There’s always a harder way. More exotic, dust- or mud-ridden, bumpy hard core way. Normally I ride my bicycle between destinations but my Thai visa was finished and I needed to get to Phnom Penh.
I also had read the road between the border and the capital was rather sketchy. Not what I was looking for but... Bangkok to the border town Aranyaprathet was easy enough. 6am train arriving at 11am.
This was my route. Quite a short trip but with nice scenery. I always enjoy the train in Thailand. This route has only 3rd class and tickets are available on board.
After a short ride and searching around for a vegetarian restaurant I came across the massive dusty Rong Kluea Market. Set on the former site of the refugee camp for Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge, this is the largest market in Thailand full of fake products and second hand goods. Basically, everything you ever wanted and didn't even know you wanted. There were various bicycles, clothes and parts that I still plan on returning to one day.
Finally, as there was no vegetarian restaurant I chose the Antique Cafe. The workers were Khmer, the owner Chinese Thai and the cook a ladyboy all amidst a conundrum of antiques. My favorites were the clocks all set on different times with chiming commencing at various moments during my visit. My trip to the bathroom found photos of semi and fully naked beautiful girls adorning the walls. Let the feminists be outraged, I was rather amused and appreciated the beautiful ladies. What lay ahead of me was going to be quite another experience altogether.
I had done a bit of research about the border crossing and felt fairly comfortable in my preparation. My exit stamp from Thailand was a bit delayed as after giving my passport and then having it returned unstamped I was told to go upstairs where all the normal tourists were lined up. As I was on a bicycle my exit strategy was via the road where the cars and trucks exited.
Standing a bit dumbfounded as I do when confused or doubtful of the goings-on, another guy with a two way radio took my passport, asked if I was going by bicycle and gave it back to immigration. A few minutes later I had my stamp and was off to Cambodia to get my visa.
While the Thai immigration officers are few and are well hidden behind tinted glass windows with very serious attitudes, the Cambodian officers were just lounging about outside the office and even up for a pleasant chat. Filling out the form and payment before the hordes of clueless tourists clogged up the process, I was able to escape quite easily with an entry stamp and I was in.
Thinking I had entered rather unscathed from the infamous border scams I was able to find the new bus station… with no buses. And outrageous prices. As I had inquired a bit on the border, I knew the prices were much lower than the prices this man wanted. He wanted 20 dollars! We bargained to 15 including the bicycle. Imagine trying to bargain the bus prices in Thailand. Not happening. That's also how you know you're being overcharged.
After a few hours the ramshackle of a bus arrived and we were off. A foreigner named Freddy immediately accosted me and wanted to know how much I had paid as we were the only two foreigners on the bus. He had paid more than me but was happy that I had gotten cheated as well. Misery loves company. We reckoned our arrival time to be around midnight in Phnom Penh but ended up around 3am.
After any number of stops to drop people off, eat food, load up fish, vegetables and who knows what else and the driver trying to extract more cash from me for my bicycle, the diesel exhaust aroma laden (had an internal exhaust leak) vehicle arrived in the capital. Without a clue as to where we were, Freddy and I took a tuk tuk with my bicycle to my Warmshowers host as there was a hotel nearby for him.
Thinking my journey was finally over and so happy to be at my destination, the security guy rang my host’s bell and rang her phone to no avail. I resolved myself to sleeping in the stairwell as it was much better than the bus. 5 hours later the door opened and normality returned. Throughout the bus ride and floor sleeping visions of India were rolling through my head. Indeed I had experienced much worse conditions there which prepared me for such ordeals as these. The ability to sleep in almost any position or condition is extremely helpful in such travels. Letting go and enjoying the ride is the way 😉.
Inspired to do some travels yourself? The time is coming soon! This one happened a couple of years ago. Stay tuned for more posts!
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