Day 12 19th November Phnom Penh to ... the Vietnamese/Cambodian Border 101.5Km

Day 12 19th November Phnom Penh to ... the Vietnamese/Cambodian Border 101.5Km


The plan for today was to get an early start, there was a lot of ground to cover - around 145Km (90miles) and we also had a Border Crossing. The last time Chris had run this trip one of his guests had accidentally requested her Visa start date for a day later than the actual date of the crossing and she had to sleep in the hut of a Cambodian family (with no ability to communicate with them) and then cross into Vietnam the next day. So we had all double-checked our start dates to be on the safe side.


We met at around 5.45am at the front of the hotel. We retrieved our bicycles and the security guard came up to check off the security chits he had put on them. We attached the bits and pieces (in my case handlebar bag and GPS) and we all put on sun screen and put water bottles onto the bikes. Chris just about turned up on time - he had forgotten something from the office and and had a slight detour on his way over. Our breakfast arrived - fruit, bread and a fried egg in polystyrene boxes, the plan was to eat this after we had gotten some distance under our belts and then to have an early lunch at a ferry town on the way. I decided that I needed to break out my second and last emergency bag of jelly babies, congealed fried egg is not my idea of appetising cycling food. I ate several handfuls of jelly babies and washed down my anti-malaria pill.


But problems had struck, Tanyet's bike (one of Chris') had been stolen. Because time was pressing we could not afford much time to resolve the issue and the spare bike was set up for Tonyet and we set off around 6.15am - pretty good all things considered.


The road out of Phnom Penh was a fairly busy main road - and in one of the best conditions we had seen. So we followed Tonyet out of town whilst most locals headed in for work on their small motorcycles. Jim was chomping at the bit for a bit of clear road, Tonyet's pace was rather too slow for him. It can be quite difficult and tiring to follow someone who cycles more slowly than your own pace. Also we wanted to be off the road and well on our way.


After an hour we had our first stop and drank water, (and ate jelly babies) then we set off with Jim in the lead. My GPS trace shows how consistent Jim's pace was hovering around 30Km/hr (around 19mph) which is pretty good for a mountain bike with knobbly tyres. Actually Jim had his smooth tyres on his bike, it was the rest of us who had the less efficient tyres - that's why we let him lead and we drafted behind him. Chris and Tonyet both resigned themselves to our faster pace, complaining that we were supposed to be stopping and taking pictures. However pictures of main roads and trucks are not that exciting for me.


Here we are at our second water stop. Custard is enjoying the early morning sun, you can tell it is early from the long shadows we cast. The road surface was the best we had seen in Cambodia so far and it was pretty wide which meant we did not feel we were battling the other road users.

After a little under 3 hours we had covered the 60Km distance (the three hours includes the water stops) and had arrived at the very busy ferry town, which my GPS map calls Tien Giang. It seemed a little chaotic and after the theft of a bike in Phnom Penh we watched everything very carefully. We really seemed to be a focus of attention - way too much for my western sensibilities - even Tanyet was very cautious. As we sat there watching there were people, cars, motorbikes, bicycles and horse-drawn brick wagons. As the petrol engine becomes more ubiquitous here these will cease to be a common sight.

Chris, Tanyet and I had lunch at the restaurant we had found whilst Mary ate her hotel packed breakfast and Jim switched to his knobbly tires, we were going to turn off the main road and take smaller tracks to a small border crossing, unreachable from the Cambodian side by car. Here is where the restaurant set out the choices, up front to attract the punters. We were sitting at a table just behind. I had a "chicken and ginger curry" and rice. It looked good but I had forgotten how tedious it can be getting all the chicken off the chopped up bones. I scraped what I could off and ate it and the sauce with the rice. It was delicious although very time-consuming for me to eat.

As we moved away from the busier road route to Vietnam the scene became more rural. It is clear that there has been a lot of change, we passed several sets of road-works as the latterite tracks were being converted to tarmac. The road seemed to have houses on both sides with barely a glimpse of the river, when we did see it we stopped to photograph it. At one point we also passed a pig being transported - it seemed to be very sunburnt though.

This part of rural Cambodia seemed to be more industrious than up near Pailin. There were more animals around. One thing we had to avoid was the rice drying on the roads. Why waste all that hot tarmac.

We passed over many bridges, generally in better repair, although the road-building program and the bridge replacement program were not always in total sync. At one point we had to detour down a muddy track around the back of one village as the main bridge was being re-built. At first we weren't sure whether the rest of the journey was to be on small dirt tracks, but we quickly swung back onto the tarmac road. Fishing was still an important part of this economy and we saw many fish traps and boats whenever we crossed over bridges.

In the countryside there is no electricity, at least that I saw. What we did see as we passed through the villages were groups of lead-acid batteries being charged up. Apparently this is used to run TVs, so they the villagers will take them back in the evening and watch TV, presumably it will have some educational purpose, but really it will be the soaps that appeal. Although generally the villagers will get up with the light and go to bed when it gets dark.

