Cambodia & Borders

Our minibus to the border - with happy butterfly
decorations and smiling flowers!

Walking out of the Bangkok airport was a transition like no other - we went from clear, dry, 50F Istanbul, into the 88F, muggy, smoggy air and steel-sky of Bangkok. We met up with Lynnea at the hotel, a cool backpackers' hostel called Suk 11. We decided to leave the city the next day and head for Cambodia, as Lynnea only had a few days more on her visa in Thailand, and we had no desire to hang around in the big city.

We caught a mini bus from Bangkok to the border town of Aranyaprathet (Aran for short), where we stayed the night, intending to cross the border the next day. This particular border crossing is apparently the worst for scams, so we wanted to cross early, as it gets sketchier at night. We checked in to a pretty comfy hotel, for a whopping $5/person per night, and then went to check out the local street food.

Street food!

Eating street food in Cambodia and Thailand is quite safe, so long as you follow a few simple rules: 1) Check the kitchen - if it's pretty clean, and if the ingredients stay covered, and no sign of meat sitting around. 2) The food must be served piping hot, so you can be sure any initial bacteria was wiped out by the heat. 3) Food buffets are fine, just go early so you can ensure the food is fresh.

We stopped at a small roadside stand, a truly mobile kitchen, that made a glass-noodle soup. It was some of the most fantastic food I've ever had - and so spicy! We started bulking up on our capsaicin content in our bloodstream as another way to combat the mosquitoes. So far, so good! We have had very few bites.

Our stylish tuk-tuk

The next day, we hopped a ride on a tuk-tuk to the border. A tuk-tuk, pronounced "took-took", is a small open-air "taxi". At its very basic, it consists of a motorcycle pulling a golf-cart-esque structure behind it. They often cost a bit more than car-sized taxis because they can navigate smaller streets and thicker traffic.

Our lady tuk-tuk driver (it was unusual to see a woman driving a tuk-tuk, Lynnea told us) took us the 5km (3 miles) down the main highway towards the border checkpoint, while we bumped along, hanging onto the handles and hoping our bags wouldn't fall out into the road. The traffic increased until we could see streams of cars and loaded vehicles, and the speed slowed to a trickle. Our driver took a right at a sleek looking building, taking us around the back to a deserted gravel parking lot. A man, in a western-like long-sleeved shirt (despite the heat), immediately came out of the back of. the building.

The entrance gate to Cambodia!

"You need visa?" he inquired.

We exchanged glances. There weren't any other people around, and this guy seemed rather too eager.

"Yes, but we're going to go take a look around, we'll be back," we said, hoisting our bags. We paid the driver - 80 baht/person, or roughly $2.70 - although we felt nervous we weren't where we were supposed to be, and off we walked. A local sitting by the road helped by pointing us towards the checkpoint, and we soon began to join up with other tourist backpackers trudging in the same direction.

The traffic at the border

After that, everything ran smoothly: we were processed quickly through the Thailand exit, and then we walked across the no-man's land inbetween into the Cambodia visa office. After a little paperwork, we were herded into a low-ceilinged building next to the road, behind 50-odd other tourists, all of us shuffling very slowly towards four checkpoint windows. As we waited, we could see a myriad of strange and interesting vehicles passing in the street: trucks precariously loaded with huge plastic bags (filled with who-knows-what), a huge tall van filled with snorting pigs, many bicycles and loaded motorbikes... We were definitely not in Italy anymore.

Finally, our paperwork was done, and we caught a bus to the taxi depot. We shared a taxi with a guy from Denmark, and we drove into the Cambodian countryside, towards Siem Reap three hours away. Our destination - mystical Angkor Wat, the largest Hindu temple complex, and the largest religious monument in the world.