Border Crossing

The Cambodian border offered a stark contrast to Thailand. We went from a city that has a penalty of jail time for littering to what looked like the outskirts of the city dump. The process through immigration was grueling and nerve racking to say the least and the entire process took 2 hours. There were several check points to cross and we still aren't sure how many stamps we received.
The waiting areas were hot and crowded and standing room only. The unfamiliarity and tension of the moment mixed with flashbacks of Americans being arrested on false charges for bribes created more stress. I watched outside a window as a local looking fellow bypassed the lines and the entry checkpoint and was met by a border guard. The guard took his passport, walked around the corner, removed some money from the passport, then returned it to the man and waved him across the border. Watching that sure didn't dispel any of our worries.

As we stood in the long lines, we watched groves of locals entering and exiting. This was truly a third world county and made Thailand look like a resort area. The people were mostly dressed in old tattered clothing that looked as if they would need a can opener to undress, and most of them were either pulling or pushing old rickety looking carts. The images today are just like pictures or old movies that depict people with carts piled so high with stuff that you wonder if it's real. Well it is. Sometimes a little hand drawn cart would have 20 feet of stuff piled up and bundled with ropes and perhaps a child sitting on top. One cart was packed 5 feet high of bags of ginger root.

The border town on the Cambodia side had several casinos, and being the weekend, Thai people were pouring in to try their luck. This provided another interesting contrast. Casino employees here are dressed as they would be in the states- well groomed, clean and very well dressed, but they may ride up on the back of a struggling old moped driven by a tattered farmer.
We left immigration with great relief and started the two hour ride in another minivan to Siem Reap, the gateway town to the national treasure, and our destination of Angkor Wat.