The opportunity has come up for me, perhaps in early November, to join 4 other backpackers for a trip from Thailand, via Cambodia, to Vietnam by road. And well it looks like an interesting proposition.
The plan is to take a train from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet. A scenic ride on a 3rd-Class coach that will take about 5-6 hours. Then from 'Aran' to the Thai border town of Rongklua, a short 7km motorbike ride away. Walking across to the Cambodian town of Poipet thereafter, when the typical US$20 Visa-on-arrival formalities are completed.
The road from Poipet, through Sisophon, and then to Siem Reap is a lengendary, some say infamous one, and conditions vary from slightly bumpy to absolutely wretched. Still, I think it will be quite an adventure if we go by
Sawngthaew or taxi with craters bigger than a pick-up truck, bombed-out bridges, drives through rice fields, roadblocks and demands for money, all realities as recently as 2002. A truly
On The Road experience.
From Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, the plan is to travel by boat over the huge Tonle Sap lake. A rather dangerous trip actually because these old floating diesel-powered dustbins don't exactly have a sterling safety record. But I've done the bus thing already so will try something different.
From Phnom Penh, we'll cross over to Ho Chih Minh City by bus before the rest fly home from there. I am thinking of staying awhile in HCMC to get to the Co Chin VietCong tunnels outside town and maybe drift down the Mekong abit since this is a part of French Indo-china I have never been.
How would Laos feature in the plan I wonder, if at all possible...hmm..
Labels: Travel