Is it sad that the title reminds me an awful lot of the good ole days in Ukraine haha
We left Bangkok about 8am for Cambodia. 41 of us packed in vans and drove about 5 hours until we arrived at the border crossing to get our visa’s. I didn’t sleep a wink yet it seemed like we were in the car for about 30 minutes. I swear, I’m gonna be a pro at roadtrips back in the states!
#1 Bribe at the border crossing to get our visa’s taken care of.
We’ve got some rockstars on our squad that take care of business when it comes to not giving in to police wanting bribes, logistical issues or anything else that could possibly go wrong as we move from country to country. I guarantee if you were with us for even one travel day, you would see them in action and be just as amazed and grateful to have them as we are. Anywho, the guys working the visa station wanted extra money in order to speed the process up even though we were the only group there. While our guys discussed this with the visa people, the rest of the squad hung out, ate some thai food, played the guitar and some card games. The Lord’s taught us all a thing or two about patience on travel days J Within an hour or so, we were back on the road without paying an extra cent. Thanks, Lord!
#2 We finally got through the border and had to wait in another ridiculously long line for about an hour. I tend to do or say something wrong when I get in front of the passport people and this time was no different. I mentioned this to Jess and Garrett as I was making my way to the front and as I walked up, the guy at the desk literally YELLED at me/at the group why I hadn’t filled part of the card out before I got there. All I could do was smile because it was so ridiculous haha In my defense, the place was absolutely packed and I could barely hear the person next to me talk, let alone this guy in front of me behind his desk Haha Ah well, another one bites the dust…
#3 We then had to stop at another bus stop to pick up 2 of our guys. After about 15 minutes here, we found out that the people working were trying to tell us that we needed to pay them an extra fee to continue on the road. Like I said, our guys are amazing and talked them through that/held their ground that we weren’t going to pay anything extra. The police arrived for a different reason than what you’re probably expecting…they wanted in on the bribe, too! Eventually, the police changed their mind and decided that the bus company needed to pay them a bribe instead of us haha …again, ridiculous. While all of this was going on outside, we were all on the bus praying and singing worship songs. The more we sang and prayed, the lower the bribe got and eventually they let us go without paying a dime. Thanks, Lord!
#4 After getting dropped off, waiting in yet another line for another hour, we thought we had made it into the home stretch! Nope! We were at the wrong location haha Perfect! We picked up our bags and hopped on some tuk tuk’s (motorcycles with a cart hooked on that fits 4-6 people) that would take us to our correct destination.
Without going into too many more details, we eventually made it to our home for the month at about 2am! Hooray!
The time it should have taken to travel from Bangkok, Thailand to Phnom Penh, Cambodia by bus is about 10 hours…it took us about 18hrs. It was actually one of the fastest travel days that I’ve had in a while, so you won’t hear any complaints from me. The Lord has been protecting us like crazy, keeping us safe and softening the hearts of the people that may want to take advantage of some foreigners that don’t seem to know the ropes….little do they know, we’ve already been through this a time or two J
Thank you again for all of your prayers for my team and I! I love and miss you all <3
