Cambodia: Hell on Wheels
After the longest, most uncomfortable, and therefore most humurous bus ride known to man, I finally arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Erin and I met a boat around 8:00 am leaving Don Det Island for the neighboring town of Ban Nakasang. We then loaded all of our bags onto a minivan, and soon we were barrelling down the dusty roads to the Laos/Cambodian border of Voem Kham/Koh Chheuteal Tom.
After a frustrating two hours dealing with the border police (I was forced to cough up $6 for "stamp fees," plus they tried to charge me $5 for "stealing" my departure card...I flirted it down to $2), we climbed back into our vans, and about an hour or so later, we arrived in the town of Stung Treng. We had a short lunch before seventeen of us climbed into a sticky, dilapidated old minibus (more like a van, but made for fifteen midgets), sans air-con, of course, and began the real journey of the trip.
It was an extremely long, steamy, sweaty, ride through the backwood dirt highways of northwest Cambodia. It is undisputed that Cambodian roads are the worst in the world, and we just happened to be on the most potholed, dusty, and dangerous road in the country. To add to the adventure, our driver was a maniac...we killed two dogs along the way, put the fear of God in children, and even got pulled over by a concerned citizen. Thank God for the padded ceilings in the van, is all I have to say. Oh, and our engine kept getting overheated, so every thirty minutes we would have to stop, get out of the van, and wait for the driver and his cronies to cool it down with our bottled water.
Around 5:00 pm we arrived in Kratie, where we dropped off two passengers in exchange for two more. It was a good chance to stretch our legs and tease each other about our dirty, brown faces (remember, we had no A/C, so we were forced to leave the windows open as we plummeted through the dirty road, covering our noses every so often to avoid clogging our lungs with filth!). Soon our driver began honking, and we climbed back aboard. Little did I know that we were only halfway to Siem Reap!
Finally, we were blessed with some nicer stretches of road, and just as we were trying to get comfortable (which is difficult even for a munchkin like myself...I was in the extreme back with one knee under my chin, one leg out the window, and my head wrapped in a fleece jacket so as not to receive a concussion via the windows or ceiling), our driver decided to take various shortcuts through the woods. All we could do was laugh, albeit nervously (there are so many horror stories about highway bandits!), at the entire situation.
Finally, around 10:00 pm, our little van could go no more, so we pulled into a driveway and switched our bags and ourselves into a nicer, newer van with air-conditioning. Unfortunately, this van was much smaller, so the fifteen of us crammed in while several Cambodian guys hung onto the luggage rack up top. After about an hour of this, I had the brilliant idea of climbing over my seat to the extreme back section of the van...it was a section about a foot wide and four feet long, piled seat high with bags and a guitar, but I somehow managed to wedge myself in for the remainder of the trip. Turns out, it was not so brilliant an idea, but I was basically stuck there until we finally arrived in Siem Reap.
Yep, we made it here at 2:00 am, dirty, exhausted, smelly, but with grins on our faces. After eighteen hours of sitting sweaty skin to sweaty
skin with complete strangers, breathing in the hot smoke and dust that shot through the open windows, all the while holding on for dear life as you constantly were flung out of your seat while the driver swerved to hit family pets down the Cambodian dirt superspeedway... well, what else can you do but laugh?!
Erin and I got a room at the first open guesthouse we spotted, where we were excited to receive our own bathroom, fresh towels, and soap for just $5 a night. I giggled delirously as I took my shower and the water never turned clear...even this morning's shower continued to wash off the caked on dirt.
So today is a rest day...we slept until 11:30 am, had a long breakfast, and now I'm paying an obscene amount of money updating my blog.
After a frustrating two hours dealing with the border police (I was forced to cough up $6 for "stamp fees," plus they tried to charge me $5 for "stealing" my departure card...I flirted it down to $2), we climbed back into our vans, and about an hour or so later, we arrived in the town of Stung Treng. We had a short lunch before seventeen of us climbed into a sticky, dilapidated old minibus (more like a van, but made for fifteen midgets), sans air-con, of course, and began the real journey of the trip.It was an extremely long, steamy, sweaty, ride through the backwood dirt highways of northwest Cambodia. It is undisputed that Cambodian roads are the worst in the world, and we just happened to be on the most potholed, dusty, and dangerous road in the country. To add to the adventure, our driver was a maniac...we killed two dogs along the way, put the fear of God in children, and even got pulled over by a concerned citizen. Thank God for the padded ceilings in the van, is all I have to say. Oh, and our engine kept getting overheated, so every thirty minutes we would have to stop, get out of the van, and wait for the driver and his cronies to cool it down with our bottled water.
Around 5:00 pm we arrived in Kratie, where we dropped off two passengers in exchange for two more. It was a good chance to stretch our legs and tease each other about our dirty, brown faces (remember, we had no A/C, so we were forced to leave the windows open as we plummeted through the dirty road, covering our noses every so often to avoid clogging our lungs with filth!). Soon our driver began honking, and we climbed back aboard. Little did I know that we were only halfway to Siem Reap!
Finally, we were blessed with some nicer stretches of road, and just as we were trying to get comfortable (which is difficult even for a munchkin like myself...I was in the extreme back with one knee under my chin, one leg out the window, and my head wrapped in a fleece jacket so as not to receive a concussion via the windows or ceiling), our driver decided to take various shortcuts through the woods. All we could do was laugh, albeit nervously (there are so many horror stories about highway bandits!), at the entire situation.
Finally, around 10:00 pm, our little van could go no more, so we pulled into a driveway and switched our bags and ourselves into a nicer, newer van with air-conditioning. Unfortunately, this van was much smaller, so the fifteen of us crammed in while several Cambodian guys hung onto the luggage rack up top. After about an hour of this, I had the brilliant idea of climbing over my seat to the extreme back section of the van...it was a section about a foot wide and four feet long, piled seat high with bags and a guitar, but I somehow managed to wedge myself in for the remainder of the trip. Turns out, it was not so brilliant an idea, but I was basically stuck there until we finally arrived in Siem Reap.
Yep, we made it here at 2:00 am, dirty, exhausted, smelly, but with grins on our faces. After eighteen hours of sitting sweaty skin to sweaty
skin with complete strangers, breathing in the hot smoke and dust that shot through the open windows, all the while holding on for dear life as you constantly were flung out of your seat while the driver swerved to hit family pets down the Cambodian dirt superspeedway... well, what else can you do but laugh?!Erin and I got a room at the first open guesthouse we spotted, where we were excited to receive our own bathroom, fresh towels, and soap for just $5 a night. I giggled delirously as I took my shower and the water never turned clear...even this morning's shower continued to wash off the caked on dirt.
So today is a rest day...we slept until 11:30 am, had a long breakfast, and now I'm paying an obscene amount of money updating my blog.
posted by Tiffany Joiner at 3:26 AM
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