This is a Cambodian haystack, actually I think that it will be a "ricestack". In some places it is used for fuel.

It also appears that the rule of traffic law is less strong out in the sticks, it was quite common to see young children riding motorbikes, sometimes several on the same motorbike. Generally they seemed to drive quit carefully though. This lad in red seems to be concentrating hard and sticking to the right. (which is where he is supposed to be in Cambodia, they drive on the right.)

Although this seemed to be a successful rural economy the standard of houses was very variable, we would sometimes pass modern two storey buildings and soon afterwards a wooden shack with a thatched roof.

Here in the sticks wagons are still the main way to move large things around, they are normally pulled by cattle.

Although why use a wagon when a bicycle will do - perhaps he should have a wide load sign on the back. As you can see as we moved on further into the countryside the track got thinner.

Here is one of the more affluent dwellings, the people live on the top floor and the cattle get advantage of shade underneath the hut. At one point we lost Chris, in turns out that he had punctured and although he could easily have fixed it he sought out the appropriate fix all "shop" in the village and for 500riels (less than 10p/6cents) he was quickly on his way. He was not being lazy, actually he was being a responsible tourist - putting something into the local economy.

When the dirt track became too small our van stopped and several local motorcyclists were hired to take our luggage the remaining 24Km to the border (again responsible tourists). One of the problems was that from here the bridges were just not capable of taking a car. To be honest we weren't sure that they would be capable of carrying motorbikes laden like this. My suitcase is the one underneath!

Of course important activity like this has to be watched. In fact given the lack of daytime TV this is what they use instead, strange Barang cyclists carrying way too much luggage going down strange tracks - beats Neighbours any day - wonder what they will do for a sequel?

Eventually it was all loaded and we set off, the bridges we crossed were indeed quite rickety, so much so that I did not dare stop in the middle of one to take a picture. We also came across a motor scooter being righted after its driver had tumbled off, it was carrying a load of cooking pans.

I was convinced that at least one suitcase would end up in a river.

We ended up passing the motorcycles, an unladen bicycle was much quicker than a heavily laden motorbike down these tracks after around 22Km we started seeing more formal looking buildings and eventually pulled up at a Security booth, (Jim, Mary and me that is). Tonyet and Chris were a little slower.

After a bit of miming we twigged that our passports needed a stamp before we could pass. Although we were 100% sure which country's border this was. So we stopped and waited for the others to catch up. After a while Chris came puffing up, we had overshot the Cambodian Immigration hut by a couple of kilometres and needed to go back to get our exit stamp. Whilst we did that he went to see if he could get some documentation or his bikes to confirm they based in Cambodia to avoid any problems with taking them back to Phnom Penh at the end of the trip (which still seemed like ages away to me!).

We got to the Cambodian Immigration hut and I handed my passport over before stamping it he checked my Vietnamese Entry visa, he tutted and pointed to the date - 19 Nov 08, two days early he said. Arghh, how could I have cocked up, panic, er but a quick check of my watch, actually it was the 19th November, pheew. He can't stamp many passports and had lost track of time. What a relief, We then headed back down to the Border proper, showing out correctly stamped passports at the Cambodian side then we walked through to the Vietnamese side. There was the Border official and a small collection of chairs and a few people sitting around on them watching as Vietnamese and Cambodians walked walked through. In fact they rode up to one side, hopped of their bikes caught the eye of the Official and slightly nodded, then walked the few metres to the next barrier and then hopped back on and were on their way.

It was with some slight trepidation that we passed the first barrier and walked up to the Border Official, he took my passport and then Mary's and Jim's at the same time we met Tom the Vietnamese cycling guide who would lead us the rest of the way. It is clear he is known and allowed to get to this point to greet his guests. Then there followed an exchange between Tom and the official. My Visa had a problem - it was a 15-day visa and the start date was 19 Nov 08, unfortunately the exit date was 3 Nov 08. I was supposed to leave Vietnam 15 days before I arrived. Clearly this was a minor typo. I had a copy of my application to the Vietnamese embassy in London where I got the Visa and checked that it was not my typo.

Unfortunately the Border Official would not let me enter, his concern was that with a problem Visa then I would have problems leaving Vietnam and then it would be his Crossing that took the blame for allowing me in, which was quite understandable really. Tom took my passport and nipped off to the Vietnamese Immigration offices to sort the problem - "don't worry" he said, "there is a 90% chance we will clear this up". So I sat there at one point our official took back Jim and Mary's passports and compared them against a list. At this point they felt it might be better for them to move on through the border, just in case their association with me tainted them, although they did wait for their luggage to turn up on the back of the motorcycles. At this point Chris also turned up the Cambodian Customs was closed at this point it was about 1pm, presumably they were having lunch.

