Day 191 – Sihanoukville, Cambodia

August 16th, 2019

All the staff members in our hotel were children.  I would guess they ranged from about 13-16 years old.  I have noticed it does not seem uncommon for the employees in restaurants, shops etc. to be children in Cambodia.  This hotel was called Don Bosco Hotel & School.  When I asked what type of school it was they said it was a school for hospitality.  Makes sense.  All the children were very friendly and would help us translate to arrange tuk tuks. 

Today, I definitely felt better than yesterday but still had a good bit of stomach pain.  I kind of messed up by not planning far enough ahead to get our Vietnam visa.  There was an embassy close by (which in this town still means a 45 min tuk tuk hell ride) where we could get our visas.  Even though Sihanoukville is the worst possible place to stay, we decided to stay one more night so I could continue to rest and get better, and then we could go to the embassy for the visa.  Since we had the nice room we figured it wasn’t too bad.  The hotel also had a restaurant so besides going to the embassy we really didn’t need to leave the room and could rest. 

We both felt like official travelers needing to go to an embassy.  We went early as I didn’t know what to expect or if there would be long lines.  The children at the hotel called a tuk tuk for us.  I think we must have had the most unenthused tuk tuk driver in the world.  We also needed to stop by the bus station to get our tickets out of here for tomorrow and an ATM machine.  I asked the children to translate and ask the driver if he would do all that and how much.  A girl spoke to the driver in Khmer a big long thing and the driver just stared.  After a moment of silence, the girl turned to me and said “yes, he will do it for $12”.  I’m like ‘he did??”.  I didn’t hear him say anything or make any body gestures but apparently there is a different way of Khmer communication I’m not aware of.

We got in the tuk tuk and set out.  On the long drive through the terrible bumpy roads, I was once again astonished how filthy this place was.  I mean, it had to be one of the dirtiest places in the world.  I know I might be naive when it comes to visiting really filthy places, but I can’t imagine how it could be any worse.  Any exposed skin gets covered with a layer of grime when you are out.  Everyone here is coughing and spitting and hacking up a lung by breathing the toxic air.  Another weird thing is many people walk around with IVs.  They tromp through the sludge dragging their IV pole or they are on a back of a motor bike holding their pole up.  I have no idea what that is about…  I know their medical is extremely primitive and I have read many things that say if you are in need of treatment do whatever you can to get to Vietnam or Thailand.

Anyway, once we got to the embassy (around 10:30am) we found out our best option was to ‘expedite’ our visa and come BACK to the office at 5pm today to pick it up.  That seemed like a terrible option as that would mean another roundtrip tuk tuk ride later in the day when I am supposed to be resting, and plus an exorbitant expedition fee.  We realized though unless we wanted to stay in Sihanoukville for several more days as today is Friday and the embassy is closed on Sat/Sun and of course this Monday happens to be some sort of Vietnamese holiday, this was indeed our best option. 

Just FYI to other travelers who might be going to Vietnam if you FLY into Vietnam the visa deal is no problem and you can get one on arrival.  For some reason the process is different when you cross by land and you need to plan ahead and apply online in advance. 

We had the tuk tuk take us back to the hotel and brought one of the children out to ask the driver if he wanted to come back and pick us up again to go back to the embassy at 5pm.  I thought he might have been happy for this extra job opportunity as we read the average daily wage in Cambodia is $9 and  we would be giving him $24 in one day, plus another $10 to take us to the bus station tomorrow.  Once again I could not notice anything by his expression and certainly not excitement.  The girl said he agreed though, so we went back to the room to rest. 

I noticed in the hotel lobby there were advertisements for a free city bus tour around Sihanoukville.  I could not even imagine what could possibly be a highlight in this dreadful place.  If I wasn’t supposed to be resting to get over being sick, and if each bump in the road didn’t cause sharp stomach pain I think I would have done the free bus tour out of pure curiosity. 

After hanging out in the room for a while the tuk tuk driver picked us up and we went back to the Vietnam embassy to get our passports and visas.  A couple things on this trip did evoke a little reaction from our driver.  The first thing was when we collided with a motorcycle that had two guys on it.  I thought the bike was going to crash for sure but the rider somehow kept it up.  The collision broke the tuk tuks’ side mirror though so our driver yelled about that a little bit.  The next thing was when we were stopped in traffic our driver started talking to another driver right next to us.  That guy handed our guy a cigarette even though he already had a full pack in his steering wheel.  Our driver seemed happy about that, so I was glad he at least had that interaction after his mirror got broken. 

We had the long, bumpy ride back to the hotel. I thought how this place made me want to lick the streets of Los Angeles’s skid row to get the taste of Sihanoukville out of my mouth.  All joking aside, the living conditions here are heart breaking. I know I joke around a lot about the filth and how it affects my own comfort during this brief stay, but the reality is our hearts go out to all the people who call this place home.  Their home has been destroyed and they do not have the tools or resources to fix it.   It is very sad.

We made it back to the hotel and I looked at the visa which is not valid for Vietnam until Aug 20^th.  I’m not sure what expedited was about, but oh well.  I blame it on being sick, but I also accidently left my rain jacket at the embassy office so that was a loss. We head tomorrow to Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh and I am definitely thankful to be feeling better!