Dec 4-5 |
After five days at Don Det Island and 3.5 weeks in Laos (longer than planned, but shorter than desired), Cambodia was next on the horizon.
But getting there was to be no small task. While the border is only 17km from Nakasong (across river from Don Det) to Cambodia, the general sentiment and experience for riders is to not attempt to cross at this point, due to severe corruption, or entry blockage, or some combination of both. Indeed, there are myriad stories of riders suffering major challenges, including having their bikes stuck in no mans land between the borders, not able to enter Cambodia or return to Laos. But there are two examples of Singapore-plated bikes making it through, once being sgbikerboy, a great source of info and inspiration for me (though he crossed in 2016, and things have obviously changed). The alternate to the border nearby was to backtrack north, then cross back into Thailand from Laos and use the Thai-Cambodia border at O'Smach, which is known to be hassle-free for riders. But that option requires about seven hours of additional riding!
Thought it through and decided to ride the 17km to border and scope it out. If it wasn't going to be possible, or if it looked like too much hassle/corruption, then I would turn around and ride the long path.
So I set off, starting with the boat crossing and fast ride on a great road. Got to Laos immigration; asked the officer if I can bring my bike into Cambodia; he told me to go over to Cambodia side and ask them. I did, riding under a couple of lowered gates, with my unstamped passport. Asked Cambodian officials about bike entry. One made a quick phone call and replied back "$40". This was much better than $200 another rider had quoted in July, I had read online. So I rode back to the Laos side, got stamped out, and exited. Then rode back to Cambodia side. While I was expecting some trickery, like the price going from $40 to $200, it didn't happen. One major issue was that my passport was full, with no empty pages, and the most senior immigration officer did not want to break any rules on this matter, and he wrote up a special hand-written contract in regard to covering a page of old stamps with a full page Cambodia visa sticker. Overall Cambodia immigration and customs were very kind and decent to me, maybe I got lucky.
So, voila, into Cambodia. It was a dirt road from the border, which evolved to rough pavement. After crossing the Mekong in Cambodia, the terrain became flat scrubland, with severe gusty wind blasts for the whole trip.
Stayed one night in Kratie, a non-touristy former French colonial port town, with gentrified heritage buildings. I looked up Kratie online, and, the first three articles I read: 1) "If you are interested in bins or garbage" the daily collection is highlighted; 2) the market offers, "a great place to watch frogs being skinned"(I suspect there may be some cultural parody at play by the writer here), and; 3) an article about the American owner of the hotel I was staying at having been arrested for child sex crimes. Twin Peaks 2022. Leaving Kratie, I stopped at Chlong, another colonial town, this one a crumbling ghost town.
Ride: 215 km | 3.5 hrs
Stay: River Dolphin Hotel | $20 | 3/5
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