Laos Cambodia border | Lows, heights and mosquito bites!

Greetings & Salutations!

In the morning we were collected, via boat taxi, from Mama Mon’s and Papas restaurant. Collection was scheduled for 08.00AM, but once ‘Laos Time’ had been factored into the equation, pick up was closer to 08.45.

Irrespective of that minor delay, we still had ample time to visit the bank on the mainland, to change our leftover Kip before we left the country, and to reach our scheduled transport, which would take us over the border into Cambodia. It was to be a land crossing, and Emma undertook her (now standard) efficient research on Visa on Arrival costs ($20), but ascertained that paying our transport company $25 meant that they would organise all of the paperwork, and eliminate the necessity for us to endure an unwanted headache dealing with immigration/border control staff officials directly ourselves.

We elected to go for the latter option, and once we reached the crossing, we were pleased that we had; some travellers had decided to attempt to save a few dollars by organising things themselves, but several returned complaining that officials had become angry, and had raised their voices at them. There was also a totally ridiculous medical check that everyone had to undergo, which was little more than a measure of our temperature with a bygone piece of technology, and clearly existed solely as a money spinner.

The Laos/Cambodia border

If you let the transport provider organise the paperwork, then the relevant representative assists you with form filling, takes your passport to the authorities, ushers you across the border on foot, then returns later with your documents, containing the visa stamp. For the sake of risking an argument with a potentially corrupt border guard, we would advise this option.

It won’t, however, prevent you from having to stand around waiting for a connecting transport once in Cambodia, but the sun was high in the sky, so we sought the sanctuary of some shade, and killed time.

Eventually our connection arrived after nigh on two hours. We had optimistically hoped for a VIP bus, but that had been overbooked, so we were afforded a clapped out coach that had blatantly seen better days; the chairs needing renovating, the curtains were dilapidated and there was no air conditioning. But at least we were on the move. As we drove down the road into Cambodia itself, we sped past the Argentinian couple who had been our neighbours. They were walking into Cambodia proper minus any transportation, and declined a lift. It was the last we ever saw of them.

This was one of the more Hilarious journeys we took in Cambodia

Leaving the Thousand Islands for Cambodia gave us a couple of options; we could take a transport all the way to Siem Reap, which would have meant a comparable 8.00AM departure, but with an ETA of 11.00PM, or we could break up the journey half way, and stay overnight in Kratie.

Welcome to Cambodia

We had variously read on the internet that the road into Cambodia has more pot holes than the moon has craters, and that it was not uncommon for the Siem Reap arrival to be closer to 03.00AM than 11.00PM, so we decided to break the journey into two, and stop in Kratie. Once on the road, we were soon pleased we had made that decision; the road into Cambodia can barely be described as such – all the passengers were quite literally thrown in and out of their seats, as the coach lurched violently from one side of the road to another, more or less the entire way, as this clip shows…

The roads were either little more than dust tracks, or works in progress a long way off of completed renovation. There were plenty of occasions when I wondered if we were going to slide off of the highway, or veer into roadside excavation sites. I was also hugely relieved that my bad back was in good shape, for had it not been, I would have been in excruciating agony. This certainly wasn’t a road trip for the light hearted, and there was no way we would have wanted to travel all the way to Siem Reap in one go!

Convenience break

We were scheduled to arrive at Kratie at Two PM, but following the arduous roads and a convenience stop, we finally arrived four hours late at Six PM. It wasn’t difficult to locate a reasonably priced guesthouse which, after living in a basic bungalow for a week, seemingly had all mod cons, such as a television, hot shower and mediocre Wi-Fi access. There exists a variety of restaurants serving western and local food in Kratie, and it’s a quaint enough town to justify an overnight stop or two.

On a relatively superficial level, Emma and I enjoyed indulging in some western basic foodstuffs such as beans/cheese on toast, and I discovered a national stout named Black Panther, which at 8.5% packed quite a punch, and would become part of my staple Cambodian diet over the following week or so. There exists a reasonably early curfew in Kratie, 11.00PM, so stock up on cans if you fancy drinking into the early hours In your guesthouse/hotel.

First baked beans in months….

Kratie itself can be exhausted (exploration wise) fairly quickly as it isn’t that large. However, the Mekong runs next to the town, and a boat taxi can be chartered over to the island of Koh Trong. The taxi ride is brief, ten minutes or so, and the boats chartered are crude but effective; they have ancient diesel engines inside them, which are started by hand, and mounted on what appeared to be whatever had come to hand, on their day of installation. None the less, they ferry passengers, bicycles and scooters back and forth from the mainland to the island all day, and it is well worth taking the time to cross the river.

Captain Trent on board

The steadfast engine

Koh Trong beach, looking over to Kratie

Once on the island, you enter another world; rural, peaceful and a step back in time to a bygone age. Had we the time, a home-stay, which were available, would have been a fantastic experience. Transport on the island is by scooter, bicycle, horse cart or foot. Farming appeared to be at a small scale, if not subsistence, level. Wooden buildings are all erected on stilts, and random roosters, chickens and idyl dogs mill around the countryside.

There is no electricity and, in fact, we came across a generator shed which was seemingly recharging leisure batteries for every dwelling on the island. The locals were particularly friendly, some mistaking us for French people, and affording us a cheery “Bonjour”, as we went for an afternoon stroll, before we returned to the river bank, to take the boat back to Kratie itself.

With hindsight, it would have been nice to stay overnight on Koh Trong, but by the time we had discovered the island, we had already booked our transport to Siem Reap for the following morning.