Along the Boulevard of Broken Backsides...
There were no lanes, sometimes we were on the left of oncoming traffic, sometimes the right.
As we found out when we reached the border, the back left tire (under me!) was completely flat. We drove the last twenty or so miles on the rim.
This is the border, looking back into Cambodia. People offered to tote your luggage on those carts, and children offered to shelter you with an umbrella. It's all a scam. I tried to be careful and still something was pickpocketed from my backpack. It was a case of 15 DVDs--luckily all were just copies I had made except for a couple from the dollar aisle at Wal Mart!
We made it to Bangkok. We left by taxi (a Toyota Camry) at 7:20 on a VERY bumpy ride of just over four hours to Poipet at the Thai border. The driver had to stop three times because of a flat and by the time we got to the border we were riding on the rim, which was on my side of the car so I got the full effect of the road. My mother said her head hit the roof of the car. The road is horrible, rumor has it the Siem Reap to Bangkok airlines pay to have the road construction delayed. It was like driving on the worst highway that is under construction in the US, but doing it at 60km an hour while passing numerous other cars, bicycles, motorbikes, ox driven carts, and pedestrians as well as the occasional herd of cattle.
The border went okay, we made it out of Cambodia and then into Thailand. But after my mother went through they pulled three people in front of me and she didn't look back so she didn't know. Then she took a wrong turn, went to customs for Thai natives instead of the foreigners' line. For well over an hour I ran around in extremely hot temperatures, dripping sweat looking for her. I couldn't backtrack and go to the border office. It was horrible. I had her photo ID from Angkor Wat showing it to people, two policeman stopped me and made me sit down for ten minutes because they said I looked sick. Finally she showed up and we took a van to Bangkok. We had planned on taking the cheaper bus but I was on the point of collapse so we took the van.
I don't seem to be able to connect my flashdrive to this computer, so I can't post photos. I will do so when I can. For now we are out and about in Bangkok.
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