And now onto Cambodia

We did our homework.  We studied Lonely Planet and read all about the trials and tribulations of taking a bus across the border into Cambodia.  Honestly we did.  We were forewarned, we knew, we took precautions, we trod the streets to enquire, but still........

While in Don Det, we went to many different places advertising bus travel over into Cambodia.  We asked all the right questions primarily to find out which bus company was running the trip as we were warned repeatedly not to take Paramount bus company.  Assured that we were booked onto another tour group, we paid our money and got our tickets for the Soraya Bus Company which was to leave the following morning.  We were to meet the ferry at 7:50 a.m. and the bus was to depart at 8:30 and arrive in Kampong Cham at 3:00 p.m.  Yeah right!

After much toing and froing, the ferry finally left three quarters of an hour late.  We arrived at the bus station to be told we had to fill out the immigration forms there to save time at the border, a half hour trip away.  Forms duly filled out, we were now told that we had to pay a handling fee of $10 each in addition to the $20 border fee, mutter, mutter.  Then we were informed that we had to get a different ticket from another man before we could get on the bus; no charge so we didn't argue, everyone followed suit.

Eight thirty had long since come and gone yet still we waited.  By nine thirty, we had boarded the bus (just a temp one as we would be changing to a double decker VIP bus at the border) and they pulled the usual trick or trying to load many more people than seats.  Finally by ten, we were off.  Ten thirty sees us dumped on the Laos side of the crossing and we have to walk over to the other side where there's a really smart new building built in the beautiful Cambodian style.  But no, we're not allowed in there, we have to climb over a wall and sit by the vendors at the side of the road in all the dust and dirt.  The toilet consisted of a wooden shack perched precariously close to a raging veld fire.  It appears that the fancy new building, which has obviously been completed for some years, has yet to be opened and looks in no hurry to do so.

You're bus will be here in 40 minutes.  Hmmm.  Needless to say, two hours and forty minutes later, we are told that the scrap of metal on wheels that arrived is our bus which seats about 35 when there are close to 50 waiting for it.  Great, why were we not surprised?  It was then that we discovered that our original tickets had been changed to, guess what? - the Paramount Bus Company, the very company we'd gone out of our way to ensure we didn't get on! 

Tiny plastic stools were placed down the centre isle for the overflow and several of the younger travellers just gave up and slept on the floor.  We were the lucky ones, we got seats but our six-hour bus trip to Kampong Cham arrived seven hours late!  We're still trying to work this one out.  Travelling by bus in this part of the world is not for the faint of heart.