The Dusty Roads of Cambodia

Whenever possible, the Prancers try to do overland travel as it gives us a greater sense of the country and what each region holds. Arriving into Cambodia was no different. We wanted to get into Siem Reap, the hub city for Angkor exploration, by car so that we could see the villages and countryside rush by us as we travel through. Although we had read and heard about hairy overland travel accounts from other travelers (stories about getting ripped off and a 150km ride taking 12 hours in the back of a pickup truck with 18 other Cambodians pushing you into the fetal position), we forged ahead and made our way into Poipet with the usual “it’s all part of the experience” mentality. What transpired after we had our visas in hand was nothing like we ever expected. Like we said, we had read about other travel stories, but none of them prepared us for what this “road” was like. The Aranyaphratet/Poipet border crossing is the most frequently used entry point into Cambodia that exists. It is the point in which most Angkor bound tourists traveling by land arrive and head towards the ruins. Now you would think that a country completely dependent on tourism would want the land transfer to Siem Reap as easy and painless as possible, right? WRONG! There are many rumors flying around that a certain airline is paying off the Cambodian government to keep the road between Poipet and Siem Reap from being paved the entire way. That’s right, it is not paved and the “road” is less a road than it is a elephant track stamped out in the 1500’s. The “road” is packed with as many potholes as you can possibly conjur up in your head and filled with even more Cambodians on motorbikes, bicycles and a device that can only best be described as a long wooden cart being run by a lawnmower engine! You take off from Poipet in a Toyota Camry, the “taxi” of choice in Cambodia, and the driver (who immediately starts hounding you about his “brother who drives a tuk-tuk in Siem Reap”) takes off like Mario Andretti in search of his Indy Cup title. Dodging the little Cambodians on bikes and farmers walking their cattle, the Camry bangs and clangs its way through the narrow dirt road. “Is this the right way???”, you start asking yourself. “There is no way this is the road to Siem Reap. Did we say something else and he is taking us to a village in the country???” Back and forth, all over the road, never once staying on his side of the road – heck, there is no “side” of the road – we were blazing through these villages kicking up red dust in the faces of the locals. After several attempts to tell Captain Insano to slow down, we finally fell into a trance and then - BAM - we come to an abrupt hault by skidding into a "gas station" for Petrol. The station attendent immediately grabbed one of the Johnnie Walker Whiskey bottles (in which they store their different mixtures of gas and oil) and a funnel and began filling our tank. Looking more like a chemist experimenting with a project than a gas station attendent, this guy filled our rig up with his home concoction and away we went. The absolute amazement of this drastic difference between Cambodia and anything else we’ve ever seen as far as road conditions and traffic laws was shocking. In Thailand, the roads are mostly all paved, the gas stations reminiscent of American ones and the bus system runs like clockwork... so our previous Asian land travel has mostly gone off without any hitches. Cambodia travel, on the other hand, is like nothing we’ve ever seen. This trance left us feeling very sorry for the villages that are so rudely interrupted and exploited during this game of government bribing and scam artistry that is the transfer between Poipet and Siem Reap. About half way through our drive, apparently the driver banged one too many potholes and the next thing we knew we were on the side of the road with a flat tire. The jack couldn’t get the car high enough to replace the spare because why??? You guessed it! Underneath the spot in which you place the jack was yet another pothole, giving the driver too much of a gap to raise the car. So in search of a stone we went! After finding one, we re-jacked the car and changed out the spare. The sun was blazing at this point and we were covered with red dust from the other crazed Camry’s passing by from the time we spent changing the tire. Locked and loaded, the movie stunt driver continued on the “road” and we finally arrived into Siem Reap, unaware if we were passangers on a video game or if that really was how one arrives into the gateway to the Angkor ruins. Traveling overland is definitely part of the Cambodian experience and despite the danger and jolting it does to one’s body, I guess we would recommend it to anyone because of what you see along the way. No doubt does it give you a greater sense of perspective into the daily lives of this amazing culture. Flying into Siem Reap and staying at one of the Vegas-like resorts while touring the ruins on a airconditioned minibus does not give a traveler any sense of Cambodian life. Getting off the beaten path – even if just outside Siem Reap – will help you realize the beauty that lies within the Cambodian borders.