From Chang Mai the journey began. I decided to fly back to Bangkok, even for a budget traveler the lure of a night in a bed before the long trip to Cambodia was worth the extra £6. That was until the flight was delayed, I didn’t go to bed until 2:30 am and the bus to Cambodia left at 7 am that same morning. The journey from Bangkok to the Cambodian border was comfortable, starting in a nice air-conditioned coach with plenty of free seats to stretch out, followed by a minibus and then a motorcycle with a sidecar across the border. Everything was going well.
One across the border, a group of us were herded into the back of 2 pickup trucks. We were told that one of the bridges on the way to Siem Reap was broken, therefore we had to ride the trucks to the bridge before meeting the bus on the other side of the broken bridge. The vans were so overcrowded that we had 12 people on top of the 20 backpacks that formed temporary seats for more people who couldn’t fit on the edge of the truck. For the first hour or so the trip was fine, the scenery was amazing, completely different from Thailand. I did not expect such a contrast. The road, however, was the worst dirt track I’ve ever seen, with huge trucks, buses and motorbikes speeding by. They don’t seem to be driving on any particular side of the road and the rules of the road don’t seem to apply.
Five very hectic and uncomfortable hours later (by which time it had been almost 14 hours since we left Bangkok), we finally reached the broken bridge. We carried our bags across the bridge and got on the not-so-luxury Cambodian bus, again with more people than seats, and definitely more bags than people. Again a bit crowded but things were looking good, at least we could now expect to sleep through the 2 hour drive to Siem Reap, sleeping in the vans would have led to us falling out of the back. However, 30 minutes into this leg of the journey, we again stopped. This time a truck had its chassis stuck in one of the potholes and was blocking the road. There were 20 other trucks queuing up behind the one that was stuck, most with drivers sleeping in their hammocks underneath.
Residents of the local town had gathered to try to free the truck, but to no avail. Meanwhile, the local children were fascinated to see ‘white people’. I spent the 3 hours we were stranded there playing with these kids, teaching them songs like ‘The Hokey Cokey’ and ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’. I knew my days as a theater leader would come in handy at some point! Amazing to do this while also seeing fireflies and watching the moon set, very pretty.
At 2am another van finally arrived to take us to Siem Reap, which was even more crowded than the previous one that day. 1 1/2 hours later we were anticipating our arrival at our destination when the truck swerved to avoid a disabled car, once again the road was blocked! Once again we are stuck. At least we were already on the outskirts of the city and soon a minibus arrived to take us to the last bus stop, from where I called a motorcycle taxi to take me and my huge backpack to my hostel. I finally arrived at the hostel at 4 am, 21 hours after leaving and very tired.
In hindsight, do you wish you had spent the money for the short flight from Thailand to Cambodia? Not one bit. Yes, the flight would certainly have been quicker and easier, but this was a trip I’ll remember forever.
