The Bus Ride from... Hello Operator...

Ahh! The bus. The lovely lovely bus!

A sample of huts from the villages we passed in our van.

Cambodians at work in the fields. A scene from one of our many "van's overheated" stops!

Feb 25th.
Let me talk about the bus ride from Laos to Siem Reap. Oh my goodness!!! It was the craziest bus ride I've ever been on. First of all, we had a 12 passenger van with 16 people crammed in it. There was no air conditioner so we were literally sticking to the person next to us. We were skin to skin with the stranger beside us and everyone looked like they wet their pants it was so hot and sweaty! We traveled on dusty dirt roads and because we were sans aircon we had all the windows open to try and encourage some air flow. However, it turned out to be a battle of two evils. Unbearable heat or loads of dust to cake our hair and skin and I'm sure our lungs! We chose the dust and dirt over heat stroke! At the end of the trip I looked like I had this crazy dark tan, mostly consisting of dirt!

When we arrived at the border this skinny little Cambodian man with a long metal stick in hand approached us and started speaking to us in English explaining we needed to pay a fee for the departure and arrival stamps ($6 US) This seriously weird little man came out of nowhere and was hassling everyone. I'm embarrassed to say that everyone of us were scammed by this guy and paid him $6. Well, he made a lot of money that day to say the least...He tried to charge Tiffany $5 b/c she lost her departure card but she went over to the border guys smiled and said $2? and they said "for you, ok." It's basically like that in Cambodia. If you flash a bright big smile you are likely going to be liked back instantly. Cambodians are such friendly people, with the exception of this border guy! On the other side of the border our van wouldn't start so we had to push it to get it going. We all coughed at the black smoke pouring out behind us. A good sign I know.

The rest of the trip was crazy. Our driver was going so fast weaving back and forth across the dirt road to avoid gigantor potholes. Not to mention we had to stop every hour b/c the engine was overheating. The worst was that he would race through all these little villages and I was so worried one of the children playing on the side of the road would get run over. We did kill two dogs along the way though and our driver just laughed hysterically. We all looked at each other in bewilderment. Tiff was sitting in the back and had to wrap her head in her fleece to prevent a concussion because she kept banging her head on the roof, the window, and the girl beside her!She was definitely a sight to see!

About 10:00pm we switched drivers and vans and now there was a man on the roof shining a big spotlight where to go. If our driver took a wrong turn he would bang on the roof and point with his spotlight the direction to go. We were being taken on a very deserted road deep in the forest. One of the guys was convinced we were going to be robbed (he told us later) and had his Swiss army knife ready. I was really skeptical too, it all seemed very strange and eerie. But alas we arrived in Siem Reap at 2:00am (18 hours of travel) and set out to find a guesthouse. We took showers before bed and I could not believe the dirt that came off me!

Even though it was a wild ride it was the kind-of travel I had envisioned in Cambodia. Apparently that was the worst stretch of road in the country. It'll only get better from here =)