what to do next. "You need to fly out of the Country right now." So my trip was dashed on the spot. And it's even snowing back there right now! "I have to fly back to Canada right now?" "No", she said, "You just have to fly out of Thailand. If you go by ground transport they may decide they have time to prosecute you and so you could be put in prison until your trial."
So Wednesday, I went to the nearest travel agent and booked a flight for Pnom Pehn, Cambodia. The cost of the return flight was 8600 baht, which Dennis calculated to be 326 dollars Canadian (For those of you who watch numbers like I do, you might be going ahhh right now). So here is the story of my race as a fugitive in Thailand.

Thursday,March 17th
10am: I go out to the street and hail a taxi to Bangkok Airport. This is Jack. He's from Ubon Ratchatani; an ancient City I will be visiting next week. We talked in broken English about the Temples there and his wife and two children.

11:30 I arrived at the Departures area and got my boarding pass. Then I went to Burger King for breakfast just in case this was going to be my last meal. (I was scared but at least I was still thrifty).
11:45 I went to Passport control. I handed Quan my documents and he stopped, looked up and said: "overstay". "Chai" I replied, in my best Thai accent. "With me come" he said and I followed him to a back room.
Now I've never experienced a strip search before so let me tell you that I'm glad I didn't get one that day. He sat me down and talked with his supervisor for a couple of minutes. Then he looked back at me, shaking his head and saying: "Twenty-Two Hundred Baht." You never saw anyone pull money out so fast in their life. They stamped something and motioned for me to leave. It was over. I could breathe again. I wasn't going to prison after all. But then as I headed for gate 75 for departure it occurred to me; what if they don't let me back in? I could be stranded in Cambodia for the rest of my life. As you can see, mild paranoia had taken over.

2:40 I boarded the plane for Pnom Phen, Cambodia.

3:50 I arrived in Pnom Phen Airport.
4:00 I got a Visa for Cambodia ($25 American)
4:09 I handed my passport to a soldier behind the desk and he looked at it for what seemed a long time Then he adjusted the little camera that points at you from the counter, to make sure he could really see me on the monitor properly. I tried to look innocent. Finally, after stamping it 11 times, he handed it back to me and ushered me out.
4:10 I am outside the Airport breathing in the warm Cambodian air as a man hands me a complimentary map of the City. So great to be here!

4:11 I ran to the Departures area.
4:14 I boarded a flight to Bangkok.
5:02 I was back in Bangkok Airport.
5:15 I handed my passport to the woman behind the desk and said: "Sawadee Cup" in my best Thai accent. She smiled and said: "Sawadee Caw. Welcome to Thailand."
Whew
The whole flight and processing in two different countries; two and a half hours.

So now I'm feeling pretty cocky. I am legal here and I'm back in Bangkok Airport where this wonderful Thailand adventure began. Last time, I was accosted by a woman with a clipboard who insisted that 700 baht was a fair price to take me downtown. This time another woman accosted me and I asked her how much. "five hundded baudt" she says. "I paid 300 baht to get here this morning" I tell her with one of those looks my brother Mike does so well, as if he's using one eye as a telescope to look at the other person. She smiled and said: "taxi meters over there".
So I meet up with Sancha who tells me he has a great deal for me.

He drives me to a mini bus station where these three dangerous characters joke with me for almost an hour before charging me 60 baht to send me to where I'm staying. I kept asking how long it would be before we left and 'Nick' said: "oh we just wait two more people." I thought for the price it made sense that they should at least have three of us in the bus. Finally, he said for me to get in. He opened the door and there were 15 people crammed into that little bus. And he made three women shove over even more so that I could fit in too. But he got me there.
So that's how I avoided spending time in a Thai prison yesterday. I know there are a lot of you saying: "I would have loved to have seen the prison Steve." Well, I'll tell you what. You come here next time with me and I'll take care of your Visa for you. Hey, did you know they're good for 6 weeks?

Whew!