Border Hopping

This blog will catch you up on what happened yesterday as I tried to cross the Thai/Cambodian border. This is a real story. I take no liberties with it.

The trip from Bangkok to the border is supposed to take about 5 hours. We (Eric and I) were told that buses leave from the bus station about every 30 minutes. No problem. We get up early, have a little breakfast and catch a cab to the bus station. After little to no problem arriving, we find out the buses don't depart every half hour, but every 3 hours. We had just missed the 930 bus so we had to wait for the 1230 bus. Not a huge problem, but I would have preferred not sitting in a plastic chair sucking down diesel fumes for 3 hours.
The bus finally departs, and we're on our way. A fairly uneventful trip, if you don't count the scattered monsoons, randomly picking up large groups of people fromalongside the road, Thai political demonstrations in the middle of the road (literally- a 4 lane road became 2) and the occasional pothole.

We arrive at the bus station and patiently wait for our bus. The lady tells us it will be 20 minutes. An hour later, I'm starting to get worried that the border will close by the time we get there. Eric starts chatting up a Thai girl named Tan and we all quickly become friends. She is crossing the border, too, to see her pseudo-boyfriend in Battambang, Cambodia. We decide to stick with each other as we don't speak Thai and she was a single female traveler who has never been to Cambodia before.

Now the story gets fun.

After a truly uneventful ride (the highlight was learning that Tan's brother is a lady-boy ), the bus dropped us off at the border town Aranyaprathet where we had to get a tuk tuk (think moped with a carriage) to the border station. The driver takes a diversion telling Tan that we need to go to the Cambodian Consulate to get our visas. It's getting dark at this point and my fear is that the consulate is closed. I also feared long lines of travelers just like Eric and I fighting for the last Cambodian visas of the night. I was wrong.

Once we removed our shoes and stepped onto the marble floor, we noticed that no one was there except for two guys sitting and smoking cigarettes at a table. One of them jumped up and said "Visa?". We nodded in agreement and almost instantly a shutter opened against the wall with a man inside, lights came on and voila! open for business! We filled out some paperwork and had our visas within 15 minutes. Not hardly the way it would operate in the States, but hey, who cares? We crossed into Cambodia and could immediately tell we were in a different world. Paved roads gave way to dirt and gravel, pressed shirts gave way to sooty clothes, taxis disappeared. Hundreds of people on the street. Street food in all its glory.

I will cut short the next 30-60 minutes of the day. Let's just say we bargained and haggled for a taxi. The actual events we much more complicated than that, but eventually some guy knew a guy who knew a guy who was a roommate of a guy who once had a vague idea of where Siem Reap is. 3 hours to get there, they said. A busted Toyota Camry pulled up with a cracked windshield and caked with dust. I traced 'Wash Me' with my finger over the trunk as they told us that if we just got in the car and paid $40 US dollars we would be on our way. Let's set the scene. Imagine we're standing on a pile of rocks, dirt blowing , the smell of fried something-or-other permeating the air, backpacks on, surrounded by Cambodians who all want our dollars. The easiest thing to do was get in the car. And so we did.

Only once in the car, we headed back to the border. The driver, who spoke no English turned down into a dark alleyway. A group of Cambodians were perched along side a wall and moved to the car. The driver gets out and opens the trunk, taking our backpacks out and stuffing them in the front seat. The group of guys the proceed to stuff huge Styrofoam boxes into the trunk. They push and push. Kick and push. Slam the trunk, sit on the trunk, jump on the trunk and it is all finally in. Whatever "it" may be. I'm honestly a little worried at this point. What's in the boxes? Cocaine? Heroin? We'll never know. One of the guys tosses a spare tire in the front seat and we're off, heading this time in the right direction.

Think for a second. What is the WORST road you've ever seen? It's undoubtedly rocky, made of dirt or gravel and looks like no one has tended to it in years. Now take that image, multiply it by 10 and you've got a Cambodian highway. I'm not even joking. Words really can not express the terror I felt on that road. The driver varied in speeds from 15-80 miles per hour on the road. Once he came precariously close to a slamming into a mound of dirt. Another time we were about 6 inches from another car. Passing on left and right sides, head hitting the ceiling, watching the gas tank drop until the light came on. This is the ride to Siem Reap. Something was also very strange about the ride and it took Eric and I a few minutes to come up with the answer. No lights. None. Oh, the cars had headlights, but the road had no lights itself. Pitch black. This added to my fears.

The one moment where I felt particularly unsafe was when the driver pulled over without warning. He got out of the car and went to the trunk. He pulled out his cell phone and made a call. He got back in the car, drove another mile and pulled over again. Off to the side of the road I saw flashlights coming at us. People we coming from the darkness towards the car. Driver gets out and opens the trunk, pulling out one of the boxes. A man loads the box on his moped and speeds off. A girl pays him. He returns to the car and we drive on.

Maybe to hear me tell this story doesn't sound so bad, but trust me, it was worrisome. I think I would have felt more safe had I made the trip during the day and could see what was going on around me, but as it was, there was nothing to see. Only more darkness. Couple that with a non-English speaking driver who looked to be having a bad day and I felt pretty unsure of the situation. I am very very very thankful I wasn't making the trip alone. Eric assured me he felt the same way. I think I will consider this another notch in my traveler's belt.

Long story short, we got to Siem Reap about 1100pm and made our way to the guest house we had booked.

Today we saw the Angkor Wat temples but I'm much too tired now to blog about that. Maybe tomorrow.

Bits and Pieces

-The currency system is weird here. ATMs dispense US dollars. Accepted currencies are the USD, Thai baht and Cambodian riel. The riel is used as coins because of the low exchange rate. 1000 riel is worth approximately 25 cents.