Crossing the border into Cambodia

November 4, 2008
I take the bus from Bangkok (northern Mo Chit station) to the Thai border town Aranya. From there me and my traveling companion pile into a little tuktuk with all our luggage (stilts, hoolahoop and all) to take us the rest of the way to the border. The tuktuk driver lets us off on the side of the road by a tent and we get approached by what are supposedly border officials. They insist the price is 1,000 Baht ($30) for the visa, although I had read that's a scam; the official price is $20. They claimed you only paid $20 if you got a visa in advance. Well, we had to get thru the border, so pay up!
Then we walk for a bit and cross a checkpoint, then walk again some more, through a Welcome to Cambodia huge stone gate, then another arrival checkpoint, past a bunch of casinos (the border is casino central). Then a bus to "bus station"to get taxi. Where they wanted to charge us 2000 Baht to go to Battambang. Ha ha ha, very funny, nice try but no cigar. I guess we looked like easy bait. We walked away. But here was the hairy part. We didn't have much of a bargaining point. This was no bus station. And there were no other taxis around that I could see. In fact there were no taxis -- what they suggested to be our taxi was just a regular car. Earning some extra cash? It was incredibly muddy all around! And how could I drag all my luggage through that? (Somehow I did.) How were we going to find another car to take us? We pretty much had to deal with what was there before us. "Ok, you go find something else, what do you know, never been to Cambodia," the guy says. "OK, we will!"... Finally, we get in the cab on the premise of paying 800B which was fair. Then, once car finally takes off, after some false starts and driving around here and there and changing driver twice and picking up two other people (Cambodian couple sharing the front seat) -- it was smooth sailing down the road to Battambang!

By the time we got there it was too late to go to Phare Ponleu Selpak (the school) or rather the taxi didn't know where it was and I didn't know either really and it was dark -- so we went to a hotel. The Royal Hotel, the cheapest room under the roof (5th floor walk-up) next to the kitchen for $3. By the end of the night, however, I managed to hook up with the folks at Phare and took a moto (motorcycle) -- with my huge stilt bag across my lap! (about 5 feet long), and another moto following with the other bag --- and dropped the bags off at the school.

Before I start the workshops Í'm taking the boat to Siam Reap to see Angkor Wat. After that, it's non-stop work until the end of December!