Jim Chris and Mary cleared through customs, all their bags got x-rayed and I sat and waited. Chris cam back to try and sort his Cambodian Customs Carnet for his bikes. All the while Vietnamese and Cambodians came and went. At the same time there were two girls (17 years old according to Chris who first saw them when they were 13 doing the same thing) who were offering to change money - $1 to 16,000 dong, we did not know if this was a good or bad rate, but it was necessary to have some spending money for the next few days cycling in the countryside. I did not change any money at this time - I felt that it might be seen as pushing my luck by the Official, who seemed quite happy for me to sit under the shade of the tree whilst others tried to sort things out for me. Just before Jim and Mary left we said our goodbyes, nothing so far seemed to suggest that I would be carrying on.

Eventually Tom returned, from his body language it was apparent that nothing had been sorted. The local officials could not help so his next step was to ring his office to see if they could contact a Immigration in Ho CHi Minh City (or Ha Noi) to assist. Time ticked on, Chris returned without getting his carnet and we discussed options.

We agreed that 4pm would be a decison point, phone calls went on around me. I decided I'd get calling too. Fortunately I was able to access the Internet on my phone (I will find out the damage when I get back to the UK, but it is very expensive). After several goes I got the UK Embassy number in Hanoi and rang for assistance. Well all I can say is we clearly have different definitions of the term. A very brusque response - "we cannot do anything - contact the Vietnamese." I bet if Jim and Mary had a problem their embassy would have been more supportive.

The next step was to ring my brother who lives out in Hanoi and had said that if I had any problems to ring him and he would ask his Ho CHi Minh City to help. Well this was a problem so I rang him. He seemed a bit tense but promised to get someone to ring me. It turned out I had called him in the middle of a very delicate negotiation and as he had lost his phone and was using a new one he had no clue who was ringing him.

As promised I got called from the Ericsson office, at least they were responsive, slightly ironic, getting more help from a Swedish Company than the UK Government. Various options were discussed, and they offered to ring their Immigration contacts, they also offered to write a letter vouching for me as the brother of one of their employees and thus I would be a drain on Vietnam.

My warmest thanks to Jan, Huyen and Vananh for being so supportive and working on my behalf it certainly raised my morale at one of the lowpoints of the day. I know I'd signed up for a challenge - but not this sort of challenge.

Chris also got his Phnom Penh office involved I think they first contacted the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh. Meanwhile Tom took phone calls and got more dejected with each one. Whilst sitting there the wind whipped up and it looked like we would get a downpour, what a way to end the day.

The time ticked by, but I went nowhere. The options were starting to run out. The message came back from Chris' team that Phnom Penh Vietnamese Embassy could not help, but to call the London Vietnamese Embassy that had issued the Visa. As we were 7 hours ahead this meant waiting until 4pm our time, assuming that the Embassy took phones calls at 9am onwards. 4pm came and went. Chris and I discussed options. Jim and Mary had kindly agreed to wait on the other side of customs in the hope that I got through.

At around 4.10 pm a message came through to Chris' phone to request my date of birth, things looked more promising, it looked like they must have gotten through, otherwise why randomly ask for my date of birth. At the same time Chris and I discussed options, I would have to return to Cambodia and ask for my exit stamp to be re-instated. But this time I would not have a bike, since they would be going on to Phnom Penh, anyway there was no way I could carry my luggage on a bike. Then I could either charter two motorcycles to take me and my luggage up to where the Cambodian support van was waiting or charter a boat to get me to the ferry town. Thanks to Tonyet, he and the driver delayed their return home to wait for me if I did not get through.

The problem was that I spoke no Cambodian and I would have to walk at least 2km along a dirt track towing my luggage then I was going to have to accost various motorcyclists and communicate by mime that I wanted to be taken back - not my idea of a fun game to play. In any case I was not sure I wanted to ride on the back of a motorbike down those dirt tracks and over the rickety bridges.

But we thought that the Cambodian border closed at 5pm so if we left things too long I would have to sleep in no mans land - assuming they would let me, perhaps they would offer me a prison cell instead. At 4.30 the message came back that the London Embassy would send a fax letter to the Border to "fix" the Visa.

Vananh rang again to offer help, she was happy to talk directly with the people here, but here dealings had been with the International Airports, Western Business people do not use this crossing. So it seemed a long-shot and given that there was some progress then we agreed to let things move as they were already doing so. (But thanks again - a friendly voice with an understanding of the issues always helps.) At 4.40 we had agreement that with such a letter I could get through, but time was now very tight. I packed away all my cycling gear into my suitcase, helmet, gloves and cycling shoes and put on some walking shoes. I have to say the idea of randomly accosting a couple of motorcyclists was not appealing to me.

The message came back from London via Phnom Penh that they needed the fax number - nothing was coming through) The Border official lent his motorbike to Tom and Chris to zoom up to the immigration offices, more time passed. Chris came back on his own - nothing yet but took my passport away. Hum I am going to get stuck in no-mans land without a passport now.

Things were looking grim - even the Border Official was looking at his watch. If only I was a bit smaller and looked Vietnamese perhaps I could have walked through - too late now. My plan at this point was to get back to Phnom Penh, get a new Visa and then fly to Ho Chi Minh City if I could not cycle it at least I would get there. I would then cycle the missing kilometres on my return to England.

Oh sh... time has run out.

To be continued.