Welcome to Cambodia Part II: flat tire, fighting over a seat and where did our luggage go?

Quarantine at the border crossing

The border crossing between Laos and Cambodia went surprisingly smoothly. Since our guide sent our passports to the border ahead of time, our visas were stamped and ready, waiting for us by the time we arrived. We only had to go through quarantine where they checked our body temperature. We all passed.

We had to walk over to the bus on the other side of the border. For some reason, there were now many more of us in our group than before the border. I don’t know where the extra people came from, perhaps from an earlier group who had to wait for us. I managed to get a seat, but others who weren't as quick to board had to sit on plastic stools in the aisle.

First flat tire in Cambodia

The bus pulled away and stopped again after a couple hundred meters. The conductor asked us to get off because “the bus is having a flat tire”. Well, surprise, surprise, a flat tire? I really didn’t expect to encounter my first flat tire in Cambodia within spitting distance of the border already. Oh well.

While the bus crew worked on the flat tire, we stayed in the shade under what will someday be the new border crossing. At least that’s what it looked like. It was a brand new building, not quite finished, but it looked abandoned, strewn with trash, overgrown with weeds and already vandalized. Who knows why it was abandoned and if it will ever get completed and put to use.

Abandoned new border crossing

When it was time to board the bus again I made sure that I was on the bus quickly enough so that I would have a seat. My previous seat had already been taken and it seemed that everyone was just taking seats at random so I did the same, I just sat on the first available seat. What a mistake! I had no way of knowing that a Chinese girl was sitting on that seat before the flat tire and she thought it her right to ask me to give up my seat to her because it was hers. Excuse me? The seats weren’t numbered and we didn’t buy tickets for a particular seat so I guess her right to a seat was just the same as mine.

So I ignored her.

She must have thought that I don’t speak English and she proceeded to complain to the conductor. He then asked me in French to give up my seat to the Chinese girl.

I ignored him as well.

The Chinese girl was frustrated with me and realizing that I wouldn’t move, she had to deploy new tactics. She picked on an American guy who was sitting behind me and harassed him to give up his seat “for a lady”.

The guy ignored her too.

Now she was really becoming upset and started yelling at anyone and everyone. The bus couldn’t go anywhere because not all people had boarded because "the lady" was blocking the aisle while throwing her tantrum.

It was hot and everyone was already fed up with the morning activities and we just wanted to go and no one really wanted to deal with the Chinese prima donna. People started chiming in and name calling. A Chinese guy, obviously one of her supporters, tapped me on the shoulder and asked me politely to please give up my seat to the girl so that she would calm down and we could go. But that only triggered more people on the bus to join in and split into two teams.

One team, composed primarily of European and American tourists, urged me to keep my ground and not give in to the girl’s bullying. As if I would. The other team was composed of mostly Chinese looking people who all fought for a seat for “the lady”. I noticed that a few Japanese tourists decided to stay neutral. Actually, I considered myself neutral as well, even though I was in the center of the storm, because during all that drama I hardly said a word. Eventually the Chinese group helped in calming her down, after all we were all anxious to get moving. She grudgingly moved further down the aisle and sat on the plastic stool.

We were finally on our way, driving for several hours and I could tell from the road signs that we were nearing Kratie, my designated stop. It was around 17:00 in the afternoon and I was hopeful that I would get there before dark (the sun sets at around 18:00 in this part of the world).

No, it wasn’t to be.

The bus stopped at a roadside rest stop a mere 7 kilometers before Kratie. The conductor said “15 minutes” and we were all happy to oblige, get out of that stifling bus, stretch our legs, go to the toilet, get food and drink. The bus driver and his crew remained on the bus and when we were all out, they closed the door and drove off!

All our luggage was on that bus!

What now, where had they gone, when would they be coming back if at all? There was nothing to do but sit and wait.

They couldn’t just leave us there, could they?

I mentally started reviewing what was in my backpack and what I would do if they really never came back. But after the long and arduous day, I just didn't care any more.

The bus and crew returned a good hour later, probably having gone off to get something decent to eat. It was by then completely dark.

Sunset over the Mekong River
(view from the balcony of my hotel in Kratie, taken the following evening)

At last, the bus pulled over in Kratie and the journey from hell was over!

I made it alive, with no handcuffs, was not beaten up for taking some obnoxious girl’s seat, and my luggage was intact. I gladly followed a hotel tout who met our bus which saved me the trouble of looking for a place to stay. Funny, he was pissed off for having to wait for the bus for hours, interrogating me why we were so late. Yes, even by Asian standards, the bus was seriously late.