On Monday morning we left for Cambodia, I was told it would be a 12 hour drive, which at this point in my life sounds short. After about 2 hours of sleep I managed to wrangle my giant bag down the stairs for our 6 am departure. Around 7 am the busses finally showed up. They were what the Thai public transportation busses, which means that even my short legs won’t fit between my seat and the one in front.
The ride to the Cambodian border went fairly quick. I tried every possible position for sleep, but nothing worked. I finally ended up backwards with my back against the seat in front of me and my head on my knees. Not exactly comfortable. The countryside was beautiful and green, more of what I had imagined Thailand would look like, not the bustling city of Bangkok.
When we hit the border, the guards had us leave all our stuff on the bus and come to their restaurant to fill out visa forms. They kept asking us if we wanted to order anything, and saying that we had plenty of time for lunch. It felt a little sketch, but the restaurant did have a captive audience. At least the prices weren’t inflated Disneyland style.
Our stuff showed up loaded on Oxen carts about 30 min later. I was thankful that everything made it off the bus and on to the carts. Finally about 2 hours later our visa’s came through, that put us way behind schedule. We were told that we could walk to the border. I though it was our responsibility to grab the carts full of backpacks so Katie, Tanna and I each took one and started pulling.
(The carts loaded with all our stuff)
Every person on the border found this the funniest thing in the world. Asian people are normally fairly quiet but they laughed, pointed and talked about us the whole way. I felt like I was on parade. One guy even stopped and took a cell phone picture of me pulling the cart. Crazy role reversal, normally I’m the one taking pictures! I smiled posed and laughed some more.
We had trouble at the border because the guards didn’t want to let us through with out our airplane tickets. They seemed to think that we were flying out not bussing. I guess white people don’t bus through these parts often. A few of my friends had been sent away with no luck. When it was my turn I decided that I would smile big, and keep talking until I got though. It worked; I like to think I used my amazing powers of persuasion to reason with the guard, but in reality I think he was just sick of hearing me talk.
(The border of Cambodia)
Cambodia looks vastly different then Thailand, it’s obviously much less developed. The border reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of India. We hopped onto another bus just before it started pouring down rain. The bus was way nicer then I expected, with leather seats and air conditioning. We drove through potholed, muddy roads at about 25 miles an hour.
The driver had this thing with his horn and would seriously honk at everything, people, goats, cows, bikes, other cars. Each honk wasn’t just a little toot; it was a bone jarring, head compressing blow. Sleeping was impossible, just when you would nod off the horn would blow.
After about an hour we all had to stop for the bathroom. I was expecting a gas station, or something but we stopped at some one’s hut, complete with a crazy grandma. It was a site; we all lined up outside the squatty hut and waited our turn. One thing I don’t understand about ASIA is why they take the effort to put in porcelain squattys when for the same effort you could have an actual toilet, no squatting required.
(Crazy grandma lady and I dancing at the bathroom stop.)
The ride continued on for hours, it felt like an eternity! Around 8 pm we stopped at a dark place with tables underneath large tents for dinner. One bite of the meat and I had a flash back to Africa, it was goat, which is most likely my least favorite type of meat in the world. Bugs were swarming all over the place.
After dinner the power went out in the restaurant and the bus lights were left on. Swarms of bugs managed to find their way on the bus. When we boarded the bugs were all over the place, flying into my mouth and eyes, crawling all over me, gross! I used the Glamour magazine I had already read twice as a bug bat and tried to do away with as many of the flying menaces as possible.
Finally around 12:30 am we arrived in Phnom Penh just 18.5 hours after starting the day! Not exactly a12 hour ride. I crashed hard that night, thankful for a bed!
