Crossing the Aranya Prathet - Poipet border

Day 1 (7th March 2008)

We had a few wrong turns in finding the right booth to get our tickets for Aranya Prathet. Even in Bangkok proper, it is really difficult to get understood by locals unless you start talking in the same tonal manner. Finally, we found it. The ticket costs only about 207 Baht for the 4-hour trip (AC bus with toilet). We were told to go to “wang-wang-sick”…sabi ni Ganda, ano daw? I told her, its bus #116.

Ang ganda talaga ng buses dito coz for all AC buses it comes equipped with toilets so passengers doesn’t have to wait for the next stop to go to the toilet. Sana naman we will have the same thing din sa atin, wish ko lang!

When we arrived at the border town of Aranya Prathet, we had to take a tuktuk to the immigration office (we befriended 2 Japanese kids, Jung & Jin??? Tama ba ako?). We splitted up the 80Baht bill among us kaya medyo nakamura na rin.

It was dusty, dusty, dusty….

After crossing the Thai border, we walked towards the Cambodian side and was met with casinos on both sides na parang full of Koreans and Japanese and some Thais. It’s a visa-free entry for Filipinos in Cambodia so we only lined up at the arrival area. Medyo nahuli yung dalawang kasama namin coz they need to get a visa. In Ganda’s line, there was a group of guys who were drunk already, yung isa nga may hawak pang bote ng beer. Nakakaloka!

Nakakapagod na rin coz I’ve been travelling nonstop from 8pm last night tapos connecting flight pa sya (ang hirap mag-ipon ng airmiles!!!) and then when I arrived in BKK we immediately hopped on a bus. Latang-lata na katawan ko and on top of that I have to lug around my 12kg backpack! The downside of travelling rough. Well, I want to cross borders around the Mekong so I can’t complain, can I?
It’s already 3.30pm and we still have another 4-5hrs of travel to Siem Reap. The four of us shared a taxi for 500 Baht each. What they say about the road from Poipet to Siem Reap is really true, it is horrible. It’s unpaved and dusty and our driver is always on the phone, ang hirap na nga ng daan busy pa sya sa telepono!

We were dropped off at the Airport Rd, a bit far from town (I think the buses and taxis are banned from going inside Siem Reap to control the number of vehicles inside) so we took a tuktuk to our guesthouse. We immediately told them we are going to Mandalay Inn coz otherwise they will try to bring you somewhere kasi they will get a commission from there.

In our haste to go, we forgot to tell Jung & Jin as to which GH we are going kaya ayun di na namin sila nakita.