$3,000 Deposit to Enter Cambodia

[rabidstoat]

I went to Cambodia in 2000, traveling as a solo female traveler. My memories are:

 

1. Boating into Cambodia from Vietnam along the Mekong, it was a great river trip though super non-OSHA-compliant. There were no safety precautions of any sort on the boat, and we'd sit on the roof while it was moving.

2. The most fetid squat toilet in all of Asia at the end of the boat ride. Even us women opted to just find some scrub area and squat.

3. Bribing the border guard to get 'expedited' into the country (e.g., to not have to wait 8 hours at the border crossing while they waited to see if they could shake some money out of you).

4. Trucks loaded with a zillion people clinging to it. Did I mention there was not a lot of OSHA compliance?

5. Selling gasoline from the roadside out of Pepsi 2-liter bottles. Surely that wasn't safe...

6. My fat American ass broke a very cheap plastic toilet seat in a sit-down toilet in some tourist site in Phnom Penh.

7. Any exhibit on Khmer Rouge history was very depressing,

8. Angkor Wat was amazing, though already way over-populated and touristy, it must be crazy now. Well, now when not in a global pandemic.

9. I ended up 'trapped' in my hotel one day, though, because of pretty rowdy political protests in Siem Reap.

10. I took a tuktuk for an hour-plus long trip to the countryside in Cambodia. This taught me how dusty travel in tuktuks is and boy did I wish I had a mask!

11. But on the way back we crashed a wedding. That was my most surreal experience, we were stopping at a roadside shop and got dragged into the festivities. I had no idea what was going on but everyone was happy and friendly to the out-of-place American.

12. There was a place that did an hour-long foot massage for under a dollar, in Siem Reap. I went there for an hour every day.

[AllureOfVacation]

-- not a Royal Caribbean story, but my thoughts of Cambodia:
 

...I never thought of going to Cambodia,  but our HAL Westerdam journey brought us there in February.

 

We were one of the last guests that were to spend the time on the ship until we were allowed to debark again.

 

Some of the other passengers were able to get home before the game changer that happened on the airport in Malaysia. And further guests did not make it home yet and were brought to a hotel in Phnom Penh. They flew from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh and were initially supposed to go from there back on flights home.

 

We were worried that this might be a very bad hotel and that they are suffering...but after we were allowed to debark a few days later and after a 6h bus ride (yes, bus, no flights. Police blocked several crossings in Phnom Penh just for our busses) we also arrived at this hotel. It was like a palace! Our room was huge, the bathroom had a huge window besides the tub with a view of the Mekong river. The hotels name is "Sokha hotel". 

 

We were so happy to "reunite" with the other passengers again. We found out they also worried about us on the ship. But we had an amazing time on the ship. When I recall it right we were less than 240 passengers remaining on the ship for a few days. We were tested on the ship for Covid19, they were tested in the hotel.

 

We would love to have had the time to spend 1-2 days in the city, but HAL made it happen to charter flights for us. We were on the first machine, we were supposed to land in Turkey, but during the flight the entertainment suddenly got blacked out and when it came back on you could see on the map that we flew in a circle and are going back. The crew did not know what was going on, but they stayed calm.

 

We landed in Karachi (Pakistan) in the middle of the night. Turkey did not let us into their country, so after many hours (and I guess many political phone calls) we were clear to fly to Amsterdam. Total time on the aircraft: 20h

 

To sum it up, we were happy that Cambodia let us debark! While Sihanoukville is not the place to be we were very thankful that we did not have to continue to float around on the ocean not knowing where to go.

 

This cruise was an adventure and personally, we had a good time and were glad HAL took good care of us. This is not the HAL board, I know, but I just wanted to share some memories. After 17 weeks, our TA refunded us the money. HAL immediately sent the refund to our TA in February, but the TA sat on the money for so long.

 

 

 

 

 

empty pool...so far, with only a few guests left on the ship this was a frequent sight

 

Sokha Hotel 

 

loooong corridor to the room

 

 

 

lobby

 

Hun Sen, the prime minister of Cambodia, arrived with a helicotper on the pier. This was when the first wave of passengers was allowed to debark. In this moment we did not know we are going to stay on the ship for more days

Edited June 29, 2020 by AllureOfVacation

[little britain]

We went in 2002. Incredible country.  Amazing to stay in the old Raffles hotels - such elegance. And Ankor Wat has to be seen to be believed. 

Would love to visit that country again. 

Edited June 29, 2020 by little britain

[SRF]

On 6/27/2020 at 10:57 PM, billet said:

The country has an amazing culture and Siem Reap is well worth a visit as it is steeped in history.  You could also spend weeks exploring other parts of this developing nation to broaden the mind and understand more about South East Asia. 

 

Yeap.  AMAZING food.

 

Inexpensive travel destination.

 

And Siem Reap alone is for the trip.

[LeeW]

On 6/27/2020 at 8:57 PM, billet said:

The $3000 deposit exists at the moment although Cambodia is not issuing any tourist visas. It is aimed at allowing workers to return to the country and is paid direct into one of two banks. The balance of the deposit is returned at the end of the 14 day quarantine period minus the test fee and 2 days accommodation (about $300). 

 

Makes sense - tax on local companies using foreign labor as source of hard currency.