It was a long and winding road, And it was hot and very dusty. And there was a border crossing with officials making the rules up with each person, and then there was a flat tire and sooo many cows on the road. It was the road to Cambodia - Bangkok to Siem Reap, via Poipet, on the 'scam bus". It was great.

What a ride and what a long fun day - really. Was out standing on the corner in Bangkok at 7 am, fully packed and ready to go. Mini bus pulls up - looks good, road worthy and pretty roomy with 4 fresh faced 20 somethings in the vehicle - all good, lots of room for the 45 hour trip to the border. Then we kept stopping at more corners.....more fresh faces...more stops, less room and finally with 11 of us rather crowded in we headed out of the city on our adventure to Cambodia. As we got to know each other a little bit, it was revealed that everyone knew of the scams yet we all were willing to take the chance. Most of the bus occupants were world travelers - young kids, seeing the world on their 'Gap' year - between graduation and work. No one smelled poorly and no one was so hungover as to worry about premature puking before we hit the dirt road. Seemed like Karma was with us and truth be told, it stayed with us for the day.

The trip to the border was uneventful - beautiful Thai highway, few Nice pit stops. Just prior to arriving at the border the driver pulled in to a 'lunch' spot and the scams started. Most of my bus were just going to see Angkor Wat for one day. Bus, overnight, see Angkor Wat, sleep, return to Bangkok. Quick but the lure of one of the Wonders of the World too great to miss when you are just 10, 12, 15 hours away.

At lunch, the waiters turned into Cambodian border officials, willing to process our Visas for our convenience prior to the border........most of the other bus loads were furiously filling out the official forms and shelling out their 1500 Baht. (about 50 bucks).....even after our prediscussion that we were not going to be scammed, two of our little new British girls and two dutch kids were bullied into signing up. By this time I had met my new best friend and kindred spirit - a Mexican lawyer from Puerto Vallarta who had just come from India and is as cheap, or frugal, as me and just as incensed by injustice. I told our bus mates that Rachel and I would be refusing to overpay anywhere - including at the border, so they would all have to wait anyway while we fought for justice and equality in our own small way. Within a short time we had organized half the restaurant to rebel against these fake shiesters. This was not embraced by the staff and they quickly turned on our young friends. In our group we had - three Brits, Two South African teachers from Taiwan, two Dutch kids who have been on the road for over a year, an Australian who didn't speak, a Mexican and me and a driver who spoke no English. The world on the move.

The dutch kid announced that the trip would know be Rachel and mine to take over and the rest would follow our lead. It gets even longer and hotter but I can tell you we organized, decided we were a tour, chose my guest house as our address as I was the only one who had accommodation booked, decided we were all staying three days and put all the same info on the visa forms at the chaotic border.

We cleared the Thai side and walked the 3 blocks or so to the Cambodian border - Thai vehicles don't do the Cambodian frontier I guess. At the border everyone was quoted a different price and they had decided on that day they no longer accepted us cash which was the required form of payment previously.....ranging from $30 Us to $50 US, depending on how hot or vulnerable you looked. We all paid about $30 bucks in Thai money - no receipts and were happy to be on our way with only about 45 minutes of standing in the blazing sun waiting for processing and our new ride. A new mini bus arrived and we headed off - pretty good road for the first half hour or so, kind of asphalt - lots of construction. The next 3 hours or so, full tilt road construction with lots of detours, gravel, rocks and gullies, bouncing all around, stopping now and then. The poverty and simple life in the Cambodia countryside was quite dramatic from the Thai side. Lots of simple little houses in the middle of no where with one cow and each house had a stand selling a few bananas, pineapples, plastic dishes or gasoline in pop bottles.

The last five hours or so were really bumpy - red dust had already filled the bus and it seemed to be shaking loose. We got a flat tire and had it repaired at a tire shop/restaurant/ food stall. This little area was very crowded with trucks and buses loaded with Cambodians on the move - home from the rice fields. Nearly every Cambodian, in the country, wears a full mask of a balaclava or scarf with hat and their bodies wrapped up to keep out the dust. The dirt roads and all the truck and bus traffic kick up a fair bit of dirt, and combined with the heat (about 35-40) it is not nice to have skin or mouth or nostrils exposed.

We pulled into Siem Reap about 8 pm......a scam kind of guy met us - we were being deposited in a parking lot after we had negotiated being able to be taken to Rosy's.....but it had become clear that negotiation is one thing,,,,delivering the product is another. I know this will be my future here for while....nothing is clear. Even the price the 10 of us paid for the trip ranged fro 550 B to 800B - everything is a negotiation and if you are willing to pay more - have at er........
We all agreed to go with a few tuk tuk drivers who told us we could get $5.00 rooms. I was just going along to actually see a $5.00 room and would make my way to Rosy's ($15 and booked on the internet), Plan B was everyone was going to stay in my room.

Amazingly - the $5 hotel was really great. It is the Angkor Hilton. Really. That is the name. Here in Siem Reap there are amazing 5 star hotels and a Vegas style strip as the international airport brings very rich tourists in to see Angkor Wat and then fly out. You can pay $400 night or $5 night. The rest of my crew decided on the Hilton and I headed to Rosy's wondering what a room three times the price would be like. It was OK but I checked out after last night and booked in here at the Hilton. I am paying $7.00 because I have hot water, tv and a fan and a huge double room. Really nice - big French architecture, sparkly clean and great food at their outdoor restaurant. Tonite I had Red Snapper in mushroom sauce, salad, fries for $3.30. That was the highest priced meal - most are around $2.00. All good.

Rachel, the south Africans and I did Siem Reap today - more on that later as I have to run to get my memory card reader for a girl who needs it.

These messages take a long time because of the typing issue and mostly because half the keys stick on this keyboard. Excuse the typos.....

No worries for you worrying types - the long and winding road was really fun and the bumps were all manageable. Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, my buddies are going back to Bangkok tomorrow on the 7 am bus so I will have to make new ones .......I will miss these ones..

Maybe I will get the photos of Angkor Wat up tomorrow - AMAZING!!!!!!!!

Love, Deb