Most budget travelers come to SE Asia because it gives them the opportunity to see a large piece of the world on a small budget. Backpackers have created a well-worn trail throughout SE Asia the past 30 years, and even with the few exceptions of Singapore and parts of Bangkok, the entire region is still very affordable. When you're preparing to enter a country such as Cambodia where the average annual income is less than US$300, you brace yourself for sub-par sanitation, ramshackle houses, sickness and filth. Cambodia lived up to some of these expectations, but there were also a few big surprises...

We decided it was time we sought out some real adventure on our trip. We looked at our options and decided to go directly to Siem Reap, Cambodia, home to the ancient temples of Angkor. To save me from having to re-write what has already been written a million times before, I will quote fellow cyber-traveler-journalist at Vagabonding.com:

"Between 802 and 1432 AD, a succession of Khmer kings funneled the enormous wealth of their kingdoms into a series of monumental building projects. Growing successively grander and more elaborate, the Buddhist and Hindu temples of Angkor stand as the apex of ancient Khmer architectural and cultural achievements. The great city of Angkor gradually fell into decline in the early 1400's after repeated attacks and encroachment by the Thais. The Western world first heard about the temples in the 1860's, when they were discovered by a Frenchman named Henri Mouhot."

There are some pretty important history lessons in this quote ... more on that later.

In deciding to embark on this journey we opted for the fastest, easiest and probably most expensive route possible: we booked a plane ticket on Bangkok Airways directly to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We paid a little more money, but given the alternative we decided it was best. Our cab driver perfectly summed up our mentality at this point in our trip: "You can always make more money, but you can never make more time."

The traditional backpackers' route to Siem Reap would have taken us overland across the somewhat daring roads of Cambodia (roads being a relatively loose term). It would have been a cheap, albeit uncomfortable, way to travel. It also would have taken us over 14 hours. But for around US$15 per person, the overland bus route was a bargain compared to the US$150 we each paid for our ‘one-way’ airline ticket (BKK to REP). With the cramped buses, drivers cranked-up on smack, bumpy roads, un-bathed backpackers, midnight border crossings, and no potty breaks, I’ll take the plane ticket any day. If we had known then what we know now, that ‘one-way’ plane ticket would have been ‘one-way’ in the opposite direction.

Splurging a little for plane tickets proved to be only the beginning of "paying a little more" throughout our entire stay in Cambodia.

Most budget travelers come to SE Asia because it gives them the opportunity to see a large piece of the world on a small budget. Asia is home to some of the poorest countries on the planet. Backpackers have created a well-worn trail throughout SE Asia the past 30 years, and even with the few exceptions of Singapore and parts of Bangkok, the entire region is still very affordable. When you’re preparing to enter a country such as Cambodia where the average annual income is less than US$300, you brace yourself for sub-par sanitation, ramshackle houses, sickness and filth. Any reasonable person would also expect things to be exceptionally cheap. Furthermore, with such a distressing history of violence and bloodshed, you expect there might also be a few uncomfortable elements to face. Cambodia lived up to some of these expectations, but there were also a few big surprises...

Let me start by saying both of us were really looking forward to our trip to Cambodia. Several friends back in the States who had visited a few years ago said it was the highlight of their trip. They couldn’t stop raving about it. They spoke of friendly people, cheap accommodations and spectacular views of Angkor. I won’t mention Jennifer Bers’ real name here, as she might get mad at me. It’s not like I’m blaming her for everything that went wrong. I just think that since she was the biggest proponent of our trek to Angkor in the first place, some mention of her is necessary. So, in order to protect her identity we will call her something completely different than her real name. Instead, we shall call her, "Jennifer".

"Jennifer" sent me an email a few weeks before my trip that gave me a list of places we would definitely have to see in Cambodia. It was a good overview of temples and the names of a few guides that made her trek to Cambodia so exceptional. After reading her emails and having talked to her about it over the past year, I was really charged-up and ready to view what sounded like the greatest archeological discovery in modern history.

But in order to view the ancient temples of Angkor you are obligated to follow a path that takes you through the sleepy Cambodian town of Siem Reap, which roughly translates to, "rip-off-and-try-to-con-as-many-foreigners-as-you-can-possibly-do in-a-day-without-giving-them-one-ounce-of-personal-space-and or-opportunity-to-enjoy-the-very-sights-that-they-came-to-this-place-to-see." We dubbed the town See-um Rape ... as in, "See ‘em rape the tourists".

This is the part where I get into the details of my trip to Cambodia and what I found to be so exceptional (exceptional being used in a negative manner). I’ll go in chorological order, so as not to miss any of the fleecing, err ... events that took place.

