Cambodia 2003

I think it was a Thursday morning when we left from KoSan Rd., 7am. We were interested to see what the big 100 Baut ticket had in store for us. I mean come on, $2 U.S. to get to Angkor Wat. Something was up. The day before I had "googled" it and low and behold it was a scam. What they would do is make stops along the way and stall for time, they wanted to get you there when it was dark so you had to stay at the guesthouse they dropped you off at.
The dude who sold us the ticket swore we would be on a big bus from Bangkok to the border then we would have to transfer to a microbus because Cambodia will not allow Thai busses to enter the country. We got on a mini van on KoSan Rd. thinking it was taking us to the bigger bus. Twenty minutes later it began to dawn on us that we were taking this thing the whole way. Whatever, it wasn't that bad. The only wrinkle was that about three hours into it Kasia yelled, "stop the van!" She then proceeded to puke on the side of a Thai highway.
We got there in about five hours.
This is where another part of the scam takes place, the visa. We stopped at a "food" area for lunch. It was about five minutes from the border. There were a few guys there offering to do our visas for us. They would run them to the border in advance and set up all the paperwork. Because we knew the deal we said no and saved ourselves 200 baut. They told us it would take too long for us to do it on our own and we might miss the bus but again we knew the real deal. The thing to keep in mind is that the bus company gets $6 U.S. for every person they deliver to a guesthouse in Siam Reap. $6 a head is a fortune there and they would have done anything or waited however long in order to get us there. In fact at the border Kasia and Sash decided to stay a night because she wasn't feeling well. The people from the bus company not only drove her to the hospital but they set up a bus ride for them the next day.
Now that I'm thinking about it we were traveling with three Dutch girls and they decided to let the guys at the restaurant do their visas. They were told 1000 Baut but when they returned they had to pay 1200! What are you going to do? They have your visa.
Anyways, me and Anna pushed on, determined to get Siam Reap by that night.
After our lunch break we were driven to the border. I was nervous having heard many horror stories. The main thing you had to watch for were the pickpockets, especially the kids. If they swarm you forget it...wallet gone.
In reality though things weren't that bad. We got across without a hitch.
It was a real no mans land though, nothing much around except for dirt, garbage and poor people. It was weird because it wasn't like the Canadian-U.S. border. There was literally a 300m stretch of nothing you had to walk before you got to the Cambodian border. Oh, the big thing there were the casinos. Gambling is illegal in Thailand but fine in Cambodia. Tons of Thai's do day trips to gamble. It was dirt poverty with the occasional posh casino.
Army men and checkpoints on the Thai side and again on the Cambodian side.
We got through and loaded into the micro bus packed with annoying white people. Sad to say a few were Canadians.
Sat, sat, sat...
It was hot and the seats were plastic, I got off the bus to wait. I was approached by a little girl begging for money. It was filthy and she was in rags and bare feet. Before you knew it I had 10 kids around me. Lice, skin infections...I felt bad but I got back on the bus. This was my first taste of the poverty there, but it wasn't the last. More to come. The bus finally left.

TO BE CONTINUED.