Oh man where do I begin...this has been quite the day. I guess I will start off by saying that as soon as I packed my bags and left my hotel this morning or I actually as soon as I woke up and thought about packing my bags I felt a sudden light and airy feeling about my trip. I felt how I have wanted to feel traveling, but have been hindered since staying on koh san road...I have to say (and I can since I stayed there for way too many days) is just a tourist trap full of drunk men and skanky women.
That being said, my crazy day begins. My original plan was to wake up at 4 am and take the 5:55 am train that would take me directly to the Cambodian border. I ended up waking up at 5:15 am, so I quickly had to throw that plan out the window. I knew that I could also take a bus, but didn't want to use the prepared bus service right from kho san road because I knew that it was a scam and they charge way too much. With that in mind and my stubbornness in full swing, I had my complementary toast and coffee and set out for the river boat, which from looking at the map, could take me close to the bus station for next to nothing.
I thought this would be a pretty easy task so I took my two maps, my big backpack on my back, and set out in the 35' C weather. For about 2 1\2 hours I searched for the river boat! Getting out of the touristy part of town, no one spoke English and the signs were only in Thai. I knew I was pretty much screwed, but I had a map and I'm stubborn, so I was determined. I used what little Thai I had learned so far and a bunch of crazy gestures to finally get help and make my way to the dock. All this only to find that the last boat at that dock just passed!! Now even more determined (not to mention dripping with sweat) I continued on. About 30 minutes and 5 wrong turns later, I arrived at the next dock. This one had the boats I wanted. I asked a nice monk next to me if the boat went to my stop, he said yes and I got on only to find it didn't! How could I be mad though...he is a monk, after all. I got off at the last possible stop, which at least brought me closer to where I wanted to be. From here I really wanted to walk (most of you know how much I hate taking taxis) but I was so hot and almost not going to make it to Cambodia that night that, begrudgingly, I got into a cab to the bus station. All the sudden my day got easier. I went straight to the counter, bought an 11:30 ticket to Aranyapathet and got right on the bus.
The bus was air conditioned and pretty spacious and all for only 212 bhat or about 7 american dollars. There I met a nice guy from Sweden, who I ended up traveling with through the border where we met two others who teach English in Taiwan and we all traveled to Angkor Wat and Agkor Thom together. I even ended up rooming with two of them, which worked out well for all of us and made it so we only paid 5$ each a night for a room! I am just so happy that I was able to meet people on this leg of the trip. It all worked out so well and it was really nice to have the company.
There was one other mini scam that Nick, the guy from Sweden, and I ran into. It is pretty hard to know where to get off the bus when the signs aren't always in English and the bus driver doesn't speak English. So, when I asked the bus driver if the bus station at the border town was the right place, he motioned us off the bus right to the tuk tuks that were waiting to take us to the border for 80 bhat. When we got to the border the tuk tuk took us not to the border itself, but to a small office on the side. I had a slightly bad feeling but we went in. They wanted to give us a Cambodian visa before we crossed the border, but I didn't trust them at all. If it was a real visa, I was sure we were getting ripped off and if it wasn't then we would have to pay the whole thing all over again! I kept asking questions and was becoming very distrusting and very upset. We paid to take the pictures and began the paperwork. Nick was ready to do the whole thing, but my instincts told me no. We took our paperwork and our pictures and walked to the border where we had it done officially. Finally, my instincts are improving!!!!! And I guess I do have very funny (very angry...im not even smiling and that is very hard for me!) visa photos to show for the experience!
Crazy day, but in the end I made it. And, hey, what would life be if not for the adventures :)
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