Border crossing to Cambodia 柬寮边界

Today I will continue my conquest of Cambodia. I woke up pretty early today as I'll be leaving Laos by boat and bus. I bought the bus ticket to Phnom Penh ($30 or 230,000K) yesterday. It is so freaking expensive! It just cost slightly more than the price of sleeper bus from Vientiane and Pakse. It cost more than the boat trip from Huay Xai to Luang PraBang! The only difference it included the boat transfer from Don Det to Ban Nakasang pier. (My trip later in Vietnam I met few Malaysians, they admitted that traveling in Cambodia is really expensive!) 

It was one of the most toughest roller coaster bus ride! We spent our whole day on the bus. 

My Itinerary was as the following :

- Walking to the river pier @ Don Det island

- Catching the boat to mainland @ Ban Nakasang town

- Waiting and settling the Cambodia Visa
- Taking a minivan from Ban Nakasang to Lao border @ Dong Kalaw (8am-10am)

- Walking across Cambodian border @ Trapeang Kriel
- Taking the Cambodian bus to Phnom Penh (12pm-9pm)
- Taking a tuk-tuk to White River II Guesthouse

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All of us took a boat from the sunset side pier at 8 a.m sharp, surprisingly they were really punctual. The boat soon left the pier and headed to the same Ban Nakasang pier. After getting off from the boat, we were informed to wait at the same bus terminal again. This is the time to settle all the Visas and "border fee". Amongst the backpackers, I was the only person that exempted from paying visa fees since I have a Malaysian passport. However, from what I recalled, there is an exit clearance fee that is compulsory to be paid to the bus agent. (25,000KIP=US$3). My remaining Lao money was placed in between the departure card and passport. 

All different passports are categorized on table.  

Bus ticket to Phnom Penh.

We were arranged to take this mini van to get to the Lao border.

From the book, I read that Dong Kalaw - Trapeang Kriel is the only international border crossing town between the 2 countries. The distance from Ban Nakasang town to the  Lao immigration office isn't really far, it took probably less than an hour. I saw a huge map at the Lao border after we were dropped off there.

We got down from the minivan, all we could see there is a huge brownish and orange colored office building across the guard barrier. The building and the roads seemed to be really new and vacant. This is the Cambodian custom office with strong Khmer style architectural influences.

While the staff was helping us with the exit clearance at Lao counter, we were told to grab our bag and walk across the border and we saw few buses were parking at the Cambodian side. I received this "Health Notice" that basically says should any person is suspected to have any influenza symptoms,  he/she should present this to the doctor for further medical treatment. Keeping in mind that carrying some masks along my journey was a good move.

Once at the Cambodian side, we were not still not allowed to get on the Cambodian bus. What I assumed was they were settling all the Visas to stamp on our passport. Also it was reaching noon time, they probably need to eat their lunch. So we have our simple lunch at a local shady restaurant beside the custom office. We waited helplessly for  2 hours before the Cambodian bus departs.

I met two French guys, a Japanese girl and a Korean girl. All of them were coming from 4000 islands. The girls are going to Siem Reap. The guys and I will be going to Phnom Penh.

The waiting time has finally was over around 12p.m! Phew. All of us can now get on the bus. The scenery along the road wasn't so pleasant. There are some suitable lands used for plantations. However, the road condition was really bad, sandy and bumpy! It is even worse than some kampong roads in Malaysia. Traveling via this route during the wet season could be risky too. This region seemed to be really rural and undeveloped. I hardly noticed any houses along the road. I also read that this region is amongst the poorest as the land here is not suitable for agriculture activities.

Along this road before reaching Kratie, the driver was sounding his horn most of the time for no obvious reason. At times he just sounded the horn against front coming big trucks or bikers. There was even once our bus had nearly collided with a minivan that came from the opposite direction as it was trying to manoeuvre towards the shop at our right side.

I saw this amazing scene where a biker was carrying all variety of ratan-made cages, baskets etc. Wonder which town is he heading to.  

We stopped at a restaurant for a short break. Everyone seemed to order baguette sandwich for tea break. Everything is paid in US dollar or Cambodian Riel.

It was evening, we reached a small town Kratie. I could enjoy the Mekong river view. From the book, it mentioned there are some Irrawaddy dolphins here. 

The bus moved further south and reached a larger city, Kampong Cham, during the late evening. This town is the third largest city in Cambodia. My first impression about this town is horrible! . I'm saying this because I could notice many unpleasant scenes from the bus window. I believe this is not a tourist friendly town. The surrounding of town looked very messy and dirty. There are many old looking shophouses along the way. The town was filled with many garbages all around the streets. It seemed to be one of the town that had gone through the Khmer rouge or post Vietnamese war and yet many development or repair works are not carried out in this city unlike major cities: Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Later the bus stopped us at a local restaurant for dinner. The huge restaurant looked empty and dim. The water in toilet looked dirty and the food selling there looked unhygienic too! To be safe, I had avoided buying any food and drinks that are selling in here. Fortunately, I still have some cookies with me in the bus. The girls are going to Siem Reap and they were directed to take another bus. I guess they gonna reach there around midnight since Phnom Penh is slight closer to Kampong Cham.

For those people who are going to Phnom Penh, we returned back onto our bus and headed straight to Phnom Penh. We reached Phnon Penh around 9pm. We were all dropped off in the middle of nowhere. Again we had no choice but to share a tuk-tuk for 4 person, paying $4.50 each! Two French guys, a German and me.

I can hardly forget what I have seen along the streets at night. We did pass by the Naga world casino, it just looked grand and beautiful. While  the tuk-tuk was waiting at a traffic light, we saw one or two child beggars were staring at us at the roadside and showing us their empty hands. They seemed to be asking money from us. They were wearing dirty clothes and bare-footed. They just looked pity. I was totally speechless when looking at them. This group of homeless kids seemed to be loitering around the casino at night without any fear!  I can't take a second look at them as I felt  really helpless to them. Giving money to them directly does not help in the long run. I learnt that in the past Cambodia had gone through the Khmer rouge and the Vietnamese war. Hence, there are a large amount of post war orphans were exploited to become child beggars, prostitutes and labourers. I really hope the government could do more to help these children. The children's living conditions in Laos seems to be totally opposite with the children in Cambodia! I felt really lucky and blessed to grow up in Malaysia. The tuk-tuk driver did warn me about carrying a sling bag in here. He advised me to keep my sling bag around my chest to avoid being a target of bag-snatching on the street. I just immediately did what he said. How paranoid I was when I heard this on the tuk-tuk.   

We checked out 2 or 3 guesthouses along the street that is close to Royal Palace area. After one hour search for a better guesthouse and we finally made up our mind to stay in White River II Guesthouse. I decided to stay with the guys in the dorm for only US$5 per night. The room has few double deck beds and has not been occupied by anyone. Also the room condition was really clean and there are separate lockers for each of us. It was really a good deal consider the price of a single room is more than double in Phnom Penh.

Overall it was an exhausting day after traveling the whole day!  I get onto the comfy bed by 11 night. Tomorrow I shall explore the city by foot to discover the city of chaos..

The signboard of the guesthouse during day time.

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CONTINUE Four Days Trip in Phnom Penh.