ENTERING CAMBODIA
Entering into Cambodia requires nothing more than a valid passport, 1000 baht for your entry Visa, and a resolve to not be ripped off, taken, duped, or otherwise conned by those who have every right in the world to try and squeeze as much as they can from you. Remember, the gross national income (per capita) is $310 U.S. (World Bank 2003, BBC country profiles)
Cambodia ranks as one of the poorest countries in the world.
Above, the gateway into Cambodia at Poipet.
My pal Ken Austin and I entered via Poipet, on the overland route from Bangkok. It took four hours in a bus to get to Aranyapathet, the Thai border town, but we took the 3:00 a.m. bus to save daylight hours.
We had good luck with the various border guards and checkpoints. One guy tried a simpleton's bribe to speed up the process, but we didn't bite, nor would it have helped us.
After running the gauntlet of border guards into Poipet, the Touts immediately pounced on us ("touts" are people who earn a commission by trying to get you whatever you want, in our case a ride). One guy absolutely remained at our side no matter how much we ignored him. Eventually we secured a lift to Siem Reap from a driver in a Toyota Corolla. The tout basically did nothing, as the guy in the car just happened to pull up, but still he managed to collect a few hundred Riel (Cambodian currency) from the driver. We had read on the net that the going rate for the three hour drive into Siem Reap was $ 25.00 US. And sure enough, the driver would not budge a cent lower. They accept U.S. dollars, Thai baht, and Cambodian Riel (4000 riel = $1.00 US.).
The saddest thing I saw in Poipet were some little kids digging into garbage cans for food. I actually saw a kid emerge triumphant after discovering a bunch of discarded rice and other food in a Styrofoam container.
As I was saying, the driver drove a Toyota Corolla. About the only normal cars you see in Cambodia are Toyota Corolla's, and the occasional sport utility driven by NGO's. Obviously somebody at Toyota struck a big deal with the Cambodian government; they're everywhere! I wish I had been the rep on that deal. Anyway, most of the people drive bicycles or motorbikes or bizarre homemade contraptions, the likes of which I've never seen before!
The mass of humanity, though, seem to bulge off overloaded trucks, somehow managing to hang on at high speeds.
THE ROAD
The Toyota Corolla driver, let's face it, was insane.
Below is an image of the Cambodian Autobahn, the super highway to Siem Reap. Believe me, the image you are seeing is a good stretch of the road. (We stopped here for a pee). We were lucky on the way to Siem Reap, as no bridges were out. (On the way back TWO of the bridges we had previously crossed were out.)
We drove at a break neck speed over potholes and gravel, played chicken with every oncoming vehicle, and very nearly killed a kid on a bike. It went on for three hours, mind you.
This was no ordinary driver, this was Satan himself . How do I know this? . . . he did not fasten his safety belt (a serious, serious crime back home in Canada; yeesh we're a nanny state of worrying fretters). Still, under these conditions, a safety belt probably wouldn't have been a bad idea. Ken and I certainly fastened ours. We saw two accidents on the way (as if that is uncommon, ha). One of the accidents had a clear impression in the passenger side of the windshield of a human head impact.
Still, we arrived at Siem Reap unharmed. I dreaded knowing that I would have to do it again on the return trip. By the way, we saw gas being sold on the roadside in coke bottles.
Below is a picture of the return trip, with a bridge-out problem. Our driver simply backpedaled, drove off the road, and around the problem. Luckily it was dry season, but land mine season is never out!
On to Siem Reap
The Visa Run - A great website on the whole ordeal of crossing the border and getting to Siem Reap. This is a worthy site to explore just for the entertainment value.