From Siem Reap to Siam

The journey to the Cambodia/Thailand border has been notoriously infamous. Ask any independent traveler who made this trip and 9 out of 10 will probably have a story to tell. Our bus left at 7am with almost 30 of us rounded up from various parts of Siem Reap before heading towards Poipet, the nearest and most commonly used crossing between the 2 countries. Sitting beside me was a Geordie gal who only just managed to get onto the bus after a all night party. She has been a volunteer in the city for the past 6 months and has been making this trip every month to renew her visa. In the midst of her falling asleep, we did manage to have a really lovely chat about her work, her "really wild" party as well as her scary story of how she was driven to "no man's land" and extorted hundreds of dollars for a visa to enter Cambodia from the Thai end.

By noon, everything was smooth sailing as we crossed into Thailand without further troubles and the representation of the transport company gathered the group by a roadside stall to wait for the connecting mini-vans to bring us into the Thai capital, and other parts for other travelers. An hour and an half passed before the van finally arrived before 10 of us were hurried in together with all our huge backpacks and off we go towards Bangkok. Unfortunately it wasn't long before trouble struck - the van overheated and the driver tried for the next half hour trying to get a replacement van and cool the van in the meantime. In the end, he figured that it was best for us to make our way back to the border again to wait for a coach instead as there wasn't any vans available to pick us up. So off we headed back, and again, the van overheated after driving for another 10 minutes and we stopped again to "feed the radiator with water". Just as the rest of the traveling group was starting to grumble, a lady boss speaking minimal English arrived with a car and suggested that that the group be fetched back in batches to the border in the car instead. By then, the group of Chileans + Argentinians and a Swiss couple started to raise their voices towards the lady in charge, who, to her credit, was trying her best to resolve the situation in the best possible way. This continued on even after we got back to the border and during the next hour of waiting, the poor lady was bombarded with all kinds of abuse from the few. It was a scene so ugly that I describe as bringing out the worst behaviour of a human being, until a point where an American pal and I decided to defend her from the group's demeaning abuse.

To be honest, what would you expect to get out if you were to pay $8 to get from Siem Reap to Bangkok? For me, it means no frills travel on a bus/coach and arrive at the destination in one piece. Unfortunately for some, it also meant that they assumed they have the right to put people down, even when they are only visitors to their wonderful countries. I was really disgusted by their behaviour and really hope they are just minorities of the population of their otherwise fabulous countries that I have perceived them to be in my mind.

Another delay halfway into the capital from a punctured tyre meant that we did not get into Bangkok till 9pm (a full 14 hours journey from start), but I was only too pleased that it was a retribution to the unacceptable behaviour from the group to our host of this country...