Trip to Bavet

Hey all, long time no write! Ive finally reached Phnom Penh after almost a month without decent internet, so I have lots to update! This was my trip to Bavet, which is about 40kms out of Svay Rieng right on the border of Vietnam, there are lot of casino's (because gambling in vietnam is illegal so all the rich casinos set up on the cambodian side of the border) we were trying to find a room to stay in for the night and apparently they were all "free" all you had to do was spend $2000 at the casino!

We caught a kind of open ute down there for only 3000riel (75c) each, the above photo is me and michael (a peace corp vol), under our feet were several screaming piglets it was quite an experience, 8 foreigners crammed in with cambodians, and their animals and all their vegetables etc, plus balancing two large speakers on the roof!

This is Colin, another PC vol. He lives in Romeas Hek which is 40kms out along a terrible road, bumpy muddy dusty etc, and has to bike in whenever he needs a litle Svay Rieng civilisation! Its a fairly crazy trip in this heat, which is still so hot around mid-late 30's in the daytime and about 30ish at night! I still think setting my air con to 27 degrees is cold!


This is Nora, Molly, Lindsey and Tong in the back of our ride to Bavet, once we got there after realising that we actually weren't going to be able to afford a room for the night, we decided to go over to the large Hypermart, in 'no mans land' between cambodia and vietnam and visit the large well stoked tax free supermarket!

However this also backfired badly, apparently we only needed one passport to leave at Cambodia side to know that we would return, so after leaving my passport, and arriving at the gate to hypermart actually we needed 4 passports to get 8 people in. So back to get my passport and then when we returned the vietnamese had changed the rules again one passport one person! So only the four of us with passports got to go in!

This photo is taken on the Cambodia side looking through to Vietnam, so once inside the hypermart, which was truly amazing it had pasta and sauce and mayo and pizza and everything that you dont get in Svay Rieng, we had these annoying girls follow us round with pieces of paper and then try and grab our trollies and push them for us (of course we dont speak a word of Vietnamese!) Got up to the counter and they said they wouldn't take our USD$ so had to pay by credit card, unfortunately instead of charging my card $9.20 the charge $92.00, then tried to give me Dong (vietnamese money).

I was furious! So had a large argument with them in the shop and said I dont have $90 on my credit card... BIG MISTAKE, now they wont let me leave the shop!!! So I spent the next 10 mins explaining I do have lots of money on my credit card and please just give me USD$ and I'll leave, eventually this is what happened although, the annoying trolley girls wanted a cut for their troubles and I was not in the mood to be pushed!

This is Molly and Lindsey in Vietnam, looking towards the Cambodia side, anyway, left Vietnam, back into Cambodia where immediately everyone was friendlier, and decided to to stay so jumped on a bus back to Svay Rieng, and had a party at my house instead!

However first impression of Vietnam, not good! I did go back one other time and it was a lot better however, so maybe first impressions don't always last!