froginmythroat (FIMT)

Its a real experience going from Thailand over the border to Cambodia.

What was a tar sealed road in Thailand becomes a red dirt track, and airconditioned buses are replaced by pickup trucks/utes where most sit on the tray on the back. First impressions of Poipet, the border town in Cambodia, is of the wild west! Dusty dirt roads with salon looking buildings. Lots of motobikes and trucks driving around. I swear every car is a Toyota Camry.

I left my guesthouse that morning, it was 4:45am 15 November 2545 BE (Buddhist Era). I caught a taxi to the Bangkok Northern aka Morchit bus terminal. On the way the taxi driver was playing some Thai music, but shortly after I got in, he put on a Kylie Minogue tape! I tipped him some baht for the nice touch (Crowded House or Dave Dobbyn would have been even better!). I loaded up with snacks at the bus station before catching the 6:00am “first class” bus to the Thai border town Aranyaprathet.

The border was really busy. All manner of people, vehicles and goods were coming and going. You have to go to 3 different buildings in order to get processed through the border – exit stamp, visa, entry stamp. I had a guy pester me all the way through the border wanting me to let him help me through the border and arrange transport for me via one of the many available pickup trucks or cars. After I got in Cambodia I hopped on a motocycle and drove down the road about 200m, trying to escape him but when we stopped he was right there behind me. I hopped on the moto again and took off in another direction and again he was there when I stopped. I approached the driver of a pickup truck and tried to negotiate a price with the guy although he didn’t speak english. The pestering guy (who did speak English) kept trying to get me to agree to a price of $3US/120baht, which he would presumably split with the driver for doing nothing other than being able to speak English to a foreigner and getting him to agree to the price he set. I had read that the local price was 30baht and I just wanted the pestering guy to go away so I could negotiate with the driver myself. In the end I felt bad causing a real fuss in front of all these other quiet sincere cambodians already in the truck. I jumped in the truck and somehow managed to agree with the driver to pay 50baht and the pestering guy left empty handed. Poor bastard but I did feel he didn’t really provide any utility to offset the price padding. It wasn’t going to be the last time someone would offer to act as a middle man, coping a commission and really not providing any extra benefit if you know what to do or where to go yourself (which I didn’t really anyway but managed to work out).

So anyway I finally have transport, riding in the back of a pickup like most of the locals do. For the next approx 1.5hrs the driver drove around town, looking for more passengers until he was satisfied the truck was as full as it could get. Satisified was 4 people in the cab, and on the back 18 adults, 2 babies, and luggage consisting of lots of fruit and boxes of birds. Everyone except me was Cambodian, I spoke no Cambodian and them no english, so we justed kinda stared at each other the whole trip! It was a bit scary, I felt like I had no control of where I was going and had thoughts of just being dumped in the middle of nowhere.

The road is _really_ bad, the distance to the next town Sisophon is 49km and it took about 1.5hrs. The ride was hot and dusty, you really need a scarf to wrap around your head, not to mention bumpy. The countryside was really nice, very green. When I got to Sisophon I was beseiged with girls about 10 or 11 yrs old, selling all sorts of things including beer and cigarettes, “sir coca colaar? sir cold beer? sir angkor wat cigarette? oh sir, please sir” followed by really furlon looks. These kids are so cute its hard not to buy from them. I changed trucks to go to Siem Reap, the town next to the famous Angkor ruins. Again, I hopped in a truck and spent about 1hr waiting whilst they minimise all available space, or what we would call overcrowd.

The road to Siem Reap was even worse, the distance is about 103km and it took about 5.5 hrs with a few stops. At most stops we would again be beseiged with young girls and their wares. There was a fine selection of fried chicken and other delicices as well as the calls of “sir cold drink?
sir something to eat?” which would ring in my ears for days to come. I arrived in Siem Reap about 7 or 8 that night, my clothes, hat, and bag completely covered in red dust which I still haven’t managed to completely get rid of after several washings!

Summary/Tips
1. I think not negotiating with the driver beforehand is what the locals do and is probably what you should do.
2. If riding in the back, don’t wear good clothes, take a hat, scarf, and sunscreen.
3. Don’t forget to find the fullest truck! If you think its too full, its probably not! I didn’t and had to wait long time.