Traveling in Southeast Asia cannot be without hiccups. I heard horror stories of many border crossings, especially in Laos, so when I did my research and pre-booked Cambodian visas and buses, I thought we were set. And for the trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap, all went relatively smoothly.
We avoided the cabs between bus stops and border scam artists. But it was the trip back to Thailand that turned into the world’s longest border crossing. It started with a canceled bus and ended with over 12 hours on a bus and getting ‘hangry.’ But no trip to Southeast Asia is complete without one ridiculous border crossing.
6:00 am– We wake up to pack and eat breakfast before awaiting pickup by the bus company.
7:45 am– We’ve fully finished breakfast, have our bags downstairs, and are still waiting for pickup. It’s time to start worrying, as the bus is supposed to leave at 8:00 am and nothing runs on time in Cambodia as it is.
8:30 am– We are finally picked up by a tuk tuk sent by the bus company and arrive at the office, where the bus will leave from. We sit and wait in the room with no air conditioning and wait for the other passengers to arrive. We are told we are on the 9:00 am bus instead.
9:00 am– The second bus is supposed to leave.
9:20 am– The bus actually leaves. Bus manager hands out snacks for breakfast.
10:00 am– Sammi has an allergic reaction to whatever was in the snacks and feels bad for the next few hours. Thankfully, we ask a British couple behind us if they have any antihistamines. They give her some and she slowly starts to feel better.
11:30 am– The bus reaches the border in Paoy Paet on the Cambodia side and are given a cheap lunch of chicken fried rice from 7-Eleven, included in our ticket. We quickly hand over the second part of our Cambodia e-visas to the authorities for our exit and enter the Thai side.
12:00-2:00 pm– We start the long wait on the Thai side of the border at Aranyaprathet District. While we had a 30-minute wait on the way there, it was over double the wait on the way back. A number of people tried to cut in line or were sent to a different desk. A group in front of us animatedly spoke in Spanish, so it seemed something was wrong. Once we reached the front, all went well and we received our stamps.
2:15 pm– After drinking a much-needed Coke and getting Sammi an iced coffee, we re-boarded the bus, which was waiting for us on the other side. But we had only just begun to wait. A girl who had been on our bus was held up because she had dual passports and had one stamped in and the other stamped out.
The Thais wouldn’t let her in since she had been stamped out of Cambodia on an Uruguayan passport and was now coming in on an Italian passport. She’s been told she must go back to Vietnam, where she was last stamped on her Uruguayan passport, before coming back to Thailand.
4:00 pm– We finally leave Aranyaprathet, minus the Uruguayan girl and her boyfriend, who stayed behind with her. Her friends, who were sitting in the back of the bus, are frantically dialing back home on their phones to explain the situation to her family.
9:00 pm– After much dull scenery and standard traffic, we arrive in Bangkok. The driver wouldn’t drop us off at the Chatuchak Park MRT Station, only the central bus station, despite letting off other passengers earlier. We get off at Mo Chit Bus Terminal, hop on a local bus, get off at Mo Chit MRT Station and travel by local train to Siam Square.
9:30 pm– We check into our guesthouse for the night, but the lady at the desk can’t find our Hotels.com booking, despite it being on my phone. I showed it to her but she kept looking at me helplessly. I’m not sure if she ever really found it, but after 20 minutes she finally gave us a key.
10:00 pm– I frantically search for food at the MBK Center mall and end up at Burger King as it’s closing. I choose a dubious-looking chicken sandwich and bring it back to enjoy in the privacy of our guesthouse room while watching bad TV.
Travel isn’t always private beaches and first class, especially transit days like this one. The border crossing from hell certainly tested my patience. I’m not level headed when I haven’t eaten or when I am tired of sitting for over 12 hours for a journey that was supposed to take 6. Not every day of travels is exciting, but it’s always an adventure, for better or worse.
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