BAN KHON TAI (LAOS) – KRATIE (CAMBODIA)

It’s not that bad though, even irrespective the last ten kilometers which we had to drive by a dirty loamy eroded road. When we get to the Lao border control point, the guards are playing cards in a straw hut. The procedure takes about five minutes overall, nobody even asks about the equipment transit, luggage and all. It doesn’t cost a cent, either. So far, this has been the best border control point on our way. Goodbye, Laos, the land we will always wish to return to! In 500 meters Cambodia is waiting for us. The hut is a bit more modern that in Laos, it’s even made of wood. We are the only customers here as well. After having found visas in our passports, borderline guys send us to the customs terminal, if one can call a little bit bigger wooden hut a terminal. By the way, it’s possible to get a Cambodian visa right here, so there was no need to waste a day for the embassy. The customs officer dressed in towel around his hips only, I guess, he just had a shower, looks at everything we have. He doesn’t speak any English; however, from his mimics it’s clear that the things are not going to be easy again. There is an agent named Mr. Darat who speak very good English and is able to help. The officer wants to send us to a town located sixty kilometers away to execute some sort of transit declaration; besides, we have to leave the bikes here and to get to the city by ourselves. From the middle of nowhere. 

The customs are working until 5PM only, so we make to regret we’ve sent away our tent. We play our last card ATA carnet again, yet gain, it doesn’t help: the customs officer doesn’t seem to be familiar with this thing. We are trying to figure out where to get a transport to get to that town, meanwhile, the officer is walking around the improvised terminal in his towel, talking on the phone, allegedly, about us. Right when he ends his conversation, everything is okay: he asks if we have $20 with us to pay the documents fee and he even seems to feel guilty. Oh, is it going to be this easy? There are rather suspicious looking papers, where he writes down model and registration numbers of our motorcycles, and that’s it. We quickly pack and disappear from the kind Khmer officer before he has changed his mind. 

It takes us only an hour to get to the nearest town Stoeng Treng by a broken road and there we have to stop: Tonle Sap, the tributary of Mekong is only crossable by a boat since the last ferry has left an hour ago. Our new agent Mr. Darat who accompanies us as translator, manages everything out and for $6 we are in the boat within few minutes. Next we plan to get across Mekong in the same manner to drive to Siem Riep by the smaller roads. However, after considering it with local truck drivers, we find out it might be impossible since most river are overflown and most roads are impossible to get through. Hence, we decide to drive to Kratieusing a better road and then to try a freshly built bridge in Kampong Cham.