CAMBODIA (Day 15)

We arranged to have a taxi waiting at our hotel at 5 am to take us to the train station. We then hopped on a train to Aranyaprathet at the border with Cambodia.

We found seats on the train which left around 6 am. The train was full but not excessively so. At one point, the police came through checking id's and taking many people with them.

The countryside was filled only with very tiny towns. We passed trees, ponds, bridges, and the occasional water buffalo.

We arrived after about 6 hours and took a tuktuk to the border crossing.

Welcome to Cambodia!

It was free to cross over on the Thai side. We just stood in a line then walked over to the Cambodian visa office. This cost about $25 (it would have been more but I had passport photos with me). Once officially in Cambodia, we had to get this new visa stamped. After getting that done, we were allowed in. We were now in Poipat.

We climbed in a taxi... which was a right side drive car, probably bought from Thailand, where they drive on the left, but here they drive on the right. It was about a 90 mile trip to Siem Reap.

There were people pulling ox carts, a truck full of caged monkeys and a very unhappy porcupine. Our driver had to constantly honk to warn cars, mopeds, bikes, carts, etc. that he was passing them. There were MASSIVE potholes in the road, and sometimes half the road was simply gone.

Shortly outside of town, we stopped at a 'gas station'. There were no pumps, just canisters in a shack by the road. Another shelf had bottles of gasoline, probably for motorbikes. The driver left the car running while two girls filled the tank. They stuck a funnel in the tank, one end of a hose in the funnel, and the other up into a canister which was sitting on a stool.

The bridges were often rickety and wooden and were only one lane wide. A couple of them had collapsed, so we had to drive down side roads and cross the fortunately dry river beds.

Yes, the pig was alive.

After the town ended, the road switched from pavement to dusty red dirt. Absolutely everything was covered with it... the palm trees, house roofs, everything. The air is SO thick that you can barely see very close oncoming car headlights. Most people wear some kind of face mask or scarf.

After two hours, we stopped for a break and were swarmed by kids asking for money and coins and practicing their English.

Near Seim Reap, the road became paved and nice. Cows and ducks still crossed it though. Our driver still drove very quickly. Often he narrowly missed a head-on collision in his attempt to skirt some pothole on his side of the road.

We arrived at 4:30. The hotel we had wanted was full, so I sat with the luggage while they went to find something. Young kids herded water buffalo and cattle down the packed red dirt road and a thin tall rooster pranced about. We were in the downtown area, past all the giant expensive hotels.

They returned and I was given a room for $7. They use US dollars but no coins (those amounts are done in riel. 1000 riel is about 25 cents). I took a cold shower (my only choice) from the shower head on the wall. But the room was nice and clean with two beds, two fans, a tv, a small curved sofa and a great bamboo clothes rack.

We grabbed some dinner at a restaurant and called it a day.

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