Before going to Cambodia, I was anticipating to see the wonder that lies in this country. All the tourists have to fill in the arrival and departure card in the picture above. When I saw the stunning card, I was amazed with the picture on the card. Let's compare it with a more developed country, Singapore's arrival and departure card as below :
Black and white and looks completely plain. I would expect the Cambodians to be friendly and nice but how wrong was I ( us to be specific). We landed happily to a (mysterious and amazing - or so we called) place where we couldn't wait to explore but was greeted by a staff of rude immigration officers! Officer: Hey, you Malaysians.. come here!
(All of the tourists looked stunned but were as meek as lambs following the instructions)
Officer: Four! Four!
Friend : What four?
(Officer without a smile and with an angry face)
Officer : Fingers!
Friend : Say fingers then..
Officer : Thumb ( saying thumb but sounded more like dumb )
They didn't greet us nor saying goodbyes or thank you and whatsoever. It definitely spoilt our happy mood there and then! At first we thought we were treated this way for we are asians but later we met a couple of English on a tour and they told us the same thing too. But what we realized in the end was only the educated Cambodians were rude.
(All of the tourists looked stunned but were as meek as lambs following the instructions)
Officer: Four! Four!
Friend : What four?
(Officer without a smile and with an angry face)
Officer : Fingers!
Friend : Say fingers then..
Officer : Thumb ( saying thumb but sounded more like dumb )
They didn't greet us nor saying goodbyes or thank you and whatsoever. It definitely spoilt our happy mood there and then! At first we thought we were treated this way for we are asians but later we met a couple of English on a tour and they told us the same thing too. But what we realized in the end was only the educated Cambodians were rude.
During the 5 days we were there, we were constantly accosted by hordes of children, teenage girls, ladies trying to sell you things. They all can speak more than 4 languages, all out of my expectations! But the one thing which annoyed me was, they never left us alone (pestering with the word ONE DOLLAR). When we wanted to buy the thing which they said one dollar, they then said we heard wrongly.. The only thing which you can get for that price was POSTCARDS.
Be warned that everything in Cambodia is in USD and don't be fooled thinking that it is cheap to travel to Seam Reap. I have learnt my lesson hard by not bringing enough USD and had to lose a lot at the currency exchange counter there.
Okay I am that friend! Ya give me a dollar for admiting that !
ReplyDeleteHahaha, never thought you would admit it.. :D ONE Dollar? :P
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