Thailand-Cambodia

I had spent a couple of months traveling up and down Thailand beaches, from Bangkok to Puket via bus stopping along the way at all the suggested great beaches. Then by ferry to some wonderful islands on the Adaman Sea, and back to Bangkok then down the other coast enjoying some of these great beaches also.

Then I found a super place in Ko Chang and stayed and stayed. It had great beaches, super food, first run movies at night in several different restaurants, a cheap, clean room, and best of all super nice friendly people. The only problem I had was that I had to re-new my visa in ten days. I either had to go back to Bangkok or cross the border to Cambodia. Going to Cambodia sounded the best and ceertainly the most interesting. I still had ten days left on my visa so I planned on going the nest week with a woman from Korea. We planned to take a ferry to Trat then just catch a bus to the border at Had Lek get our passport stamped and do a week or so of traveling in Cambodia, then return to Ko Chang.

The next day the big news on the island was that in Phnon Penh, the Cambodian capital, the Cambodians had burned the Thailand embassy and all borders were closed and the Thai army was being called out to protect the borders. This was the talk of the day and continued for several days. I still had a few days left on my visa, but I´d have to leave for Bangkok if this situation didn´t change soon.

We had good tv coverage, but of course it was all in Thai, so had to be interputed, but everyone agreed that the border was now opened. The lady from Korea and I made plans to rent a jeep with driver, because ther weren´t buses going to the border this week. No one was sure why the buses weren´t going but they all thought that it was just because no one wanted to cross the borders now and people in Thailand were still angry that their embassy had been burned. Well want to go to Cambodia or not, we had to go.

The next morning our driver, Phan, arrived on time, we caught our ferry to Trat. Phan thought it would take us about three hours to get to the border. Phan told us this was a busy border because so many people from Thailand go to Cambodia to gamble in their casinos. He said”we might have to wait in line for an hour or two but that was just normal”.

There were no lines of people. There were only hundreds of empty little stands usually full of vendors selling their fruit, vegetables, or crafts. All of the main stores were also closed..

As Phan pulled up to Immigrations he said “Oh, my God I don´t think this is good, it is just too strange. I think we need to go home, now”.

The lady from Korea asked “if I wanted to go back or just keep going”. My thought was hey, neither side was angry at either of us or our countries, lets just keep going and see how it goes. I was a little nervous because Phan was white nuckled and didn´t think it was a good idea..

The Thai border guards knew why we were there, as many foreigners do this visa run, the guards were used to this routine. They quickly stamped our passports, opened the make-shift barbed-wire gate and told us we had to walk across the bridge then we would see the Cambodian border. Normally there was a shuttle bus, but not today because no one was crossing the border. No one but the two of us.

We started pur walk and I looked back at the barbed-wire blockade. Then I got really scared. There were at least twenty or twenty-five Thai military men with machine-guns raised, and it sure looked like they were aimed right at us. I walked as fast as I could, thinking Cambodia had to be better, if we didn´t get shot first. As we crossed this very, very long bridge I could see the same thing at the Cambodian border. More machine-guns pointed at us. We kept going because we had to go somewhere. As we approached their barbed-wire blockade, the Cambodian soldiers were all smiling and nudging each other. I´m not sure but I think this was a lot of fun for a usually boring job.

They quickly stamped our passports, opened the horrid looking gate and now the hardest part for me was, we had to walk the long, long, bridge back to Thailand with guns from both borders pointed at us. These boys from both countries looked maybe sixteen-eighteen years old. As I walked across the bridge I hoped that one of them wouldn´t think it might be fun to shoot us and just throw us in the river, because who would ever know if a woman from Korea and a woman from the US just disappeared. The only person that knew where we were was Phan, and I thought maybe he was so scared that he might have just left and quietly gone home.

Well, obviously it didn´t happen, we walked back to Thailand with guns from both countries pointed at us, our passports once again stamped. Then we both ran for the bath-room before we wet our pants. I then found a store that was open and bought a bottle of Thai whiskey and coke and we had a much needed celebration.

Phan told us he thought we were either very brave or very stupid and that he was really scared for us. He saw all the guns raised and asked the guards what was going on. They told him “they were protecting us from the terrible men in Cambodia”. I guess the Cambodians were protecting us from the terrible men in Thailand. Please,please, never protect me again..