On the Road Again

I hit the road hard today, to get back to work/Phnom Penh by Tuesday.

The trip, step-by-step:
1) Bus/taxi to Ferry: I was turned down by about 20 taxis until a local Thai decided he wanted to make the Ferry. We made it by a minute-and-half. 1 hour waiting, 30 minute ride.
Interesting moment: passing an overturned truck on a hill. As the Thai guy sitting next to me said: oy.

2) Ferry to Mainland Thailand: Fairly boring. 40 minutes.

3) Bus/Taxi to Trat Bus station: Some Germans got into an awful fight with the driver because they didn't understand what was going on. Ex-pat tourists often get angry when they don't understand the situation, can't communicate, and feel like they are getting ripped off. Often, the whole thing can be solved by listening, speaking slowly, and reading Lonely planet. This took a while (30-40 minutes).


Interesting moment: Meeting a French man who works in China. He's starting a giant toy store.

4) A/C Bus to Hat Lek Border Crossing (Thailand): Met some good Chicagoans en-route. Talked about Obama, and found out that he just won Maine. Talked politics with a knowledgeable American for the first time in a while. Terrific! Great guys, hope to reconnect in Phnom Penh. Hour and half ride.

6) Crossed Border(Cambodia->Thailand). This was a hassle, and it was very hot. The highlight: giving a serious speech about DDD to the Cambodian Border Chief to get a business visa, while wearing cargo shorts and a dirty tee-shirt. I even gave him my business card! Got the business visa. Total time: 30-45 minutes, approximately.

7) Pickup truck to Koh Kong (Cambodia): driven by a clever guy named "Ben" (really Bon-tun). He wore a nice red striped shirt that looked vaguely Italian. 15 minutes.

8) co-hired a taxi to Phnom Penh. Ben hooked me up with a seriously expensive (1300 Baht) taxi back to Phnom Penh. 5 hours travel time.

Highlights:
-The Driver shared a seat with another passenger. How many Cambodians can you fit in a Camry?
-I woke up and we were on a ferry crossing a river. I went back to sleep. When I woke up again, the ferry was docked. Only problem: the truck ahead of us (carrying leaking coolers carrying "fish") couldn't get on shore. This took the guys at the village about 20 minutes to figure out.

Went and got some crackers and water. For some reason, they didn't want to remove the coolers from the truck, which seemed odd.

-The Thai woman in the car asked me to marry her sister. Then she told me that I was handsome, and that she was pregnant. They they gave me some strange fruit, dried fish, and asked for my phone number.

I explained that a small kid had stolen the phone. This didn't translate well.

-Near the city limits, we pulled up next to a black Mercedes. The Thai women paid, and got out. "my father" the pregnant woman said.

-Then we listened to some Cambodian stand-up comedy. My driver and the other passenger thought the comedians was very funny, laughing at his jokes. I asked who it was, rather than make assumptions. Turned out it was a speech by Hun Sen, Cambodia's Prime Minister. He's the leader of the Cambodian People's Party.

The guys in the car love him. This is a departure from all of my political conversations thus far. Sort of like realizing that you're hanging out with Republicans.

A Cambodian friend of mine calls Hun Sen "Big H."

I got back to Skypark at 9:45pm. The guy at the desk was happy to see me. How was Sihanoukville, he asked?