Dr. Mark Nan Tu 涂南博士

The Internet café is owned by Thomas a Norwegian guy in the early 30s. He is married to a Thai woman and this is his Thai biz. He spends a few months in Thailand every year and goes Norway to run another biz the rest of the year. After a bottle of Siam beer, he started to complain about the corruptions in Thailand. Thailand is one of the most corrupted countries in the world.

Thailand left with me very bad taste. Besides the dirty street, lack of concept of service, the sex industry, I was scammed three times in 6 days.
1: The most famous gem stone scam: http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/Scams/Sapphire.shtml

2: A Taxi driver wanted 200 baht when the actual fare should be 79. He did not have the meter on. I knew the fare as I took the taxi there in the morning and the fare was 79 baht. “Here is 80 baht, keep the change” I left the taxi.

3: A Tuk Tuk driver wanted only 20 baht to get me from the Grand Palace to the Gold Mount and the back to my hotel in Maha Rat Rd. The normal fare should be at least 60 baht. I knew some thing is fishy here. What the heck? I will take this challenge. As soon as I am on the Tuk Tuk, the driver asked me if I can spare a few more minutes in a souvenir store close by. “No way, the gold mount closes at 4pm and I need to get there,” I sounded angry. Tuk Tuk diver insisted. “Only a few minutes.” “Sorry, I do not have a few minutes, I need to get to the Gold Mount” “May be after the Gold Mount”? He is persistent. “Maybe” I did not want him to bring me to a deserted street and beat me up by a few Thai bouncers or boxers.
I spend about 20 minutes in the Gold Mount. I got out from another door. I headed straight for a taxi. I handed over the name card of my hotel to the taxi driver. “Meter, please” I said. As my taxi zipped through the front gate, I could see my Tuk Tuk driver was still waiting at the gate. “asta la vista baby”.

No doubt that Cambodia is a poor country. After years of war and the four tragic years under the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot’s leadership which killed estimated 2 million people, Cambodia which was once an artistic and religious power, is now in the process of rebuilding.

Riding on the back of the tuk tuk, I was going to the River Tonle Sap. I have been visiting all the temples in Angkor Wat for the past 3 days. I needed some changes.

On the way to the Tonle Sap river, my tuk tuk stopped for gas. I noticed a military SUV with a pair of loud speakers mounted on the top. There were some announcement came from the speakers.

No doubt that Cambodia is a poor country. After years of war and the four tragic years under the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot’s leadership which killed estimated 2 million people, Cambodia which was once an artistic and religious power, is now in the process of rebuilding.

Riding on the back of the tuk tuk, I was going to the River Tonle Sap. I have been visiting all the temples in Angkor Wat for the past 3 days. I needed some changes.

On the way to the Tonle Sap river, my tuk tuk stopped for gas. I noticed a military SUV with a pair of loud speakers mounted on the top. There were some announcement came from the speakers.

“What are they saying?” I pointed to the SUV and asked the tuk tuk driver.
“Oh, they are getting these kids to go to school to study at night.”
“But today is Saturday and it is a weekend.”
“That is why they are only going to school at night and have the day off to help with the family business.”

Cambodia needs a lot of foreign investment. However, most of those are concentrated in the tourism industry. Cambodia needs to build its infrastructure such as roads, telecommunication, and most important of all, Cambodian kids need education.

On the tour boat at the Tonle Sap river, I had a few kids following my boat. They put up a victory sign and said: “Good Luck. Mister. One dollar .“

I handed out a few one dollar bills to them. “Go to get a book with the money.”

Traveling in SE Asia, I was constantly annoyed by the service people who do not speak much English.

I booked a trip from Ko Chang Island, Thailand to Siem Reap Cambodia at 11pm, last night. I was supposed to be picked up by a bus at 700 – 800 am from the hotel lobby. As expected, the bus did not show up. So I called. “Will my bus come?” “Yes.” “When will my bus come?” “Yes.” “But it is already 800am and my bus did not come.” “Yes.”

So, I had no choice but to get into a taxi and went back to the travel agent. After much talk, the travel agent owner decided to drive me to catch up with the bus which was supposed to have left. Any way, to cut the long stories short, I was finally in the Cambodian side and sit in a Toyota, Camry driven by a Cambodian young kid. He had a driver’s license displayed on the wind shield which showed a totally different picture but has a birth year of 1979.

The ride from the boarder to Siem Reap was a pleasant one. I was sitting on the front and there was a French family sitting at the back. Finally, we arrived at the Siem Reap. The night street was lighted by the glow of the shinning new luxury resorts. I had already booked a hotel so as the French family. I showed the driver my hotel name card. “Can you get to this place?” “Yes.” “Do you know the place?” “Yes.” “How far are we?” “Yes.” Well, here comes the yes again. We all read that the taxi driver will some times drive you into a dark part of the town and have all of you stay in a partner guest house where you will be over charged. Actually, I do not mind at all as the surcharge was no more than a few dollars. But I had already booked the hotel so I need to get to this hotel as soon as possible.

After struggling with the driver and on and off the busy street for over one hour, I found my hotel. I shake hand with the driver, “Good drive, I enjoyed it” I said.

I checked in and sit down to have a delicisious Cambodian dinner with Angkor beer. I called the taxi driver who was recommended to me by my friend back in Bangkok. “He speaks a bit English.” She added.

I am now in the internet café again. I happened to find out that both the hotel owner and the internet café owner speak a bit English. I would happily pay a bit more for any service people who speaks English.

I will tell my taxi driver tomorrow to put a sign on his taxi: “I speak English.”