Thailand and Cambodia differences

English Language Skills

French colonisation and the structure of the French language may have been relevant three or four decades ago, but following first the Khmer Rouge and then the Vietnamese, French influence and the French language have virtually disappeared (apart from in the restaurants and bakeries!), despite the best efforts of the French (Alliance Francaise, etc) to encourage use of the French language.

The idea of face saving is very much an Asian concept, not a Thai one, and one which I found to be just as relevant to Cambodians as it is to Thais.

The biggest reason for the difference is simply the efforts made by the UN (and their money!) and a number of international NGOs following UNTAC and the return of "democracy". There is a lot of outside (international) funding for both teachers and teacher training, a lot of schools in the urban areas for street kids who are given free meals as long as they attend lessons, and foreign volunteer teachers and aid workers (VSO, etc) are welcomed. None of this applies to Thailand.

Road Travel

A cheaper & potentially slightly safer route to Siem Reap is to take the train from BKK to Aranya Prathet (48 bht, 6 hours), followed by a Tuk Tuk to the border (80 bht), then share a taxi with some other tourist to Siem Reap (say 50% of $40). At the moment, the road is un-made most of the way, so this keeps speeds down, which must be a good thing.

I actually recommended this to PM as a good alternative and a time and money saver, but there is no need to endure 6 hours in third class on the train. Some visa-runs from both Bangkok and Pattaya still go to Aranyaprathet / Poipet (ensure you do not go to Pong Nam Ron / Pailin by mistake!) and travel agencies can arrange a one-way trip, a taxi to Siem Reap and back, and a return trip from the border (Poipet). There is also a coach from Pattaya to Aranyaprathet every day taking Thais to the casinos, leaving Pattaya early in the morning and returning in the evening for 100 baht (one way or return), but this is very much a "Thai" bus with drums, etc, so personally I would avoid it.

I would also avoid this journey (Poipet - Siem Reap) in the rainy season - as z909 said the road is unsurfaced; it is actually laterite, like most of the roads in rural Cambodia, so in the dry it is fine as long as you do not mind red dust (and your driver's windscreen wipers work). In the wet, however, it becomes a mud slide and can be very treacherous even with a good driver in a 4x4 - and that precludes 99% of those on the road!

I was in SR the week before PM and totally agree with PM's comments regarding the differences. It took me a day to realise that the bikes (both motor and pedal) didn't have mirrors and the riders don't even look over their shoulders before moving left or right. I was told that the 'post card' kids could name the capital of your country and count to ten in your language so being a grumpy old git I put them to the test and only one knew that Cardiff was the capital of Wales and bless his little cotton socks he tried so hard with the counting I just had to buy the postcards and give him a $1 tip. I stayed at the Eightrooms guest house which is 2 minutes walk away from the old market area - for $18 a night I had no major complaints - they don't serve breakfast and if you are up early to go to the Wats there is nowhere open to get anything. The electricity supply in this area of SR is unreliable - they have street lights but never saw them on (so take a small torch with you), half way through my dinner at the roadside cafes the electric went off for about 10 minutes. The electric went off the following night in the area around the Linga bar - don't know how long it was off for but at least 90 minutes.

Early nights

As I was getting up early most mornings I didn't generally stay out much past 10 pm but the Area around the old market and pub street is not a late night place and was virtually dead by 11:30 the one night I decided to see what the night life was like ( the guest house locks the gates at 11pm and you need to ring the bell to get in)

Massages

The first one I had in the guest house and the 'boy' was organised by the manager - a very cute boy arrived and gave a very good oil massage for 1 hour for $15 - the downside was that he was straight [probably my fault for not explaining to the manager that I might want a happy ending)

Massage number 2 was at one of the massage places - these are mixed male / female - I picked a cute looking boy (I wasn't looking for a happy ending as I knew there wasn't much privicy in the massage room) - I selected the 1 hour oil massage but after 30 minutes I agreed to extend it to 2 hours - cost $12, he wanted to extend it to 3 hours but I said I needed to get back to my room - with a twinkle in his eyes he said that he would like to come to my room - I took him up on his offer the next day and for $20 got a 1 hour [naked] oil massage and an hour of play.

