BANGKOK - SIEM REAP

We endured a tropical downpour to get from our guesthouse to meet our coach bus that was taking us to the border. I should've taken that as a sign of what was in store for us yesterday.

We had a 5hr trip to some middle of nowhere restaurant where we were told to get off the bus. I've gotten used to getting off and on bus after bus without being given a reason...I've stopped asking questions and I just go with it. The guy who worked for the bus company gave us visa request forms for Cambodia and told us that the visas were 35USD. I knew that they were supposed to be 20USD but whenever you ask a Thai person a question that they don't want to answer, they pretend they can't understand you. What could we do, we were in the middle of nowhere. We handed over the money and were put on an open back army style truck. That dropped us in the middle of a market close to the border. We had to weave our way through vendors in sweltering heat wearing 2-3 heavy bags. We went through Thai immigration first then walked through some kind of crossing which we thought was the border. We had to wait in the boiling sun because some guy on our bus overstayed his visa in Thailand.

While we waited some Thai begger kids hassled us from behind a fence. One of them slapped my bum to get my attention...It worked! They grabbed onto my bag and asked for money or "num num." A guy in our group gave them a couple of Baht (about one cent CAD) and they all swarmed him like vultures. Another bus picked us up and after a short drive kicked us out. More walking--finally made it to the Cambodian border. We had to wait forever after crossing the border in the hot sun for reasons unknown to us. We hopped on another bus which took us to a building where we were kicked off the bus. We waited patiently once again following the "don't ask questions, just go with it" mentality. It is the only way you can remain sane in this part of the world! We were escorted to a minivan that was built sometime in the 70's. This was a bit of a problem because our travel agent in Bangkok promised us a large airconditioned bus! We crammed 9 people into this van with no air con and one of the windows wouldn't open!

To give you an idea of how unconfortable our 6hr bus ride was...An unnamed airline pays an unnamed Cambodian political party to keep the road in terrible condition so that people are forced to fly between Thailand and Siem Reap. There are a few crazy Westerners travelling on a budget that opt for the potholed, broken bridged, never updated dirt road route. Words cannot describe how bumpy that 6hrs was, its something you would have to experience first hand to get it. There were moments during the "drive" that the three of us would just start laughing hysterically because it was such a ridiculous scenario we were in. We finally arrived in Siem Reap, covered in dirt (dirt flew in the open windows like you wouldn't believe)and exhausted (sleeping was impossible on the bus). Knowing that we were heading to the ancient city of Angkor the next day helped me through the pain and dirtiness.