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The Traveller World Guide | Best Travel Tips and Vacation.

Around the World * Siem Reap, Cambodia: My Bus Blew Up?

Travel Blog - Ross French - December 17, 2010

By: Lindsay Hogg

Tuk Tuk drivers, Hookers and a Bus that Blew Up

tuk_tuk

Tuk Tuk

I woke up at eleven in Siem Reap after arriving late the night before. I went downstairs to look into seeing Angkor Wat that day, but realized I wouldn’t have enough time and ended up chatting up some other travellers. I met a boy, he liked beer, so we made friends for the rest of the day and late into the night.
Nothing like playing pool with some other travellers and a group of hookers to begin your stay in Siem Reap! (For the record, my new friends name was Drew).

Being frustrated from the amount of tuk tuk drivers stalking us at every corner, we decided to have a bit of fun with them.
Driver: “Lady you need tuk tuk?”
Me: “What? You mean you want to go in MY tuk tuk? You need a ride?”
Driver: “Huh? No, I drive you”
Me: “No, I drive you, my tuk tuk is right over there” (as I point at a random tuk tuk)
Driver: Pause… Blank stare.
“Haha, no, no… you need to go somewhere?”
Me: “No I will drive my tuk tuk to where I need to go, thanks though”
Driver: Silence

On the way home from the bar, with the addition of being offered many drugs, we were harassed my more  tuk tuk drivers.
Driver: “Lady you need tuk tuk?”
Me: “Only if I can drive”
Driver: “Okay, you pay me and you can drive”
Me: “Sweet!”
Drew: “You’re not driving the tuk tuk Lindsay, you’re too drunk”
Me: “Oh, okay. Can we get ice cream?”
Drew: “Yes Lindsay, we can get ice cream”

angkor_wat

Angkor Wat

Two days later I made it to Angkor Wat. I bought a one day tour and managed to see most of the ruins in 4 hours. My attention span doesn’t last long on tours like this – I get ‘templed’ out quite quickly. It was sweltering hot that day and earlier I had debated riding bikes through the temples with my new friend Drew. Thankfully I didn’t because I might have died from drowning in my own sweat.

Later in the week, Drew decided he needed to buy a hat to block the sun. He picked out an awesome pink one after a long day of searching and bargaining. He wore it around for the rest of our days in Siem Reap, receiving many smiles and a few high fives.

Although he became my hero for his sweet-ass fashion style, he quickly went down a notch on my awesome radar when one night he thought it would be amusing to throw a giant grasshopper at me. I did not find it as funny. That hopper was the size of my FIST! (Well maybe not that big, but it was a rather large one).

drew_in_pink_hat

New friend, Drew, in his pink hat

Everywhere Drew and I went, locals assumed we were married. When I was attempting to bargain for gifts for my nieces Drew had wondered away, only to come back to a shop owner telling him he should purchase gifts for his children. We often had to explain that we were not married. The reaction to this was:
Local: “Oh, so you are boyfriend/girlfriend”
Drew: “No, we just met 2 days ago”
Local: “Oh, then soon you marry?”
Drew: “Whaaa???”

I was sad I would have to leave my new buddy who I had so much fun with, but it was time to move on. I  bought my bus ticket to southern Laos and got up the next day at 4am for my pick up. A man showed up to my hostel in a tuk tuk around 5:30am (at this point I was fairly annoyed that I had been awake and had to wait so long – when I could have been sleeping. As I grabbed my bags to leave, he turned to me and said, “The bus, it blew up. Maybe tomorrow okay?”
I replied as anyone would, “Um, what? The bus blew up?”
“Yes, engine go KABOOM! Many people, 50 people, they are stranded”

So I guess the bus didn’t actually BLOW UP, the engine shot out. Drew made fun of me claiming he knew I wouldn’t get up that early and actually leave. So I explained to him that I DID, but my bus blew up and told him the story. He thought I was making it up.
An annoying occurrence, since I’m not a big morning person, but thankfully I wasn’t on that bus and stranded somewhere for hours. The next day I got up at the same time and hopped in what looked more like a mini van to begin my journey to south Laos.

