Bangkok to Siem Reap

My next destination after Thailand was Cambodia. One of two boarder crossings at Poipet. I took a six hour bus from Bangkok to the boarder. I met two Iranian guys, currently living in East Timor, who were heading to Cambodia for their third time. Together, we got a Tuk Tuk to the visa office for our Cambodia visas.

In Cambodia, people greet each other as brother and sister, which I first learned talking with the visa office attendant. Another employee asked me where I was from and when I told him the U.S. he rattled off different greetings he's learned from tourists: "What's up?" and "How you doin'?" were a couple. I chose to give him "How's it hangin'?" and stressed that this was something to use with male visitors.

I was heading to Siem Reap and my Iranian friends to a different town so I bought a seat in a share taxi. From the visa office I was whisked away by the attendant on motorbike. My bags followed in the Tuk Tuk. I proceeded to go through various check points at the boarder office. After the first checkpoint I was handed off to a different guy. After check point two, he led me to a bus. I was a little confused since I was taking a taxi, but he and his tag-a-long companion assured me we were taking the bus to the taxi stand. I was the only one on the bus. I figured I was either about to be robbed or I'd in fact be led to the taxi stand.

The taxi stand was a small room with rows of chairs. I sat for a few minutes before my guide returned and led me out the back into an alley. There I saw a car with four Westerners crammed inside. Three Cambodian taxi drivers were standing at the front with the hood raised, hitting the engine with a wrench. I was happy when we passed that car. I shared a taxi with a guy from Sweden also making his third trip to Cambodia. He was on his way to Siem Reap to look for a guest house that he could rent for 6 months to a year as a small business. His daughter, 18, is in an international program and must live abroad for a period of time to fulfill the requirements. So their plan was to run a small guest house in Siem Reap.

The road between the boarder and Siem Reap is rather legendary. The poor road conditions are in every travel book and any travelers that I've met that have made the drive talk about the spine jarring, bumpy ride. Indeed there are parts that are very hectic. Part of the road is paved while others are in the process and other parts remain dirt packed and dusty in the dry season. Small roadside stands sell food, water, gasoline in re-used soda bottles, and household wares. The flora is green with fruit trees, palms and grass fields. Every few miles plots of lotus will fill the landscape. Cows walk the roads and graze in the fields.

Our driver was a Siem Reap native who drives the 6 hours round-trip a day shuttling tourists back and forth to the boarder. As we bumped along the road, rap music blared from the front seat. In Cambodia they drive on the right side of the road, however our driver had a right driver seated car. So every time he'd pass a truck along the small two-lane road he'd have to pull halfway across the middle just to be able to see if there was on-coming traffic. We arrived safely and I took yet another tuk tuk to the No. 9 Guesthouse which became my home for the next three nights.