Our little truck from Chiang Mai arrived at an out of town
gas station where we would pick our sleeper bus up from. My eyes locked onto a new large VIP bus
parked, and I thought this is going to be a comfy journey J … How wrong I was, as we got of the driver
directed us away from the large modern bus towards an small old beat up bus
parked just outside of the garage forecourt, I made my way on quickly to try
and secured two seats together for me and Ems.
As we set off, already feeling cramped up in the little seat, the guy
infront of me lowered his seat all the way back… so now I was cramped up, had
to have my legs stuck out to the side to as I couldn’t fit them behind the
seat… All my positive thinking went out the window, as I had an internal bitch
fest at the unfairness of it all and tried my best just to fall aspleep so it
would be over sooner. A few
uncomfortable hours later, we stopped and I asked the man infront if he would
be OK to sit in a spare seat to allow me some leg… He did and the rest of the
trip went in a peaceful slumber
We arrived in BK early hours, got a taxi to the massive
sprawling bus station (Same one I had visited early when headed to the bridge
over the river Kwai). The bus we had
hoped to catch all the way to Siam Reap was full, so instead we caught one to
the border and would arrange transport from there. The trip to the border was uneventful and a
long 5 hours! Eventually we arrived at
the border, being dropped off on the edge of a roundabout and being told to
walk the last 800m to the border. We
navigated our way past all the Thai touts assure us we had to get a VISA from
them at hyped up prices and made it.
Wow what a difference an imaginary line in the ground makes…
on the Thai side it was official, clean and well organised… Then we dropped
into the Cambodia side, not a great deal of border control more felt like we
had just walked onto the main street of a town.
There was rubbbsh everywhere, no proper road to speak off just a sand blasted
road, with the odd food vendor plying their wares. We got directed by our very own personal
escort along the route passport check, VISA and finally entry card a 2 hour
long Q!!!
The only picture from the border, and doesn't Ems look like she is having a great time! What I missed to catch on the pic was a women grabbing EMs boob before running off laughing!!
As soon as we had our entry cards we were rushed onto a waiting bus,
making a 5 min journey through the town to another bus station. As soon as we stepped off we were assailed by
3-4 different people trying to organise us onto busses or taxis. I had thought as we had already travelled for
so long we would opt for a taxi (2 hours instaed of 4). Three different people shouted over us,
about price and something about we had the whole back seat. Both of us were just, yep fine what ever
here is the money.
They led us out into the dusty forecourt, where a beat up
old silver/grey car pulls up, nothing to say it’s a taxi or anything other than
someone’s personal motor. Not really
caring anymore we just jump in the back, onto the old leather seats, with no
noticeably seat belts :-/ The driver
jumps in and off we go… for about 2 mins, he suddenly stops in the middle of
the road, gets out, locks us in and walks off.
Now let me lay the scene, here we are just arrived in a
foreign country, the roads are just dusty mud routes, all the buildings around
us are old and crumbling with corrugated extensions bolted on. The locals we do see peer at us in what seems
equal curiosity and suspicion. Now
suddenly we have left the security of the government and have been left on our
own in the middle of the street… All of
a sudden a police/military bike stops just behind us, and takes up what can
only be a guard position… Finlay our driver re-appears has a quick exchange
with police and hands him some money and then gets back in and heads of. Phew now we are on our way…. Not quite
yet… instead of heading to the main
roads out of town he seems to be taking us further in, we bump along uneven
roads, we approach a cross road, on our left is an even more rubbish strewn,
and pot holed road. At we bounce along
Ems turns to me and says “I don’t feel very safe” I give her the best
reassuring smile I can muster and squeeze of her hand as I notice over her
shoulder is a line of 3 men on motorbikes, all wearing balaclavas blocking the
road, their eyes glaring at us, I decided not to bring this to Ems attention as
we thankfully turn left… We drive a
short way down the road, everyone we drive past curiously peering at us. We come to a stop and again our driver has a
quick exchange some money changes hands and a young couple head towards us with
bags… Ems starts to move up so they can fit in, both of us looking at each
other and mouth “WTF is going on”, but instead of getting in the back both of
them squeeze in the front passenger seat.
I now recall the guy telling us we get the whole back to ourselves. And that is how they stay for the whole
journey.
However the excitement of the journey doesn’t stop there, as
we get onto the main road we get a taste of highway driving Cambodia style…
Which mainly includes driving down the centre of the road playing chicken with
every on coming vehicle… 2 nerve racking hours later we arrive in Siam Reap
whereas always we are dropped of near some tuktuks, who rip us of for the short
final ride to our hotel. 26 hours after
leaving Chiang Mai!
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