Crossing into Cambodia

After our three weeks in Laos, it was time to say goodbye to what has been our favorite country so far to continue our journey south into Cambodia. It is both the blessing and the curse to be able to move on to new experiences, leaving behind cherished places that we will likely never see again.

Traveling in a large group of fellow traveler friends, we bought tickets for a water taxi to the main land and a minibus to take us to the Cambodian boarder. This southern border crossing is a new route that has only been open for less than a year - and they are clearly still working out the kinks. Once off the islands and back on the mainland, we quickly found out that our tickets were sold to us by an enterprising businessman who was intending on pocketing the money. He purposefully sent us two hours after the bus for the boarder had departed. We met up with the guys from the company in charge of the boarder run and explained our plight. They were frustrated at the situation and inconvenience of arranging another bus, but agreed to help us anyhow. After a bit of investigation, it turned out the scam was contrived by one of their brother-in-laws. Why someone would try to cheat us on such a small island where they can easily be found out is beyond us - there was no way he would get away with it. Needless to say, our scammer's brother-in-law would handle the punishment once he got us over the boarder and returned home.

And then there were 5: Cory, Stacey, Fauzia, and us traveling onwards in Cambodia...
From the boarder, our group of 13 split into two - those wanting to visit a volcano to the East and those of us wanting to head South to Phnom Penh. So we set off with the Canadian couple we'd befriended (Stacey and Cory) and our British friend (Fauzia) and headed onwards to the town of Kratie, en-route to the capital.

Kratie is a small city that's not really worth visiting except for the fact that it is home to the rare and endangered species of Irrawaddy fresh water dolphins. To see the dolphins, we rented a motorbike and headed up along the Mekong to find the quieter waters where the dolphins are frequently seen. For those who know us well, you will know that for Mariah to give up control and let me take her life in my hands by driving the motorbike is a big deal. But she did a great job relaxing and holding on to me while I dodged the traffic (cars, bikes, kids, dogs, cows, etc...), especially since the first few minutes were a little shaky as I got accustomed to the gears and gadgets. We rented a boat to take us onto the river and spent a couple hours watching the dolphins "frolic." Sadly, we have about 1,000 photos of nothing but a dorsal fin here, or a nose there...nothing worth showing off really, but you can view the photos if you want at the link to the right. After our dolphin excursion, we negotiated a shared minivan ride to Phnom Penh.

The trip from Kratie to Phnom Penh should not have been eventful, however, about halfway to the city our driver got out and asked us to vacate the vehicle, pointed to an over-crowded minivan for us to board, and asked for full payment for the trip. This was not part of the deal we made 2 hours earlier at the taxi station and we knew this was a scam. But with the support of the group, I stood in the middle of a crowd of yelling Cambodians trying to get us to move into the new minivan (without enough seats). The negotiations persisted for about 20 minutes until a local English-speaking student and I were able to negotiate our compliance in return for a reduced price. So, we finally all squeezed into the last minivan of the day heading to Phnom Penh for a cramped 3-hour journey.