The Road to Vietnam

Muddy Roads and Water Buffalo

Excerpts from my Little Blue Book

Another early morning before another day on transportation. After a quick breakfast, then a brief period wondering if the bus was merely late or not coming at all, I got on the bus as the only passenger. This was fine by me. A little boring, but a lot more comfortable. Then we drove across town, stopping at three other guesthouses, and to my disappointment the bus filled up completely. I managed to sleep for another hour or so until the trip became interesting. This was where we crossed the Mekong river.

Ah Ree, one of several beverage sellers plying their trade at the ferry stop on the Mekong River, shows her beautiful smile.

We pulled into a large car-park and were immediately surrounded by children wanting to sell us drinks, snacks and sunglasses. According to one kid, my sunglasses weren't good at all, but his were far superior and very reasonably priced. I didn't need to buy anything, but one of the girls looked so beautiful that I took a couple of shots of her. Was so obliging that I felt I should give her something, so I gave her my remaining Cambodian money, 1500R ($1 = 4000R). She took it, and five minutes later came back and insisted I take a drink. It was so great to see her personality shining through the blatant fixation on money that I'd seen from virtually every other Cambodian I'd come into contact with thus far. As we didn't seem to be moving I decided to get off the bus for a look around.

A saffron wearing God watches over the marketplace next to the Mekong crossing point.

I learned two interesting things when walking around. Firstly I found out that the girl who gave me the water was named Ah Ree. Secondly I learned that very few of the backpackers were interested in what was going on outside of their little world. A stretch of the legs revealed all the Cambodians waiting for the ferry in a separate area, horse drawn transportation, a small market, and a very interesting statue of a God. The God had many arms, each arm holding a tool of some kind. My guess was that this was a working man's Vishnu.

The bus to Ho Chi Mihn gets bogged down on the international highway between the capital of Cambodia and the capital of Vietnam.

After we crossed the river the roads started to deteriorate. What started out as well-surfaced roads became bumpy, then stony, then gravelly, muddy, and at its worst had the consistency of a freshly plowed field. At this point the bus became bogged down and we all had to get off and help push, much to the amusement of the local children.

Two boys want their picture taken, one girl doesn't.

We finally made it to the border after nearly six hours on the bus. We stopped at a small cafe just before the border and had some refreshments. Our bus met up with the passengers coming from Vietnam and headed back to Phnom Penh with them. After about an hour, we headed through the border, on to Vietnam.

Children herd their buffalo through the border gate of Cambodia. The 200m wide stretch of no-man's-land between Cambodia and Vietnam is prime grazing land.

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