Bars and boys

There are two bars in this Area - the Linga bar and the blue chilli bar

The easiest one to find is the Linga bar - the waiters were cute and I got the impression that they would go with you after work. There were generally 5 or six freelancers. I probably overpaid for their services (I'll explain later) Boy one [a bit of back ground - on the way from the airport to the guest house we passed this motorcycle with 3 boys and I noticed the one in the middle and thought he's cute - 3 hours later I'm in linga bar and who should be there but motorcycle boy] we go back to the guest house for an all nighter - after a little bit of fun he gets a phone call and has to leave - I gave him $20 which he appeared pleased with. Boy number 2 did stay all night and did get up and leave when I got up - unlike Thai boys - he was happy with $30. Night 4 boy 3 - ok boys 1 and 2 are still talking to me and trying to get me to take one or both of them off - boy 3 had been flirting with me since night one but not really my type - the electric went off I got hot and sweaty so said I was off to blue chilli for a coffee and back to my room for a change of clothing - boy 3 catches up with me after my coffee and insists on walking with me to the guest house and he keeps on saying that he wants to have sex with me and I'm still saying no [assuming that he is a top and having already been shown his large cock][and hoping for a 3some with 1 and 2] - get to the room I go for a quick shower taking clean clothes with me, come out and there he is naked and bent over the bed - it was just too much so I had to enjoy myself and he was a very good bttm - he didn't want to cum and refused payment [yes you read that correctly] - no never did get the 3some

Blue chilli

This isn't so easy to find - first of all find Temple bar - keep this on your left walk to the end of the road turn left and walk on until you come to a passage way about 10 feet wide turn into it and walk about 30 yards and BC is on your left. This is a small bar with two tables outside and about 5 tables inside. Their fresh coffee at $1 was, for me, the best coffee in SR. Usually 3 or four freelancers with the odd ladyboy but few customers - I was usually the only customer apart from one night when there were 3 of us [we were all staying at the eightroom but had seen each other previously] There was only one boy there I fancied but he wouldn't bttm - the manager did try to fix me up with one of the other freelancers who was a bttm & top for $35 for all night [this is why I think I may have overpaid the other because the manager would have wanted his cut and this was the first price quoted]

temples and temple pass

most people suggested that 3-4 days was long enough in SR before being templed out. Well here's my 'take' on the time span required - my original plan was to spread the templeing over 6 days - 2 on 2 off and 2 on so I got the 1 week pass - the good point was I didn't have to wait in a queue to get my pass unlike those that were getting passes for fewer days - I arrived at the pass booth at the same time as coach loads of tourists and I found out later that it was taking them up to an hour to get their passes. Another part of the plan was to take a guided tour on day 1 and possibly day 2 then to hire a bike and re-visit some temples and visit new ones on my own - this didn't happen mainly for three reasons - the weather [raining hot humid] , a sore ankle, and the distance from SR to Ankor Wat. I ended up doing 4 long consecutive days templeing and going to the river of a 1000 lingas after which I had basically seen most of the closeby temples and some further away so it was more like I had run out of temples rather than being over templed. Although I found the temples impressive and well worth a visit they didn't 'grab' me like the temples in Egypt which I have been back to many times.

Visa on arrival

I arrived at SR airport from Chiang Mai and had misplaced the passport sized photo I had taken in Chiang Mai so I was charged 1000 bht instead of the usual $20.

HIV and condoms

this was a big difference I found on this trip - in Cambodia without fail I was asked about my HIV status and they insisted that condoms be used [which for me goes without saying] - one even wanted to know where the condoms came from as he didn't trust those from Asia. In Thailand I was surprised how many would have been willing to bareback either way - these were bar boys, and professional types of all ages that I met at babylon or sansuk

Thanks for the report, very interesting.

Personally I found the temples at Angkor to be fasacinating & will be back.

What did you think of the hotel staff? One of them was very cute.

[gearguy]

check out the Night Market in SR; down the road from the Red Piano; make a left at the sign for the Night Market.
Nice stalls selling a lot of handicrafts and a great open air bar. Not gay but the bartender is really cute and knows
how to put on a show. He must have seen Cocktail.