Welcome to Cambodia
After deciding that Cambodia would be my first adventure within the region, I packed my backpack and jumped on a bus to begin my adventure.
Initially, I had intended to travel throughout Cambodia and Vietnam during March, but as the days progressed I realized that it was an absurd idea, especially since I intended to savor my time on the road.
I took a bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, then another bus from there to Poipet (see below), which is a small town on the border of Thailand and Cambodia. The bus ride was quite animated and, for those of you who have traveled on a bus in South East Asia, witnessed a range of emotions from this traveling ginger. Between the absurd number of passengers getting on and off, the irrational and all-too-frequent smoke breaks taken by the driver, the blaring Bollywood-esque film, the nonexistent air flow, and the (obviously expected) breakdown of the bus, I was not feeling very confident about my upcoming travels.
The 28-hour adventure was speckled with moments of self doubt, but I decided to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation instead of calling it quits after one day. Before long, I had become friends with a Brit and two American passengers who also found themselves in similar mental states of delirious entertainment at the constant cultural confusion and general disorganization of the situation.
After a few more hours of chatting with my compadres, we arrived at the border in Poipet. After an interesting immigration experience involving a fake border, a marital proposition and paying the visa fee, as well as the expected bribe to the officers, I was finally in Cambodia!
After my overwhelming experience there, I decided to see what other travelers thought of it. Now usually I am not the biggest Lonely Planet fan, but I felt inclined to share their description of the place as "the armpit of Cambodia, notorious for its squalor, scams and sleaze" because it described my experience exactly. If you're interested, I also found a pretty accurate YouTube video of the border crossing. Although it's a few years old, it shows an accurate picture of what I saw, which was quite a mix of "old world" and "new world" Cambodia.
When I arrived in Siem Reap on Saturday evening, I was beyond thrilled to enjoy a cold beer at the hostel bar before heading for bed. Thank God and Buddha I made it in one piece!
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| Preah Promreath Pagoda in Siem Reap, Cambodia |