First Day in Poipet and Battambang

On the 16th of April we took the 11am flight from KLIA to Bangkok. Upon arriving in Bangkok two hours later, it was raining cats and dogs. We managed to get taxis and bus Aranyaprathet all within our planned time.

We were rushing to get the 2.00pm bus as people there told us the border closes at 6pm, and the trip will take up to 5 hours. Therefore, we were just counting on the Burger King we had earlier at KLIA to give us physical strength till night.

At the Morchit Bus station, everything was written in Thai. You can talk to the people in English but they’ll still reply in Thai. It’s basically lots of sign language to get your messages across. Anyways, our two taxis got separated in the process of going there, with the other team paying nearly half of what we paid (160Bht) but being dropped further from the station. Praise God we managed to find each other and got a bus for the journey. There were a few stops on the way before we reached the border town of Aran at about 6.30pm to 7pm. By that time, it was getting dark. We found some tuk-tuks that took us to the border for 30bht per head. We all squeezed into 3 tuk-tuks. The air was breezy and things were looking smooth.

However, as we crossed the border, got our passports chopped to enter the Kingdom of Cambodia, we saw the real world. It was hot, dusty, dirty and messy in this place. Street kids were everywhere, not to mention sly looking people that were just surrounding us and trying to offer help to the checkpoints and pickup trucks. We tried to stick as close as possible, but I knew my heart was racing at that moment. It was really dark already, and the street kids were just sticking way too close. In fact, they were so quick to open our bags without us even realising. However, I believed angels were with us as we didn’t get anything stolen. Some men were trying to get us a ride to Battambang with unbelievably high prices. It was the Khmer New year so there was no taxi around. We were forced to get a pickup truck, though this meant the guys had to suffer a two hour ride in the back with dust in their eyes and hair.

Finally we made a deal and paid USD 40 for a truck, though we had to pay another 200bht as tip for the guys who arranged this for us. All the while, we were really scared, and there was nothing to do but pray and trust in God.

The road to Battambang was dusty, dark and filled with huge potholes. Our driver was like a pro rally driver, always driving head on to the coming traffic and never avoiding any of it. The roadsides too were scenes of unhealthy activities going on due to the high of the new year. We just could pray in tongues and pray for mercy to get to our destination. Men kept jumping on and off the truck and at times, we were feeling that there was some kind of conspiracy. It would have been so easy for them to rob us and get rid of us. However, it was the grace of God that as we prayed, God’s hands was lifting us safely to Battambang.

When we got to the hotel, a sense of relief could totally be felt. It was already 1030pm then, which was 1130 Malaysian time. And we had gone without food since morning. Sam’s boys from the English centre came and showed us our rooms. It was nothing but gratefullness as we settled to rest after a terrifically long day.