The Cambodia Challenge: Bus from Hell

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Feb 8 2013

It’s about to be the longest day ever! We’ve been going to Angkor Wat the last 2 days so by day 3 it gets tiring.

We arrive at 6:15 for a very anticlimactic sun rise. No pink sky, just a gradual lightening of the sky. BUT to be fair, it was still an amazing experience to see the main temple of Angkor Wat in the light of dawn. It’s truly an remarkable sight to see.

After that we went to the next temple, Bayon. WOW! This is me and Radhika’s favorite one. It was such an impressive temple with endless spires filled with faces. Seriously straight out of Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider. And it was so nice to be able to cycle around all this beauty and history. By the time we got to the next temple our energy was down and we only half assed this huge expanse of ruins. It was time to have our picnic and head back. We got fruit and brought bread with us, so we sat on the edge of the lake in front of Angkor Wat and pigged out. We shared a bit with a local boy who was out selling random little trinkets. This day was turning out really nice.

We were hot and sweaty back to the hostel by 1:00pm. Most of the others were just waking up in a hungover stupper. The rest of the day we spent lying around, taking multiple showers and reading on the roof top bar. Eventually we were so hungry we got some cheap lunch down the street just to come back and read some more.

At 6 there was a bar/restaurant opening down the street with free food and beer. So you better believe me and Radhika were the very first people there! We stuffed our faces had a beer and then had to leave to catch our bus…

An hour and a half late leaving town, we are finally on our way to the beach. But first we must discuss the seating situation. When we booked the tickets, the guy asked us which seats we wanted. And we were like “oh we can choose?!” okay. So we asked for bottom row seats as far from the toilet and AC as possible. Walking on to this bus, to our surprise our seats were literally the exact opposite of what we asked. Top row, across from the toilet door and literally inches below the main AC unit. Not only this but the AC unit was in pieces on our seats and the bus lady told me to just sit up there. I was like uhhh I don’t think so. Fix the AC, get these parts out of the way. She literally just took the parts and threw them somewhere and slammed the vent thingy closed. (For sure the guy who asked us about our seats was just being typically Asian and saying yes to everything we were saying, even though he just gave us the next available seats. Either that or he was a huge prick!) Welcome to hell.

About 2 hours into our journey, I had drifted off to sleep listening to music, only to be awakened by a waterfall pouring out on to me. I was so confused I thought first, oh shit my electronics and then I thought fuck my water bottle must have leaked everywhere. NOPE. It was the broken AC unit above my head, spilling dirty, smelly SE Asia bus bong water all over me and my seat. I wasn’t the only victim either. The Chinese girl in from of me got a good dousing too. And I mean this waster really smelled like SHIT. It stunk up the whole bus. Me and Radhika went to the front of the bus to talk to the guy. Well surprise surprise, there were like 8 Cambodian stow aways all crammed into the front seat and the stairs. The guy came to look at what all the fuss was about. He took MY towel to wipe up the dirty water and said “ok” and then went back to the front. OMG, no fucking way. This disgusting water is continuing to drip and there’s no way to stop it. I am a bit raging at this point and head to the front and start telling the guys they need to fix the fucking AC. All the stow aways start laughing at me and ignoring me and talking amongst themselves. Well you cant ignore this girl on a mission so I climbed through the sea of bodies in the front all the way to the driver of the bus. I sat on a box behind/beside him along with some other man that was already there. I kept telling them to fix my bed, I need to sleep. There’s like 10 more hours on the bus! I’m sitting here in the front of a Cambodian bus, on some sketchy roads, surrounded by stow aways and my mind drifts as I get lost in my thoughts. How amazing to be able to even get into these situations. I love it. My frustration gave way and I started laughing to myself. The bus driver turned around and interrupted my thoughts, illuminated a space to crawl into the luggage carriage and made motions like I could sleep in there. Then I really laughed and said okay! Let me go get my bag from my seat.

I came back to my seat where Radhika and the Chinese girl were talking about how ghetto and gross this shit was. It turns out there was an extra seat in the back of the bus and I told the Chinese girl she could have it, I’m going to sleep under the bus. Then Radhika rationalized with me, I don’t know how cold or hot it’s going to be under there and so I just set up camp in the aisle. By this time we had the attention of a few other bus riders and one guy in particular was so funny. This old Australian bloke who felt bad for me but admittedly he wasn’t going to give up his seat for me and I sure as hell didn’t except anyone to do that. After about 45 minutes of laying in the aisle our bus makes a pit stop. The Chinese girl preferred to share her wet seat with her husband so I actually got lucky and got the seat! Not too shabby. And after all this, if you don’t come out with a smile, what else can you do? These things happen. Pura vida.

After a 12 hour journey on the bus from hell from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville (via Phnom Penh) and a flat tire and multiple stops, we finally arrived at the beach!!

Day: 7

$1.50 breakfast

1 bike

1 incense

1 fruit

.75 water

2 lunch, shake, water

Total: $7.25

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Photos

sunrise
as seen through my skills of photography because literally was just a gradual lightening of the sky. No cool colors or mystic views of the temples.

Angkor Wat
Biking our way through history

The main temple
of Angkor Wat... this is where we watched the sunrise

kickin it
just hanging out with Radhika in Angkor Wat

portrait
a window in the Bayon temple

xoxo
kissing the stone face