We arrived at the newly-built airport only to face utter chaos. Dozens of immigration officers sat stoically behind a counter with a big English sign above their heads that read:

Tourist Visa: $20 US
Business Visa: $25 US

There were no signs instructing what forms to fill out, where to go first, or how to form an appropriate line - if such a thing existed. Only the price tag to enter Cambodia was posted, as if it were an entrance fee to Disney World or something less sinister than it really was. Susanne and I huddled with the rest of the people from our flight in a tight mass of confusion. The next staging area for persons with visas was just as crowded, so none of us were in any big hurry anyway.

After a few minutes everyone seemed to pick-up on the process. First, you must pay $20 in US currency (regardless of your nationality) before an immigration officer will even touch your Visa Application. You don’t pay $20, you can’t even get one of the immigration officers to sneeze at you. So pay $20, give up passport, and go to the next line to wait. When your passport is held up slightly above the counter, it is your duty to figure out if it is your picture or not. No words exchanged. None. Not even in response to a million questions posed by the bodies standing in line. I could have had 20 kilos of dope strapped to my chest with a big neon sign that said "terrorist," but as long as I paid the $20, I’m pretty sure I could have gotten past this phase of Immigration.

Running total: $300 for tickets, $40 for Visas = $340.

We went through three more lines of customs and immigration officers carefully sizing us up as if we were alien creatures, before we finally made it through the airport. I’m pretty sure the tour group from Hong Kong had to pay a "special" tax to the customs inspector to recover the items that were "forbidden" in The Kingdom of Cambodia. And as for the dumb Australian woman who repeatedly announced to the world her possession of US$1,000 in cash: I wish for your safety, but question if you should be allowed out of the house. Read the guide book before you leave, or at least the first goddamn sentence that says
Cambodia is one of the world’s poorest countries."

When leaving the airport we had two options. We could either:

a. face the swarm of touts with rooms available, or
b. go with the suggestions in our guidebook and get a taxi for $5 (to anywhere in the city).

Naturally, our first choice of guest houses and hotels were either "full" or "too small", according to the cab driver. Ahem, yeah .... Did we look that green to this guy or what? But when you arrive in Cambodia in the middle of the night, and start down the pothole-filled road into town, traveling in a taxi cab that looks remarkably similar to a regular ol’ stolen Toyota Camry from Thailand, you’re left with very few options. You’ll pretty much stay at any hotel he drops you at, as long it’s not the Grand Hotel Angkor ($250 a night), Sofitel Royal Angkor ($300-800 a night) or Raffle’s ($390-$1,900 a night), you don’t care. Did I mention US$300 per year was the per-capita income for Cambodia?

We arrived at a guest house outside of the center of town that only cost $20 a night, breakfast not included. It was new place, clearly open less than a few months; the walls were freshly painted and the linens hadn’t even been used. Outside was a security fence with a few random Cambodian men pretending to be security guards. We were just happy to be out of Bangkok and someplace where we could get a good night’s sleep. We were surprised to find such a new building in Siem Reap, even more that it had all the Western comforts we were looking for.

We should have paid attention to a few other things when we arrived that night, like the brand new Toyota Camry without license plates sitting in the driveway. Or that the taxi driver was paid in US dollars, the room was priced in US dollars, and our reservation for a car the following day was ... you guessed it ... priced in US dollars. Everywhere we went, Cambodians were hungry for cold hard cash from the USA. Furthermore, everything was priced at $1.00 or $20.00, even though it should have been priced at one-fourth of that amount.

Once we found out that the majestic temple ruins of Angkor were being managed by a hotel conglomerate, Sokha Hotel Co., Ltd., we knew something was afoot. Sokha actually sells the entrance tickets to the ruins and reinvests the proceeds into dozens of look-alike hotels along the strip to Angkor Wat, instead of using the money for public education, social services, public transportation, utilities, security, environmental cleanup, temple restoration, or anything else that you would assume would be associated with a national park. This sounds remarkably familiar to the Khmer kings who "funneled the enormous wealth of their kingdoms into a series of monumental building projects". It just didn’t seem right. Shouldn’t something as historically significant as Angkor be managed by a non-profit organization - perhaps an archeological group, a University, or the national tourism authority?

Don’t get me wrong, the temples of Angkor were wonderful. I’ve never seen anything like them in my entire life. I just can’t sit back and write fuzzy words about awe-inspiring moments and feelings of self-enlightenment when a pack of Khmer women and children were screaming at me every second, every minute, every day we were at Angkor: "Mister, you