Blogs from Poipet, North, Cambodia, Asia

Day trip to Poipet with Carpets for Communities today. Met MarKo at e bus station a bit before 8am and it was about a three hour trip from there. On arrival we walked to the local office. On the way, Marko convinced me to buy sugar cane juice. They have long lengths of sugar cane, put some ice in a plastic bag, in goes the juice from the sugar cane, plastic bag has a straw inserted, then it is tied up. All for the tiny sum of about 25cents. Very sweet though. At the office we met Bunchoun, the office manager. Poipet is essentially a border town and where people cross into Thailand. The city itself didn't seem like much, although apparently it is known for its casinos, being that Thailand bans gambling. Needless to say ... read more

The Bangkok to Cambodia border crossing at Poipet it notoriously bad for scams, a quick read of the internet and you will realise that even the officials are in on the game of petty extortion. There is then the issue of the ‘scam bus’ from Bangkok to Siem Reap taking you to places you don’t even want to go. I think by this time that even the most hardened travelers would be searching on skyscanner for an easier alternative. Well the best way to avoid the scam bus we thought, was to go it alone. We took the 3rd class train from Hua Lumphong Station to Aranayaprathet which took approxiamately 6 hours. If we had taken the bus it would have dramatically cut the travel time to 2 hours to the border, but it was ... read more

Stuck in the cycle For our last day in Poipet we were all up bright and early and walked up to the border before breakfast. It was a real eye opener to see all of the day labourers that P had mentioned, pulling their carts and lined up to waiting to be allowed into Thailand and hopefully get some worker. There were so many people with carts - both men and women, often with their kids with them. I was struck by how orderly and controlled the lines were - two straight lines of carts, no pushing etc. Apparently these people make about $1.25 or $1.50 per day. Even though it was only 7am, it was hot - I can't even imagine how much hard work it must be to push and pull a heavily laden ... read more

We all clambered onto the bus early in the morning for the 6 hour road trip to Poipet via Persat. F joined us for the trip to Persat to show us a project there for people with disabilities. After a presentation from the project co-ordinator, a Khmer national, who told us about how they had helped villages to set up pre-schools, pig banks, cow banks and rice banks, we jumped back in to the van to visit two of the nearby villages to see how some of the projects worked in practice. When we arrived at the first village we were met by the village chief himself and the leaders of the disability group. Thanks to our earlier language lessons, were were able to return the greetings we received from the people who lined the path ... read more

"Long the armpit of Cambodia, notorious for its squalor, scams and sleaze" Lonely Planet ... read more