Entry By : Eric
Country: Cambodia
Subject: Bangkok to Cambodia
Date: June 9 , 2006

After 2 days of bus travel, I arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia a few hours ago. Along the way, I got to experience the quintessential SE Asia bus travel, including a border crossing on foot through a 'no-man's zone'.

The trip started out pretty well. A mini-bus picked me up at about 8:30 in the morning, about 15 minutes early. We drove across Bangkok to the side of a bus terminal and were told to wait in the van. Typical for any bus trip in Thailand. Suddenly a huge pink bus pulled up behind us and honked. Our driver got out and talked for a while with the other driver and then told us to get out and that this was our bus.

The driver of the big pink bus asked for our tickets. I showed him mine and he nodded and gave me a sticker to put on my shirt. This is also not uncommon for bus trips. This helps them identify where you're going. He told me I would be getting off and staying in a hotel near the border and gave me a card with the name of the hotel, the name of the owner, and the phone number. I thought it was a bit odd, but hey, I've always gotten where I was going on these trips so I didn't question it.

We left Bangkok and drove for several hours with one stop along the way for snacks and a bathroom break. About 2:00 we pulled over in the middle of nowhere and I saw the driver speak to a couple in the front row of the bus. I heard them say yes, and thought I heard Phnom Penh mentioned. I walked up to the front of the bus and asked if I needed to get off if I was going to Phnom Penh. He told me I did. Good thing I asked or who knows where I would be writing this from?

The three of us got off and we all stood on the side of the road for a few minutes until a mini-bus came screaming up and pulled over. The driver of the pink bus told us to get in and bade us farewell.

We set off in a very new mini-bus with a good high power AC going. I thought, "hey, this might not be too bad if there's only 3 of us in this." Little did I suspect!

We drove about 10 minutes until we reached a pretty large bus terminal. By now it was pouring rain out and the driver didn't even bother to pull under the cover. He told us to get out and wait right under the sign reading 'Cambodian Border'. The three of us got out and sat on a bench wondering which bus we would be in. Would it be a mini-bus or a big bus. There were now 4 of us waiting and even if it was a mini-bus, it would be OK. About 10 minutes later a driver came walking up and pointed to a beat up old piece of junk mini-van and said 'Cambodia'. About this time, 8-9 other people came running over and started to jump in. We all piled in, 11 of us in this thing. No AC! We had a 100 km drive to the border and it was hot and smelly!

We finally arrived at a little wide spot in the road and pulled over. As soon as we did, the mini-van was approached by at least 10 people who were trying to give us rides to the border. One guy started to grab my pack before I grabbed his arm and kindly asked him to set it down and told him I was quite capable of carrying it myself (no tips today I thought). We looked around and the Thailand Immigration office was only about 20 yards away so I walked over and got my passport stamped with the proper exit stamp. I then was pointed in a direction and told in broken english "cabodi" which I took to mean Cambodia. The path was lined with concrete jersey barriers and barbed wire with armed soldiers at the end of it. It was maybe 50 yards long. When I got to the other side I was again approached by a group. First young kids begging for baht or any money I had. I told them no and started walking towards the building with a flag on it. I assumed, correctly, that this was the Cambodian Immigration station. I entered the station and went through the paperwork, paid for my visa and came back outside. When I got outside one of the locals had forms for me to fill out. Or rather, he began to fill them out for me and told me to go talk to the officers at the window. I went over and handed over my passport, got photographed with a little computer cam, and then got my passport back. The first step was the Visa and this was the officially entry stamp in the passport.

While all this was happening, a guy came up and introduced himself and said he was from the hotel we were booked in. When he knew the name and persons name we were supposed to ask for, I felt better and let him know as soon as we were done, I would ride with him to the hotel.

We walked back to the car where the guy who had filled out the form for me now informed me that he expected a tip for his service. I had a feeling this might be coming so I was planning to give him 20 baht ($0.55), but all I had were 100's. I told him that unless he had change, I couldn't give him that much. He started to demand that I give him 100 when I told him it was 20 or nothing. At this point the driver stepped in and handed him some local currency.

That settled, I started to get in the car and he looked at me like I was crazy. He opened the door and got in himself. I stood there for a minute not quite sure what to do until I realized that the car was a left hand drive car!!! I was assuming I was getting in the passenger side, but it was actually the driver's side. I have finally crossed back into the land of 'keep right' driving. I have to say, it felt very strange for a while. Unfortunately, we will be back in countries that this is not the case, so I better not get used to it again.

We left the border and headed into town, but not before we had one more passport check.

We arrived at the hotel which was nice enough, and the night was pretty uneventful.

In the morning I got up and had a quick breakfast. There was already a nice new mini-van waiting for us at this point and I noticed a few other travelers had shown up. Right at 9:00 he loaded us in the van and we headed off. We made two more stops and picked up more passengers until we had a full van. To be honest, I will have to look up the name of the town we were in because I have no idea right now.

We left and immediately I noticed the roads in Cambodia are not as good as Thailand. In fact, it turned to dirt and then mud in very short order. Eventually we got to a section that was so think in mud I was sure we were going to get stuck. At this point we came upon a group of cars all stopped with a few roadside shacks selling drinks and snacks. We sat there for a while until the driver finally got out for a smoke. We all sort of sat there wondering what was going on. I glanced out the back window and saw a river with a ferry hauling cars. I realized we were going to be here a while because we had to cross the river on the ferry.

It turned out that the stretch of road we were on, over 100 km, we being entirely reconstructed and that 4 new bridges were being constructed over rivers. This meant that we would be doing this 3 more times before we were done. 3-1/2 hours later we finally landed on solid pavement. I had my camera packed in my backpack, but there was a canadian guy named Charles who was taking pictures and let me copy them onto my laptop before the trip was over.

As soon as we hit blacktop, the mini-van pulled over and told those of us going to Phnom Penh to get out, that we would be catching another bus the rest of the way. We sat on the side of the road for about 10 minutes when a big AC bus showed up and hauled us the rest of the way to Phnom Penh.

Once I arrived in town, the bus was accosted by the usual cabbies, tuk-tuk drivers and other touts trying to sell you anything. I selected one guy that seemed less obnoxious than the rest and gave him the name of the hotel I had booked a room at. He told me it would cost 2,000 riel (about $0.50) so I figured I would go for it. We walked away from the bus and he walked over to a scooter. This I hadn't planned on, but what the heck. I climbed on with my backpack and we zigzagged through traffic to the hotel. There are 1,000's of scooters and not many cars here, but the cars rule the road based on their size alone. After almost getting into at least half a dozen accidents, we finally arrived here at the Flamingos Hotel. It's $20 a night which is outrageously expensive, but oh is it plush. I'll post some photos of this place in a day or so.

For now, I need a shower and a cold beer. Or maybe just a nap with the AC turned up to high!

Until next time,

Eric

 

 

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