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18 Comments

  • Michael Hodson December 17, 2010 at 4:07 PM

    Love this story. And this place. Though I feel fairly certain I might have drunk slightly less and taken a few more temple photos 😉

    Reply
    • Hogga December 18, 2010 at 3:40 PM

      Haha, I could spend hours in a modern art museum and go back day after day. Angkor was amazing, but I lose my attention span quickly with things like that.

      Reply
  • Christy @ Ordinary Traveler December 17, 2010 at 7:51 PM

    Haha! Funny story! We didn’t make it to Cambodia on our SE Asia adventure, but we did go to the My Son temples in Vietnam and I felt the same way. It was too damn hot to spend the whole day walking around there!

    Reply
    • Hogga December 18, 2010 at 3:39 PM

      Haha thanks! It was a really fun week there. You kinda get used to the heat but that day was abnormally sunny and hot

      Reply
  • Ayngelina December 18, 2010 at 3:41 PM

    I know some people do 3 days in AW but I think one day is enough. What I did was hire a Tuk Tuk driver for the day, we arrived at sunrise and saw some sites until 11 or so, went home and napped until 3 and then our driver took us back for a few more hours.

    The $12 it cost for the driver was worth it not to have people ask us if we needed a ride.

    Reply
    • Hogga December 18, 2010 at 3:46 PM

      Really? That’s such a good idea! I just pushed through from like 10am to 2pm or so… (4 ish hours). It was enough for me.

      Reply
  • Lisa E @chickybus December 18, 2010 at 5:28 PM

    Fun story! Sounds like you had a great time. Imagine if all of the events in the post happened in a different order… You took the bus with Drew….the engine went “kaboom” when you were on it…and then, you kept traveling together.

    Wonder what sort of misadventures would have occurred after that…. LOL 🙂

    PS: You sound like you’re fun to travel with. I’d love to run into you next time I’m somewhere and hang out for a couple days!

    Reply
    • Hogga December 18, 2010 at 7:34 PM

      HAHA! That would have been crazy, but sounds like something very possible in my life!
      I would love to hang out! Make you drink some tequila! TEQUILA!! arrriiibbbaaaaa

      Reply
  • Abby December 29, 2010 at 1:25 PM

    I love all of your anecdotes and stories — it makes travel so fun! You have a great sense of humor.

    Reply
    • Hogga December 29, 2010 at 1:49 PM

      haha Oh why thank you! I quite enjoy your site as well… I can relate to a lot of your stories.

      Reply
  • Federico June 3, 2011 at 6:14 PM

    I also think that one day is enough to see the best of it, and would only recommend staying more if you really want to take perfect pictures with the best light.

    Reply
  • atiq June 4, 2011 at 4:11 AM

    good work……….nice

    Reply
  • Abby June 6, 2011 at 3:55 PM

    You are hilarious — and so is Drew. Still laughing out loud at you guys “making friends” all night drinking beers!

    Reply
    • Hogga November 2, 2011 at 8:08 AM

      It was a one week bro-mance affair, even though I’m not a dude.

      Reply
  • Mica June 14, 2011 at 5:06 PM

    Crazy bish. And I can’t believe you don’t want to go back with me. I would buy you booze. You know I would.

    Reply
    • Hogga November 2, 2011 at 8:08 AM

      Ya I’m good. Saving my pennies for SA

      Reply
  • Annie June 24, 2011 at 1:22 AM

    I am such a bad person. I get so bored in temples and museums. I probably wouldn’t even go INSIDE. No I would but I feel ya man.

    Drew’s cute, did ya get his FB digits!? haha 😉

    Reply
    • Hogga November 2, 2011 at 8:09 AM

      I KNOW! Me too….

      and yes, we are FB friends now! Maybe we will get drunk again somewhere in the world together one day.

      Reply

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    Ross French grew up outside Toronto, blah blah… he went to the University of Western Ontario for fine arts and like any degree, has since done nothing in that field. More seriously, Ross French is a travel junkie & a tech nerd with a slightly concerning love for beer & wine. he a has a great awareness of life outside the 9-5 and hopes to aspire to be a hammock bum one day.

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