we left our guest house in bangkok under the cover of darkness at 5:15am to make our 5:55 train that would take us to the border. there is no continuous transportation across the border by bus, train or otherwise. our train started moving from hualamphong station in bangkok at 5:57. not bad!
each ticket is less than $2 - third class only for trains to aranyapathet (the town on the thai side of border). roel slept for about 5 of the six hours. haha no surprise there for anyone who has travelled with him before. i was wired! we had a bench seat each facing each other and a window on the side that we could adjust. the breeze was cool and the sun was on such an angle that it could mostly be avoided. here are some of the highlights along the way. unfortunately my camera could only take blurry photos while we were moving. lets just say i was ready to throw it out the window after trying everything possible to capture any of these moments.
-bright green rice fields, wetlands, houses on stilts
-countless storks
-many large irrigation ponds and systems to flood the rice fields-young boys in sumo type diapers working along canals with long wooden sticks doing something agricultural i assume haha
-children floating large paper boats on a stream in a village alongside the train
-army base closer to border with a whole lotta tanks lined up-lots of burning fields and ditches, the smell reminiscent of rosentort after harvest. ash would occaisionally drift through our window and stain our skin and this paper i'm copying my notes from!
but now the fun begins! we get off the train and get our tuktuk to the border...or at least that's where we think we are (driver wasn't very communicative). we didn't know whose soil we were on at this point. immediately we are addressed by someone wearing a uniform and brought us to his little tent and told us to fill out cambodian visa forms and he said he was appointed there by the consulate and this service was free and needed to be done. i wasn't buying whatever he was claiming not to sell so we just trucked on along between the trucks and traffic by foot to the border. getting out of thailand was relatively easy. once we got to the cambodian side we started to get a little stressed. there was the visa çheckpoint, customs shack and the stamping shack. in between there were a whole bunch of middle men pointing you in opposite directions. impossible to know who actually works for the government and if it is even a good thing if they do. at the visa checkpoint you give them your passport photo (that you need to bring along), fill out a form and then give them $20 US a head. they gave us a few varying stories about needing to pay up to $10 extra each for a variety of reasons (the amounts and the currencies to pay extra fee varied). we refused. our passports disappeared inside (we are in the extreme heat outside ha) but i could see them through a window just sitting on a table ready to go.
which way next and who do we listen to?!?!
we played the waiting game and won! eventually a new guy came through and begrudgingly gave us our passports. the next stop at customs was a seemingly useless form with our names and not much else. no other tourists got waved in other than the two of us from what i could see. step three was getting stamped into cambodia. this little shack of a building literally had a tree growing through it. hahaha it was about 95 degrees with at least 75% humidity and no air movement packed body on body. we spent an hour in that line. good news? i now fit a pair of shorts that didn't fit last year. i am almost down to my highschool weight of 150 lbs! i'm sure roel's mom would be force feeding me if she was here!
we took a shuttle to the transport depot where we took a cab to the outskirts of siem reap from where a tuktuk brough us to our guesthouse 'for free'. he only demanded that we now use him for the rest of our travels through angkor wat (the only reason anyone comes here). we stood our ground and it payed off.
we walked around downtown at night and were surprised with the laid back atmosphere and quaint 'laneways with restaurants and bars.' the only thing that took some getting used to were the street vendors, etc being super aggressive. mexico, dominican republic and bangkok have nothing on these cambodians. they are so goo d at it too. they could probably market their skills in other developing countries.
our guesthouse was (is) fabulous. air-con, firm bed, large room, exceptionally clean, large rooms with marble floors. look up babel guesthouse if interested.
that's all i can type for now. i promise great pictures for the next post!
The guest house looks awesome! The border experience stresses me out, good job keeping your cool on that one.
ReplyDeleteWow, glad to hear things worked out for you. Praying for safety as you continue your travels.
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