"Everything VIP"

I’m trying hard to sum up my trip to Cambodia this past Thanksgiving holiday without going into elaborate detail. It’s safe to say the four day trip to Siem Reap was not at all what our group of five expected. The fact is, we did leave on Wednesday afternoon to drive across the Thai-Cambodian border and we did return to Bangkok the following Saturday night, but most everything between these two points of reference was quite peculiar and had us asking "what's going on?"

When planning our trip to Cambodia, we heard others repeatedly say we need to be aware of the notorious scammers, especially taxi/van drivers on the Cambodian side of the border who would like to "take us for a ride" so to speak. In response, most in our group thought it best to hire our own Thai tour guide who knew the ropes and could help us across the border, arrange transportation and generally help us avoid being scammed. Turns out we had our own adventure with our guide, wondering whether we would have had a less adventurous trip had we gone on our own.

I could go into detail regarding all that happened during our time in Cambodia but then this post would scroll on seemingly forever. I will mention, however, a few moments that were most peculiar. Aside from the litany of reasons we heard for changes in itinerary, here are some comments no tourist wants to hear while on vacation:

1. "Something bad has happened" as stated by our translator after a knock on our door at 2 a.m.
2. "All your money was stolen at the Mini-Mart tonight at 11 p.m."; money given to our tour guide for transportation and hotel expenses.
3. "We can’t leave right now because our driver wants to finish watching the boxing match on TV."
4. "The Cambodian police want you to leave the country by midnight tonight."

So much communication between our group and guide was seemingly lost in translation. How do we know? Well, we determined that our Thai tour guide didn't speak English and knew only a little Khmer (Cambodian), while our Cambodian translator didn't speak Thai and only knew limited English. By the time we heard an English translation, we figure much of the meaning had been altered or lost from the original intent.

Turns out that while the money given to our tour guide for the trip WAS indeed stolen, God unexpectedly provided other Christians who came to our aid including a missionary family staying at our hotel and a Christian police officer. In the end, we all felt that God had other purposes for this trip than for us to tour the country and have a relaxing time of it. Lives were changed (we know of non-Christians exposed to the gospel) and God faithfully provided as we saw Him at work throughout our time here!

Let’s face it, we knew we were venturing into a country where the norm does not seem to exist. Perhaps the lesson to learn when traveling to Cambodia in the future: when a tour guide tells you "everything VIP", assume they are not talking about high class travel arrangements but rather the VIP could stand for something like you'll be Venturing Into the Peculiar .

By the way, the good news is that our driver WAS able to watch the last round of the boxing match while we waited for him at the Night Market and the Cambodian police did NOT force us to leave the country as was stated by our translator. Small mercies shared by all.