The Border

I’ve been planning to write about this before I completely forgot the details of this exciting border crossing.

Meg and I crossed the Poipet (Cambodia) / Aranyaprathet (Thailand) border on April 27, 2008. I expected this to be the most challenging part of our whole trip. And my expectation was met.

It was the second day of our six-day adventure in the land of the free and the kingdom of wonder. We left Mary Ann’s place in the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) at about sunrise. It was early, as a matter of fact, Mary Ann hasn’t woken up yet. We took a cab from AIT to Morchit Bus Terminal where we would take a bus to Aranyaprathet. The ride to the bus terminal turned out to be a long one especially with a non-English speaking (but laughing often) driver. And Meg and I got a taste of Bangkok traffic which contrary to what I’ve is not as horrible as I thought. After living in Manila for 13 years, you get used to traffic jams.

When we finally got to the bus Terminal, the driver just laughed us off (after we paid of course). I was thinking that driver, for lack of a better way to communicate with us, just inhaled a substantial amount of laughing gas, and decided just to laugh at us if ever we have a question he can’t understand.

Getting the ticket (215 baht) for the bus was fairly easy. The guy at the ticket counter was friendly. We got the seat at the back of the driver. Traveling to Aranyaprathet is like traveling from Iloilo City to Ajuy. There was nothing much to see but rows of houses and ricefields. A noticeable difference though is that there are two flags in front of each house, one is the Thailand flag and the other is a flag of the kingdom. Upon arriving in the town center, we took a Tuk Tuk (60baht) to the border itself.


We read all about the scams in the Poipet border so we’re a bit (ok not a bit, we were really) paranoid when we got to this point. Our contact in Siem Reap also warned us to be cautious since there were a lot of touts in the area.

Meg and I were holding maps of the area so we were a bit confident where we were headed. But after walking several meters we realized we’re lost. We saw casinos all around us, and the map says we shouldn’t be there yet. So we asked around and the first person we approached is the guy manning a small hotel’s entrance. He just smiled and directed us to go inside. We wondered where he was directing us to go. When we got in, he introduced us to a Kababayan who was working as a receptionist in the hotel.

It turned out, we already passed by our meet-up place. So we retraced our steps and found the Cambodia Visa Services building where we will meet our contact, Somboth. (Thanks to Pinoys and Pinays working all over the world, a fellow kababayan has a friend anywhere in the world.)

We’re supposed to meet a guy named Somboth in the building. Our contact told us to specifically ask “What’s your name?” not “Are you Somboth?”. There were a lot of touts in the area so he told us to be extra careful.

I thought the strategy was fool-proof but when two guys claimed they were both Somboth, things got “exciting”. I tried to call our contact but we can’t reach him. Instead, there was a non-English speaking girl at the other end of the line. She told us to go with the first Somboth.

After we got out of immigration, “Somboth” took us to a bus. We panicked cause we knew a taxi was supposed to fetch us from the border. Instead, Meg and I were in a non-air-conditioned bus. And we were the only passengers in a huge bus! (At this point, we we were sure we were being scammed.) But after just a few meters of big puddles of murky water, we were told to get off the bus. Somboth introduced us to our “taxi driver”. At this point, we didn’t trust anyone. We tried to call our guest house again and after a seemingly endless phone call not going anywhere. We were somehow convinced (although not 100%) that this is indeed our ride. Our driver is Sol, a Khmer. He looked a bit young and he looked decent so we finally were convinced to get in the cab.

The first few minutes, Meg and I were ready to bolt out of the cab. We were asking Sol a whole of questions just to check if he’s really the one who was supposed to pick us up. After seeing how paranoid we were, Sol laughed. His laugh broke the tension.

Since we were already convinced we were in good hands, I thought we will be able to relax and enjoy the ride. Lo and behold! That was just the start of the adventure.

The road condition from Poipet to Siem Reap was supposed to be really bad during rainy season. But April is supposed to be summer time so we were not expecting any rain. No! Things have to be really more exciting. It turned out we were in the middle of a ten-day storm! So there are only two road conditions, bad and worse.

Since it has been raining the whole day, the unpaved road was converted to an off-road with a terrain only good for 4x4 (not even). After 30 minutes on really bad roads, we stopped. A truck ahead of us got stuck, so at least a kilometer of traffic jam ensued. Good thing, Sol can speak English well and we got to talk about a lot of things. I asked him two questions and he laughed. You know why? The same questions were also asked by his Filipino guests a week before. The first question, What’s the name of your president and Do you know Angelina Jolie? He knows the name of his president but he has no idea who Ms Jolie is. When in my mind, Angelina is very closely linked to Cambodia. But it turned out not to this Cambodian. What is it with Filipinos and showbiz?

Back on the road…..some of the tourists in the other cars decided to eat some local delicacy sold in the streets. After an hour, we got moving again. We thought things will be running smoothly from here on but this day is turning out to be full of surprises. We got stalled again. Another car got stuck. The roads were really bad that even a 4x4 vehicle’s tires can’t handle the terrain. Phew!

After 30 mintues, we got moving again. And yes, you’ve guessed it, another car got stuck again and it turned out to be ours! Our friend (yes, at his point, he became our friend) Sol, who was very composed with his neatly combed hair tried to maneuver his way out of the mud but he can’t get the car out. Good thing, one of his driver friends was behind us and he helped push the car out of the mud. After this, Sol’s hair was in complete disarray. And he was profusely apologizing to us for what’s happening. He said this three-hour ride is turning out to be six-hour ride. He’s a nice guy after all.

It was starting to get dark. I was praying that we won’t be stuck in the middle of nowhere at night. We haven’t eaten since breakfast, and I felt pangs of hunger at this point. We ate some of our life-saving donuts. Those were probably the best donuts I have ever tasted.

After we got stuck, I can’t remember if we got stalled again. Probably. But it was part of a routine we got so used to that we didn't count anymore. It was already dark and we were still on the road. But the roads were getting better. (from worse, it’s getting bad). Finally, we got to out destination in a very dramatic manner. The bright lights of Siem Reap welcomed us to a place I didn't think existed at the end of the road we just traversed.

The communities we passed by, were such in deplorable conditions that I feel blessed to be a Filipino. I feel sorry for feeling that way. But the road conditions in the boondocks of Iloilo were way better than the road conditions in this part of the world.

Siem Reap is a city with fancy hotels, huge structures and a lot of tourists. But after seeing the communities we passed through, I thought we got in a warp zone where we got sucked in a different universe. The difference between Siem Reap and the nearby communities is so indecently pronounced that I had to stop and allow the reality to sink in.

This day is quite an assault to all my senses. When we got to Siem Reap, we were so thankful to arrive in one piece and have a place to stay. At the same time, it made me realize again not to take things for granted and be thankful for everything that I have. Oh, by the way, Siem Reap has this big structure.